What Would You Do (#46)

[Nicole]

Look, I'm nearly on time for posting a WWYD ;)

This week's picture is from Mr.Intensity, and is an old picture of his two oldest sisters. He said this... is my two oldest sisters -now 62 and 64yo. -when they were like 7 and 9! they are still like 2 axillary mothers to us all So I'm sure that any help that can be offered will be very useful.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_intensity/2374845397/" title="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2374845397_e554f2d252.jpg" title="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)" alt="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)" width="348" height="500" /></a>

Available slightly larger (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2374845397_b7000e2068_o.jpg)

I have to say I think it's great to have an old picture to work on because I know that there are plenty of people (me included) who get tasked to work on old family photos. So I'll be watching intently about fixes on this one.

Now, let's see how you would repair this!

[Teewinot]

Hey great idea to include an old photo! I think everyone will have fun with this one!! :)

[Jamesc359]

A simple restoration. This is far from perfect, but I feel I have fixed or at least minimized the most obnoxious flaws. :)

<img src="http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7425/wwyd46cr3.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/>

[Nicole]

I think I like Jamesc359's better, but I had a try at it too (can't get better unless you try, right?) So I used some tips that I've seen elsewhere about cloning and healing things. Actually, almost all my fixes were just using the spot healing brush in different ways.

<img src="http://img.skitch.com/20080410-xmt5pxxcw1d3unub5s5t3uc1ux.jpg" alt="fix.jpg"/>

Like I said, I used the spot healing brush, but first I duplicated it to a new layer and ran the Dust & Noise filter at 1px to get rid of some of the major stuff. Then I set that to darken since most of the big scratches were light and by using this filter it softened things up quite a bit. Then I did a high pass filter for sharpening and set the opacity to about 60% to bring out some of the detail. Now the rest was done just using the spot healing brush set either to darken (on light areas), lighten (on dark areas), or normal. I learned that trick because it helps make sure that you only effect the area that you're meaning to. So yeah, lots of spot healing on separate layers. :)

[Jamesc359]

Thanks Nicole. :)

You know what I just realized? I completely forgot to tell you how I did it. D'oh!
Well here goes; I used variety of different soft edged (fuzzy) brushes in combination with The GIMP's clone tool to clone out as many of the scratches and spots as I reasonably could. I chose the soft edged (fuzzy) brushes because their edges tend to blend easier with the rest of the image.

That was it, nothing fancy at all, just lots and lots and lots of cloning.

[jiminyClickit]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/2402003425/" title="WWYD46X by jiminyClickit, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2402003425_25b1856f30_o.jpg" width="444" height="600" alt="WWYD46X" /></a>

Some extras even things out here, since the shadows are all sort of confusing. Not knowing for certain what was age, fading, or original location shadowing, I just smoothed as much as seemed appealing.

- Photo was rotated clockwise and "restored" to straighten and keep 100% of original.
- The lower part was selected and lightened, to eliminate the shadow.
- Girl on photo right was selected with part of lighter b/g and darkened to eliminate slight glow from exposure of white clothing.
- Shadows on white dress were lightened to a less unrealistic patchy look.
- Lots of cloning, some smudging, and noise added.
- Entire photo sharpened, softened to blend all work
- Desaturation, and a little contrast to get away from the green.

Larger: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/2401949499_00af03e8a0_b.jpg

[Jamesc359]

Wow, now that is excellent Jiminy, I'm impressed. You've got a lot more patience than I do. :)

[Nicole]

Wow, now that is excellent Jiminy, I'm impressed. You've got a lot more patience than I do. :)
I know, he puts us all to shame, huh? :p

[jiminyClickit]

Or . . .

Some things are worth spending time on. This just happens to be one of my things.

Thanks, Jamesc359

[windrider86]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alockintime/2404906500/" title="what would you do 46 by windrider86, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3204/2404906500_4c1fb96637_o.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="what would you do 46" /></a>
Having never worked on restoring an old image I didnt and still dont have a clue where to start so I improvised. lol
duplicated, converted to black and white with a green undertone. adjusted the contrast up to 30. This is where I cheated cause I had been very carefully trying to use the blemish tool and thought what if i use the noise removal tool? I did and it really smoothed things out. Burned the white areas, sharpened the faces up (I think I did too much) went around the edge with the burn tool set on 30 opacity and shadows. and then went around the edges with the soften tool set on 45 opacity.

[EdithOSB]

I haven't (yet) tried my hand at this - it's going to be tough.

I do have old photos for our monastic community that would be useful if we could restore them.

I am wondering if anyone here has advice about the method of capturing the old photo for digital work.

Some advise us to take a digital photo of the old images. They have various methods for keeping the photo flat and using lighting to make the resulting digital photo clear. It seems like a lot of work
Others advise us to scan the old photos, but give us advice about settings on the scanners
Some advise us to pay a lot of money for professional scanners from a local photography and publicity companyWhat do DPS readers think?

[djcassar]

Firstly it's not much point trying to edit a tiny jpg!? Frankly thats the same as pushing poo up-hill with a toothpick

You need to set your scanner to a high resolution and edit it straight from the scan.

The minute you reduce the size and save it as a jpg your drematically reducing your change to restore it.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_shoeshine_man/258409084/" title="Fixing Old Photos 1 by The_shoeshine_man, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/258409084_35600ebe32_m.jpg" width="240" height="172" alt="Fixing Old Photos 1" /></a>

[Mr.Intensity]

I failed to turn on alerts, I guess, so I thought nobody had a minute. I came across this post just roaming around here and...They Are Going To Cry! I would not believe that you guys put so much work into this for me and my sisters!

Things like this motivate me to: Find my niche, increase my intensity, to appreciate life and be aware that compassion should be first intention. a little more.
Thanx for another increment of aliveness
~James~

[Mr.Intensity]

Firstly it's not much point trying to edit a tiny jpg!? Frankly thats the same as pushing poo up-hill with a toothpick

You need to set your scanner to a high resolution and edit it straight from the scan.

The minute you reduce the size and save it as a jpg your drematically reducing your change to restore it.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_shoeshine_man/258409084/" title="Fixing Old Photos 1 by The_shoeshine_man, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/258409084_35600ebe32_m.jpg" width="240" height="172" alt="Fixing Old Photos 1" /></a>

I just learned a ton from what they did for me( wow, I got a lot to get busy with!) and another ton from what was pointed out in your quest; simply get as good a digital copy as you can first. I'll study and play with those techs. until I can repay someone with a beautiful restoration:)

[Mr.Intensity]

Look, I'm nearly on time for posting a WWYD ;)

This week's picture is from Mr.Intensity, and is an old picture of his two oldest sisters. He said this... So I'm sure that any help that can be offered will be very useful.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_intensity/2374845397/" title="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2374845397_e554f2d252.jpg" title="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)" alt="Ezella and Smukie (by jamesl.kingtream)" width="348" height="500" /></a>

Available slightly larger (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2374845397_b7000e2068_o.jpg)

I have to say I think it's great to have an old picture to work on because I know that there are plenty of people (me included) who get tasked to work on old family photos. So I'll be watching intently about fixes on this one.

Now, let's see how you would repair this!
Please note my thank you letter here.

[Mr.Intensity]

A simple restoration. This is far from perfect, but I feel I have fixed or at least minimized the most obnoxious flaws. :)

<img src="http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7425/wwyd46cr3.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/>
Please note my thanks in O>M>G! letter here. You guys are great!

[Mr.Intensity]

I think I like Jamesc359's better, but I had a try at it too (can't get better unless you try, right?) So I used some tips that I've seen elsewhere about cloning and healing things. Actually, almost all my fixes were just using the spot healing brush in different ways.

<img src="http://img.skitch.com/20080410-xmt5pxxcw1d3unub5s5t3uc1ux.jpg" alt="fix.jpg"/>

Like I said, I used the spot healing brush, but first I duplicated it to a new layer and ran the Dust & Noise filter at 1px to get rid of some of the major stuff. Then I set that to darken since most of the big scratches were light and by using this filter it softened things up quite a bit. Then I did a high pass filter for sharpening and set the opacity to about 60% to bring out some of the detail. Now the rest was done just using the spot healing brush set either to darken (on light areas), lighten (on dark areas), or normal. I learned that trick because it helps make sure that you only effect the area that you're meaning to. So yeah, lots of spot healing on separate layers. :)
I got out my windows' notepad and got every word pasted for study:)

[ditch_azeroth]

impressive work dj. restorations can be such an itch because usually, there is no automatic way of doing it.. it is done one spot healing brush, one colorized layer, one burn, sponge, or dodge stroke at a time.

[Mr.Intensity]

Thanks Nicole. :)

You know what I just realized? I completely forgot to tell you how I did it. D'oh!
Well here goes; I used variety of different soft edged (fuzzy) brushes in combination with The GIMP's clone tool to clone out as many of the scratches and spots as I reasonably could. I chose the soft edged (fuzzy) brushes because their edges tend to blend easier with the rest of the image.

That was it, nothing fancy at all, just lots and lots and lots of cloning.

Be aware of the little "Unfancy" things you do for people! you could bring a person to tears without meaning to:) thank you so much~James

[Mr.Intensity]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/2402003425/" title="WWYD46X by jiminyClickit, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2402003425_25b1856f30_o.jpg" width="444" height="600" alt="WWYD46X" /></a>

Some extras even things out here, since the shadows are all sort of confusing. Not knowing for certain what was age, fading, or original location shadowing, I just smoothed as much as seemed appealing.

- Photo was rotated clockwise and "restored" to straighten and keep 100% of original.
- The lower part was selected and lightened, to eliminate the shadow.
- Girl on photo right was selected with part of lighter b/g and darkened to eliminate slight glow from exposure of white clothing.
- Shadows on white dress were lightened to a less unrealistic patchy look.
- Lots of cloning, some smudging, and noise added.
- Entire photo sharpened, softened to blend all work
- Desaturation, and a little contrast to get away from the green.

Larger: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/2401949499_00af03e8a0_b.jpg

I didn't get the notifications at the time of these works. So I need to let you know that I am more impressed and indebted than you can imagine! You are a magician with restoration. I learned so much that I might be in business:) I'm going to send the large one right off the kodac and have some printed- I got a big family.
Thanx again~James

[dlaf]

The minute you reduce the size and save it as a jpg your drematically reducing your change to restore it.


dj - if not jpeg, what is a better way to save a picture from my scanner? :confused:

[Nicole]

Just moved a few posts over to last week's thread since they were for that picture :)

[Mr.Intensity]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alockintime/2404906500/" title="what would you do 46 by windrider86, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3204/2404906500_4c1fb96637_o.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="what would you do 46" /></a>
Having never worked on restoring an old image I didnt and still dont have a clue where to start so I improvised. lol
duplicated, converted to black and white with a green undertone. adjusted the contrast up to 30. This is where I cheated cause I had been very carefully trying to use the blemish tool and thought what if i use the noise removal tool? I did and it really smoothed things out. Burned the white areas, sharpened the faces up (I think I did too much) went around the edge with the burn tool set on 30 opacity and shadows. and then went around the edges with the soften tool set on 45 opacity.
I thank you, you don't know how two-fold ofa rush I'm getting from this; I'm learning to do it myself, with all of your help. I see you lean - like I do- toward crisp:) great job.

[EdithOSB]

Thanks for the advice about the scanner - and I love the description of trying to work with a small JPEG.

I'm not so knowledgeable about file types - I do know that JPEG loses some information everytime it's saved. If I want to restore old photos like this one, using Photoshop Elements, is there a format that is better than others to use?

Thanks for the help you're giving me - I may finally be able to produce some of the historical information we've wanted.

[jiminyClickit]

Mr.Intensity,

Even though often I do edits for practice, restoration is a chance to bring back to life a memory that has been faded, scratched, bent, stained, or was too light or dark originally.

My own family photographs from the '40's were a challenge, and the joy I got from bringing them to life again helps me appreciate your response, and led me to do the best I could with your photo. It's gratifying, and if you wondered why we think DPS is "community," it is partly because we'd likely help anyone with their photos, even without a thank you or any recognition. But reading your response means so much more, as a reminder that sometimes the value of the photo is beyond the electronic image, and more than simply an exercise in post-processing.

Thanks for taking the time to personally address the efforts of all the submitters of edits, and let us know if there is anything else DPS can do to make photography more enjoyable for you.

[KatzPhotography]

Here is my version...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/KatzPomDogz/PSPImage2.jpg

I did LOTS of cloning, took out the line going through both of them, did a sharpening, turned picture b/w, straightened, then cropped it to make them more the focal point, used the burn tool to create a vignette effect, the turned Sepia, aged 40 years.....

[Mr.Intensity]

Mr.Intensity,

Even though often I do edits for practice, restoration is a chance to bring back to life a memory that has been faded, scratched, bent, stained, or was too light or dark originally.

My own family photographs from the '40's were a challenge, and the joy I got from bringing them to life again helps me appreciate your response, and led me to do the best I could with your photo. It's gratifying, and if you wondered why we think DPS is "community," it is partly because we'd likely help anyone with their photos, even without a thank you or any recognition. But reading your response means so much more, as a reminder that sometimes the value of the photo is beyond the electronic image, and more than simply an exercise in post-processing.

Thanks for taking the time to personally address the efforts of all the submitters of edits, and let us know if there is anything else DPS can do to make photography more enjoyable for you.
Well Noted my friend.

[shazzt]

I ran out time time to get all the scratches out of this beautiful photo but this is my effort:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shazzt/2426641761/" title="What Would You Do 46 by shazzt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/2426641761_e5d6f2d92b.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="What Would You Do 46" /></a>

Brought into Camera Raw in PSCS3 and boosted the exposure a bit to bring out the detail of the dresses. Cropped the photo a little. Used the clone tool and spot healing tool to get rid of most of the scratches and spots. Used a hue/saturation adjustment layer to destaurate the photo then a colour balance adjustment layer to add a tint. In the colour balance adjustment layer I cooled the shadows a little (pulled them slightly towards blue) and warmed up the midtones and highlights but pulling them slightly to yellow with a touch a red and magenta. Finally, I pulled the file into Neat Image to clean it up a little bit more.

[Mr.Intensity]

Here is my version...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/KatzPomDogz/PSPImage2.jpg

I did LOTS of cloning, took out the line going through both of them, did a sharpening, turned picture b/w, straightened, then cropped it to make them more the focal point, used the burn tool to create a vignette effect, the turned Sepia, aged 40 years.....
Thanx for getting in on this. This means a ton to us. I keep seeing that I got so much to learn, your awesome.

[Mr.Intensity]

I ran out time time to get all the scratches out of this beautiful photo but this is my effort:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shazzt/2426641761/" title="What Would You Do 46 by shazzt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/2426641761_e5d6f2d92b.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="What Would You Do 46" /></a>

Brought into Camera Raw in PSCS3 and boosted the exposure a bit to bring out the detail of the dresses. Cropped the photo a little. Used the clone tool and spot healing tool to get rid of most of the scratches and spots. Used a hue/saturation adjustment layer to destaurate the photo then a colour balance adjustment layer to add a tint. In the colour balance adjustment layer I cooled the shadows a little (pulled them slightly towards blue) and warmed up the midtones and highlights but pulling them slightly to yellow with a touch a red and magenta. Finally, I pulled the file into Neat Image to clean it up a little bit more.

wow...I tried to get that scar out of [Ezella's face (the taller one) and I kept deforming her eye; you did a great job with that too! Thank you very much~

[Teewinot]

I'm really late with this one, I know, but I still wanted to play. :)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahhallphotography/2435676992/" title="What you would do #46 by ~Teewinot~, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/2435676992_c25cb9df81.jpg" width="372" height="477" alt="What you would do #46" /></a>

What I did (in Paint Shop Pro Photo XI):
-Cropped
-Cloned out scratches, window (?), etc.
-Desaturated (75%)
-Unsharp mask (radius 75, strength 30)
-Digital camera noise removal (strength 55)
-High pass sharpen (strength 40)
-Curves adjustment (brightness, contrast)

[Mr.Intensity]

I'm really late with this one, I know, but I still wanted to play. :)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahhallphotography/2435676992/" title="What you would do #46 by ~Teewinot~, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/2435676992_c25cb9df81.jpg" width="372" height="477" alt="What you would do #46" /></a>

What I did (in Paint Shop Pro Photo XI):
-Cropped
-Cloned out scratches, window (?), etc.
-Desaturated (75%)
-Unsharp mask (radius 75, strength 30)
-Digital camera noise removal (strength 55)
-High pass sharpen (strength 40)
-Curves adjustment (brightness, contrast)
Boy you guys are good!

[Mr.Intensity]

Dear People:
When I posted the original here, (I didn't mean to ignore any stickies,) I just wanted an idea and possibly a little jump start, on getting this done -on GIMP...I got lucky.

This is my only experience with photography, thus the society but, I'm willing to bet that within any school this thread and the amazing results rivals any other on earth, bar none?

I've posted all of these as I get them, on my page-so if you object to that let me know and I will remove it. I've got the six projects attributed to their correct artists, I believe, but if I've made a mistake, again, let me know.
Maybe I'll make a colague and display it as art/tool for any enthusiasts :)
Forever Gratful
~James King~