Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

[DougMPhoto]

I have to restore 3 caricatures done back about 30 years. They are ink on paper and have faded yellow. Trying to find easiest way to make it like the originals, ink on white paper, being able to read names, quotes, etc.

Anyone have an idea how to do this without spending weeks on each?

[Mike]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

Try this:
Place the original on a black background
Use a camera with a double polarized lighting setup (this will add contrast)
If you are using panchromatic film, add a 8 or 11 or a 15 filter over the lens
If you are using a digital camera, turn the file into a black and white and adjust to taste
If you just have to use a scanner, also back the original with black, the reason is that the black needs all the help it can get.
Let us know if any of this works!
Mike

[DougMPhoto]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

Mike, Thanks for the response but it did not work. This paper is thick and black did nothing. Trouble I am having is yellow portion of paper turns to gray with texture and I have to paint it back to white, go in to burn lines and rebuild words, symbols, etc. Have done 2 so far but we are talking many hours.

Example of one I have completed:

[Mike]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

OK, then try this:
Copy in color, select the yellow, fill the selection with white, then select the black, fill that selection with black. You may have to adjust the densities a bit so make sure both colors are on their own layer.
Did it work?
Mike

[philbach]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

Well Looking at the channels, the blue channel seems to give the best resolution. So what I did was make a new blank layer above the background layer. I selected the blank, top layer and used Apply Image. The source was the blue channel of the background layer. Then I applied levels. I suspect with more fiddling around with this you can get a sharper result

[DougMPhoto]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

Yeah, thanks for the info... the work involved is to get rid of the gray textured background to make it white. This is taking a lot of painting out and cleaning up of edges of each line and repainting in especially the words in the quotes...some of which include script symbols.

Taking a long time.

[philbach]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

What I did only took a minute or two. I think if you tinker with it you can do much better. Good luck I might add

[DougMPhoto]

Re: Copy and Restore of pen/paper Caricatures

I just haven't been able to get rid of the textured gray background. Only have 3 or 4 more quote blocks to finish then it's on to the printer.

I gave been sending updates to client and they are excited by what I have done so far...but would like to find something that makes it faster.

I have tried camera filters (photoshop), channels, 3rd party filters. Nothing that really makes it easier.