Grossest texture ever!!!!

[Mick B]

Believe me folks if have agonized for a month over this pic before I decided to send it here. It's a friends 2x3 original of all their 11 kids and it has the worst texture ever. Not snake skin or lizard or honeycomb. Completely sadistic.

I haven't even tried to repair it until I can rid it of this texture. It looks really bad printed out as small as 5x7. Some of the texture bumps fall directly on eyes. You name it.

I've searched and tried everything on this forum from 3rd party plugs to photo art. If photo art is an option, I would have to maintain the facial features pretty much intact and I have'nt seen too many tuts for people and faces besides close up portraits.

You all have such a positive and upbeat attitude here, I don't believe you will throw tomatoes and wilted green beans at me but I have my plastic poncho on anyway just in case.

Thanks for any suggestions you can provide. Even if everybody says its hopeless, at least I will know that I gave it the 'ol college try before the 'ol heave ho.

Mick

[jeaniesa]

One thing I would try right off the bat is scanning the picture twice, once the way you have already and once rotated 180 degrees (i.e., upside down). Then rotate the upside down one 180 degrees in Photoshop to make is rightside up and move it as a layer over your first scan. Line up the two photos using the Difference blending mode, then change back to Normal blending mode and set the opacity to 50%. This should help minimize the texture because it appears that the scanner light is picking up the leading edges of the bumps. So, when you scan it upside down, the leading edges are on the "bottom" of the bumps and blending that with the original where the leading edges are on the top of the bumps should help to minimize the effect. It won't completely disappear, but it might make it a little easier to work with.

Jeanie

[Mick B]

Thanks Jeanie.

I just tried your idea and I believe it has promise. It cleared up the faces somewhat. Maybe enough to get me some cloning material. Curiously it didn't make much difference in the clothes and background. I'll play with it some more.

Thanks again.

Mick

[OlProfBear]

Originally posted by ugot2bkdng
At the risk of taking a good thing too far, you might want to try 90 degree rotations as well.

chuck

I'd go along with that.
I'm fairly new to the "photo salvage" game, but trying to learn fast (been using photo editing/paint software for 10 years, though).
I've recently been working with an old album (ca.1914 to ca.1920+) that belonged to my grandmother. Unfortunately, many of the photos seem to have been stuck in with library paste, since they are lumpy and bumpy. This shows up exquisitely in the scans :-( ...
I've had quite a bit of luck superimposing 180-degree scans, and have just started trying 90 degrees, which looks promising. I think I am going to test out a 4-way later!
I'd suggest trying different blending modes to see what reduces the texture the most without degrading the image too much. Bear in mind you can always adjust brightness/contrast/levels/etc. afterwards.
Another thing that seems to help is to do levels adjustments in 16-bit mode - less chance of posterization that way.

[OlProfBear]

OBTW ...

Something about that texture reminds me of the short-lived Kodak instant photo system (competed with Polaroid briefly) ... don't have any examples, but I think it had a weird texture to it, possibly due to a thin layer of clear but embossed plastic on top.

Does that ring any bells? Could the plastic (if it exists) be carefully peeled off? Or wouldn't that help?

[Mick B]

Thanks all for the tips.

Good thought Bill, but it's part of the photo forever. This photo is going to take alot of screw'in around with. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

I read a post that said these textures were used so that copies couldn' t be made. Mission accomplished.

Mick

[OlProfBear]

Originally posted by Mick B
Thanks all for the tips.

I read a post that said these textures were used so that copies couldn' t be made. Mission accomplished.

Mick

Have you tried the "wet-scanning" method yet? I've never used it, but someone else on the forum may have ...

If the texture is in fact a plastic coating, plain water might not be sufficient; some sort of gel (non-greasy!) might be more effective ...

FWIW ...