How get rid of heavy honey-combed shaped texture??

[dipech]

Hi Everyone!

I thought I was done with this one, but now realize I lost too much detail in the face and then over sharpened trying to get it back.

Any advice how to do this one properly?? I am a bit baffled how to get rid of the texture and still maintain the sharpness of the features in the original

This is the original

[dipech]

This is my best effort so far...

[Duv]

Hi Di!

I was having trouble picking out the honeycomb noise from the pixels but I ran the image thru Neat Image which I often find does a pretty good job of reducing texture. If you have it, it's probably worth your time to play with some of the settings. My first run thru caused too much blurring.

Cheers
Duv

[dipech]

Hi Duv!

Wow, your version looks so much better!!!

Once again though Neat image isn't yet available for Macs... I am tempted to borrow a friends pc and try to redo my pic there...

Thank you once again for your help!

Best regards,
Diane

[Flora]

Hi Diane, Duv,

I think both your restorations are very good!

.... Like Duv, I couldn't really see any 'honeycomb noise' in the picture .... just the usual amount of noise and compression 'blocks'

Neat Image is, in my opinion, one of the best programs for minimizing all that, but, as Diane says, not yet available for Mac users....

Here is a way around it .... (the results might not be as good as with Neat Image, but very acceptable.... Image 1 *Original* and *End Result*)

• Duplicate your BG Layer.

Working on the duplicated Layer:

• Run Filter > Dust & Scratches .... Adjust the Radius until all the noise has disappeared ... then, increase the Treshold until some texture has come back. click OK. Image 2 *Dust & Scratches only*

Still working on the D & S Layer,

• Run Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur ... Adjust the Radius until everything has nicely blended but you still have a bit of texture.

• Run Filter > Noise > Add Noise and add just a bit of noise (Uniform Monochromatic) for a more natural look and feeling. Image 2 *D&S + Gaussian Blur + Noise*

• Create a Hide All (black) Layer Mask on the Blurred D&S Layer.

• Working on the Mask, with a medium-soft black Eraser, erase over the parts you want to smoothen out ... If working on a face, careful to avoid eyes, nose and mouth as not to lose too many details.

• Play with the eraser Opacity (increase or decrease according to your necessity) while uncovering delicate parts of the picture.

• Adjust The Layer Opacity (decrease) until you are satisfied with the result.

Maybe a stronger Gaussian Blur + a bit of noise would be enough ... I rather take a step more because I tend to go for the "as natural as possible" .... Personally, I dislike when anything, but particularly faces, are so smooth they get to resemble plastic dolls....

P.S. I didn't do any restoration work on the attachment .... I just applied the technique described, so, some scratches lines are still visible.

[CourtneyConk.Co]

I have yet to find a way to do this with good results. I find to really get rid of the texture you need to blur the image to the point that it does not look good anymore. What a bummer.

[Lex]

B/G Textures

I couldn't see any problem with the image. But one of the best ways to get rid of patterns in the B/G or heavy grain is to use Median. You will find it in Photoshop in noise. Try it on 1 depending on the size of the file you may need to fade the filter in edit. This filter looks like it is bluring the image but it only defuses texture. It helps to add a little noise after.

Hope this is of use Lex

[dipech]

Hi Everyone!

So everyone can see the problem in this image better I am posting a smaller part where the damage is clearly visible. The entire picture is like this. I had scanned it at 600dpi because the orig is 3x5 and it needs to be enlarged to 5x7. But perhaps that was a mistake?

Diane

[dipech]

Some noise reduction techniques for Mac users!

Flora

Thank you very much for the above technique!! I just ran through it quickly and used a white instead of black layer mask since the texture damage covers 100% of the picture. I will also have to give it another dose of the dust and scratch filter...


Before I saw Flora's post above, I did another version first using Fred Miranda's noise plug-in ISOx Pro for Macs (available for just $20 at www.fredmiranda.com. I used the highest #10 setting which helped but still left alot of noise.

So then I followed Katrin Eismann's technique of duplicating the original layer and applying a gaussian blur until the honeycombed texture disapears; next applying a white layer mask and using a soft black brush at 50-75% to paint back the important image areas, leaving the unimportant areas blurred...

Because I had first used the Fred Miranda plug-in, I didn't have to use as strong a gaussian blur which helped to maintain the detail

Here is how that version came out

[jeaniesa]

On photos with a "repeatable" texture (like this one), I find that scanning the image twice really helps. Just turn the image 180 degrees for the second scan. Then place each scan on a separate layer (rotating the upside down one back to rightside up). Change the blending mode of the top layer to Difference as you line up the two images. (You may need to do some slight tweaking with Free Transform.) Then change the blending mode back to Normal and reduce the opacity to 50%. This should reduce the amount of texture significantly, though it won't completely elimnate it.

This works because the scanner lightsource reflects off the leading edge of the texture bumps. When you turn the photo 180 degrees, the reflections appear on the opposite side of the bump. Then when you combine the images in PS, they cancel each other out (somewhat.)

Good luck!

Jeanie

[dipech]

Hi Jeanie,

Is there possibly some steps you left out on this?? I tried it and didn't get anywhere. After changing the blending mode of the top layer to difference, there must be some other steps for this to work. I tried merging the visible layers, but then had to reduce the opacity to about 20% to get the picture back and the texture wasn't any less...

Thanks,
Diane

[jeaniesa]

Hi Diane,

After changing the blending mode to difference, you then use the move tool, arrow keys and free transform to make sure the two layers line up. The reason to use difference mode is that when everything is lined up, the image should appear black (except for the reflections on the bumps in this case.) The difference mode is only used to line up the layers. It has nothing to do with actually removing the texture - that's why you turn it back to normal once you've got everything lined up.

I just worked on a photo recently with some pretty awful texture (though not honeycomb like yours.) I'll try to write up a short tutorial on it. (Hmmm - I wonder if one's already been written and posted here? I'll go check to be sure.)

Jeanie

[dipech]

Jeanie,

Never mind my last post; I tried it yet again and this time I got it. This technique definitely helps....

Thank you!
Diane

[jeaniesa]

Yup! Roger's already written a great tutorial on this! (Thanks Roger! )

Scanning to reduce surface texture or silvering

He uses the Darken blend mode rather than reducing the opacity of the top layer to 50% as the last step. That probably works better, but it may depend on the photo, so try both ways.

HTH,
Jeanie

[dipech]

Thanks Jeanie--and also Roger for the great tutorial!

It is so great having such nice people around at Retouch Pro!!!

So here is my latest version... what a headache this one was!!

Diane