Scrapbook Collection

Mhayes · August 06, 2009, 10:06:29 PM

Hi Everyone,

In Hannie's and my gallery, you will see a series of old photos from a scrapbook (Tess will add later) needing restoring. Sepia will look great on these, but because we would have a wide range of sepia coming back, please restore and upload as black and white. Quality Control will do a batch action of changing to sepia.

For some reason I am noticing a certain trepidation on picking any of these photos. Trust me, >:D they are not as bad as they look. These are very old photos and you want to bring them back as close as you can. They will all have this orange cast, which you will change to black and white. In Photoshop, I would suggest that you look in your channels to see what would make the best B/W. In this particular photo I converted to CMYK and yellow was the best channel. I did the calculations and used both the yellow and the magenta and changed to grayscale and then to RGB. To increase the contrast, I did a Gradient Map Adjustment Layes--2 times--with black as the foreground color. Once I got the contrast where I wanted it, I worked on the mold spots. You may want to try the Channel Mixer. There are other methods, so pick what works best for you. Please do not add noise to these photos.
When finished, upload as a RGB.

Margie

P.S. Have you noticed that we are now up to $525 on Chip In--Yeah!!!

Atlantis · August 08, 2009, 06:59:49 AM

They are tempting but I really need to finish the Philips for Tess first.

Mhayes · August 08, 2009, 11:17:33 AM

Atlantis, what a sweet: "Thanks, but no thanks!" :funny:

Margie

lurch · August 08, 2009, 02:54:53 PM

Margie, I have three Tess toughies in the works now. However, when one or two of those gets done, I'll definitely be starting on the scrapbook collection. That's a promise!

Atlantis · August 10, 2009, 09:29:59 AM

I guess I need to have a look at your scrapbook now that the Philips turned out to be magically repaired by TerryB :cool: .

... a few hours later ...

I started on one I picked from Hannie's gallery - just a quick glance / channels / curves before starting diner - and I wonder if these were behind glass when photographed for OPR. Just like the two maps of Italy I did recently it seems the flash caused some blown out highlights/reflections that are harder to repair than the ordinary damage on the rest of the photo.

Mhayes · August 10, 2009, 12:22:09 PM

Atlantis, I would love to have you take a look at the scrapbook photos. All that we would ask is that if you have a particularly tough restore that you cannot do in reasonably time—hard ones 3 to 4 weeks—please contact us that you need more time. As often happens when a photo has been out for a long time, we will email the volunteer to see how much longer they need. It makes our lives so much easier when volunteers keep us posted that they are having problems and need more time. Unfortunately that scenario rarely happens and the distributors are forced to check for outstanding photos and send out emails to get a progress report. Some that have been out for longer than a month are all that is holding a family back from getting their photos printed. I would say of an average of 15-20 volunteers that I contact each month, only 3 or 4 will respond back. I will wait 3 or 4 days for a response and if I hear nothing: I will put their photo back in the gallery. This happens more with "newbies" who may feel too embarrassed to reply. Luckily with my regular restorers I don't have to worry as they keep me posted of their progress.

Since this post concerns the scrapbook; I would like to mention one problem that we are having. Some of these old photos are coming back with a lot of sharpening. Please do not sharpen, because if you go too far there is no way we cannot undo. I know these photos are soft, but leave them unsharpened and for QC to decide. There are lots of others ways to bring these back and if in doubt, ask us or post to the forum.

Margie

Atlantis · August 10, 2009, 12:40:59 PM

I may have missed the email if it was sent to my old adress (which I did alter in the preferences but that may have crossed with the delivery).

As for the scrapbookphoto I started to, this is what I did so far : channelmixer, levels, 2 curves and a neutral gray (soft light blendmode) with a B&W gradient to even the light.

Do you see the reflections/highlights on the left? It looks like they're caused by a flash on glass. But then again I might be wrong. Perhaps these are actually printed on metal or glassplates that have bended a little.

Mhayes · August 10, 2009, 12:59:48 PM

Atlantis, looks like you are off to a great start! These were all very old photos in a scrapbook that were taken of each page (two/page) and then later cropped. This is probably a reflection off the print from one of the light stands or maybe water damage.

Would you send me by PM or email your new email address. I usually send out inquiries by OPR mail rather than by the forum PM. Also, drop us a line if you ever need more time. Thanks.

Margie