Photo Retouching - - Fast Retouch/Restore Advice

Bryan L · #1 11-23-2005, 12:05 AM

Hi All,

First off, I was thrilled to find this website at about 3AM yesterday morning. (I couldn't sleep and I'm sure glad I couldn't!).

I do a lot of photo restoration. One of the things that I do the most is make video montages. Because of the nature of my business I have to turn around a large amount of photos and a very very short time, sometimes hundreds in under 24 hours.

Right now I do all of the simpler stuffs (scratch removal, fade correction, etc) manually or with recorded scripts.

I've looked into the Digital Ice technology and it looks great. I haven't heard any real world experience. Right now I use an Epson scanner because I'm able to put it in full auto mode and it will scan as many photos as I can fit on the glass and still know they are separate photos.

So, my question. Has anyone used Digital Ice for photos? If so, does it take forever to scan a photo? Is it worth it?

Thanks for all your help!

-Bryan

Flora · #2 11-23-2005, 04:42 AM

Hi Bryan,

the only thing I can do is welcoming you to RP!

I never used Digital Ice so, I couldn't possibly help you .... but I hope someone here will be able to ....

Caitlin · #3 11-23-2005, 06:25 AM

Hi Bryan,

I have a fair amount of experience using Digital ICE. I think it's great - but it isn't a 'restoration' tool as such. It's excellent - quite miraculous for removing all dust and dirt from colour tranparencies and negs. It doesn't work for B&W film though, and I've found it of minimal use for prints (though it does a reasonable job of fixing tears etc - it's still something you'd probably want to do by hand.)

If you are scanning a lot of transparencies though (as I do at work) it's a godsend. Using ICE is fairly slow though.

The scanner I'm using is the Epson 4870, now discontinued. If I had the choice I'd have one at home too.

Bryan L · #4 11-23-2005, 08:34 AM

Caitlin,

Thanks for the great advice. I often have to do slides. I have about 200 slides right now that I have to just scan in for a customer.

I had never used the Polaroid D/S removal plugin before until I read about it in a post here last night. That worked pretty well for doing what I wanted to do with Digital ICE (just remove dust, etc).

(On a side note)....I know I could probably search this in the forums... I can see this isn't a paid by advertisers website. Is there a paypal or something that I could donate? I can already see what a valuable tool RetouchPRO will be.

Again, thanks so much.
Bryan

MaryLynn · #5 11-23-2005, 09:20 AM

Hi Bryan, welcome to RP.

Yes, there is a way to support this site. Go back up to Flora's reply on this thread. At the bottom of her post you will see a link to "Support RetouchPro." Donations can be made through PayPal and Amazon.com.

MaryLynn

Kraellin · #6 11-23-2005, 11:38 AM

bryan,

welcome to RP!

yes, this is a pretty great site. what program(s) are you using to do your photo and video work?

Craig

Caitlin · #7 11-23-2005, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan L

I had never used the Polaroid D/S removal plugin before until I read about it in a post here last night. That worked pretty well for doing what I wanted to do with Digital ICE (just remove dust, etc).

What's great about Digital ICE is is doesn't work like other dust and scratch removal software - it is HARWARE based. It actualy used refracted light and has to be built into the scanner, so is completely accurate. There are some images here on the forum of a demo scan I did with it for an inhouse training manual I was writing.

Bryan L · #8 11-23-2005, 07:50 PM

I've been using PSP since back when pretty much just resized photos! So, I use PSP X primarily to do all my photo stuffs. I'm taking the plunge and switching to a Wacom tablet (should be here on the first of the week!) I'm excited to start playing with the "Challenges". As I get a LOT of photos I see some pretty fun ones for restoring. I may start asking the owners if I can use them for educational purposes.

As far as video is concerned it really depends on what I am doing. For cutting/editing the raw video I use Adobe Premiere. For doing 'fancier' stuffs I use Adobe AfterEffects. HOWEVER, for doing the Ken Burns Effect (pan/zoom) on photos I've found that using one of the home targeted softwares like Ulead Videostudio or Pinnacle Studio to be the fastest (I use Pinnacle but it is really buggy...I mean REALLY buggy).

I've been playing with the trial of Sony Vegas 6 and it really seems promising. It has a the ability to shoot the preview over to a second monitor which is nice. It seems fast. I may switch to that for the cutting and pan/zoom.

-Bryan

Bryan L · #9 11-23-2005, 07:52 PM

Caitlin,

Thanks for the photo examples.

Kraellin · #10 11-23-2005, 10:55 PM

thanks, bryan.

i use psp 10 also. been using it since ver 4.12.

i dont work in video, but i thought i'd let others find out a bit more about you by asking

Craig

Caitlin · #11 11-24-2005, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan L

Caitlin,

Thanks for the photo examples.

No problems! Actually I'm shopping around for a dedicated slide scanner at the moment, and was looking at the models on the Digital ICE site. Found this nice simple explanation of how it works:

Using an additional infrared light source, rays penetrate the slide/negative at an angle. Dust and scratches show up as shadows. Based on the real scanned image the software is able to distinguish shadows/scratches from real image structures and removes them automatically.