Remove photopaper texture from old photo

[Duv]

Double Wow!!

This is what I got in 2 minutes. Just the filter and levels adjustment. It takes just a wee bit of experimentation in cloning out the stars. The better you get the better the result. Eveyone should have this plugin.

Cheers
Dave

[vinniesworld]

Here's my effort, used the filter, cloned out the stars, duplicated the background, a little noise, blur and masked the eyes, mouth, nose and eyebrows. Finally levels, USM at 20/50 to increase the contrast and then USM again to sharpen.

[Flora]

Wow .... I'm really impressed with the results everybody got!!!!

I've just downloaded the plug-in and, I guess, I know what I'll be doing today!!!

Hi tzec,

Welcome to RP!

What an entrance!!!!

Thank you so much for sharing the link and your results ....

Looking forward to your next post!!

[JohnnyT]

I downloaded Neat Image from the link, but I still cant seem to run Neat Image from my duplicate layer......help?

[Flora]

Hi JohnnyT,

Welcome to RP!

The free version of Neat Image comes without the Photoshop Plug-In .... in other words, it can be used as a Stand Alone program only ....

In this Tutorial you will find instructions on how to use it .... just scroll down the page to the NEAT IMAGE STAND ALONE part...

Hope this helps.

[rnbluvva]

Hi Flora!

Did you ever end up doing a tutorial on how to get rid of Honeycomb texutre?

I'd love a link to it if you did.

Hope all is going well for you.

Nat

[rnbluvva]

Flora,

Did a search and found it!

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=140

You are groovealicious!

[Flora]

Hi Nat!!

So nice to 'see' you again!!!

My Tutorial was written a long time ago ... before I had discovered the FFT Filter wich can really work magic on removing Honeycomb texture ...

You can find everything on it ... even the link to the site where the FFT plug-in can be downloaded in this excellent Tutorial .. and needless to say ... just 'yell' if you need more help ..

Hope everything is well for you too.

Take care.

[rnbluvva]

Hey Flora!

Nice to 'see' you again as well. No rolling blackouts right now in your life I hope

Yes I found that FFT tutorial and am reading it now and just downloaded the plugin. I am just playing with the border. I am working on a hi-res image (400dpi) and I used a 250px 'Stroke' of 128/128/128 Gray. Is that correct? It's to get rid of the ringing effect that you guys ran in to.

I've attached a section of the portrait for you to see. It's honeycomb city!

I also posted in another thread about the Decrack action I am trying to use. I wish I could figure out how to fix it so I can run the action. The image has a ton of cracks.

Thanks as always for the brilliant help Flora!

Nat

[Flora]

Hi again,

... still sporadically fighting against 'blackouts' .. but, fortunately, very seldom and not as prolonged as the previous ones ...

I had the same problem with the Decrack Action .... It seems to be 'programmed' to work on the 'background' ... so ... what I did was:

After other corrections ... I 'Created a new document from the current state' .. and flattened the new document so that it has only the background ... Run the action on it ...

The Action can minimize/remove either light cracks (using the 'Minimun' Filter) or dark cracks (using the 'Maximum Filter) ... so I duplicated the action renaming them to Decrack Light/Dark and eliminating from their steps the part I didn't need ... ie: the 'Miminum' Step when removing the dark cracks ... and the 'Maximum' Step when removing light cracks ...

Hope this helps ...

[Flora]

OOOppppsss ... forgotten...

After running the Decrack action on the newly created document, you can alway Shift+drag the Decrack Layer to your original working document...

[rnbluvva]

Hey Flora,

Thanks for the tips on how to use the Decrack Action. I will refer back to what you said when I am at that step.

I tried the FFT Plugin and Tutorial and got a strange, transparent result. Is this because I am using this on a Black and White image? I notice the image in the Turorial by byRo is color.

I did the exact steps of the tutorial and below is what I got as a result. Not sure what I did wrong. The image is black and white, but it is RGB/8.

Original can be seen here
Below is the post-FFT- see how it is transparent?

Also I am confused on the very first step:
1) Duplicate original image
- Right click on title bar;
- Duplicate (merged, if it has more than one layer) to a new image.

When I right click on my title bar I just get options to make the image full size or minimize or close it. I don't know what he is refering to here. What I did was to make a New Window by going to Window > Arrange > New Window for 'file name'.

Was this incorrect?

Also in the last step:

8) Put the colours back in:
- Slide, with <Shift> pressed (to align), your (now un-textured) luminosity back layer on top of the original (that’s the one we left behind in step 1);
- Set this new layer's blending mode to Luminosity.
- Select your original layer, which is below the new Luminosity layer;
- Apply a small radius (2 or 3 should do) Noise>Median filter (this blurs the colours a little, but don't worry all the important sharpness is in the luminosity layer).


Are we working with two layers in one document here, or are we working with two documents?

Any clarification would be much appreciated!

Nat

PS. sorry about the blackouts. They are such a pain!

[Flora]

Hi Nat,

I'm smiling while I write this ... smiling because getting the 'hang' on using FFT has been one of the most frustrating experience I've had with image manipulation ... and the one that put my patience and stubborness to a very severe test ...

But to your questions ...

* FFT can be used on colour and B&W images as long as they are in RGB Mode ... meaning ... presenting all colour channels even if they look about the same ....

* FFT doesn't recognize 'Layers' so it is to be used on a 'flattened' image.

Since this is usually the first thing I do when necessary, I simply duplicate the 'document' therefore 'we' are working with 2 documents, where the one destined to FFT should have the Background Layer only!

* Working on the FFT Document, I increase the Canvas size of 2 to 5 cm. (sorry I'm used to metric sizes... ), choosing grey as its colour. This will help with the blasted 'banding' which, otherwise, would be placed on the image .. (Attachment 1)

* Done that, I run FFT on it ... (I usually go for RGB FFT) ... (Attachment 2) shows the 'stars' I covered on the FFT red channel .... Correct the green channel if necessary ...

IMPORTANT ... Once finished working on the 'stars' in the individual Channels, remember to go back to the composite view by clicking on RGB before running IFFT

* Run IFFT and, if you are satisfied with the result, decrease the canvas' size to return to your original size, Shift+Drag the FFT corrected Background to your working original and, if the image you are working on is in colours, change the blending of the dragged FFT Layer to 'Luminosity' .... this will give you your original colour picture minus the Honeycomb texture!

Hope this helps..

[byRo]

Natalie, nice to see you back. ( I am listening to your music as I write this )

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

When I right click on my title bar I just get options to make the image full size or minimize or close it. I don't know what he is refering to here. What I did was to make a New Window by going to Window > Arrange > New Window for 'file name'.

Oops, seems that this little confusion was my fault - I'll be editing the tutorial to correct.

The "Duplicate" option is only there if you are not editing in full-screen mode. I'll change this to the menu option - Image>Duplicate.
We need to duplicate the image to preserve a copy with the colours, because the FFT will throw away this information. The New Window option won't help us here because it creates only a new visualization of the same image.

As to the transparent problem, as Flora said (thanks Flora ), this is usually because you haven't selected all channels again before using the inverse FFT.

As to the grey border, there isn't a pre-defined size - adding about 20% more on each side should do the trick. (But, please, don't hate me if it doesn't)

Rô

[Kraellin]

hi natalie,

welcome home

i had a go with your image. i've been experimenting with a new technique on the fft rgb. it's a bit of a twist from other methods but seems to have some promise.

i also ran psp's digital noise removal on this, psps scratch remover, some clone and push and then AIM's sharpen plugin to finish.

nice picture and good to see you back again. i hope your journeys have been fun and prosperous.

craig