Quick question

corpusdei · January 12, 2012, 11:04:49 AM

When I first took a look at this one it looked a lot easier than it's turning out to be. The catch has been trying to get rid of the the level and volume of dust and scratches while keeping the detail.

I actually ended up losing some time because several more global dust and scratch removal methods just didn't end up looking good or too much detail was lost. The healing brush has become my best friend, and I'm also finding some success in setting up a duplicate, masked layer with the Dust and Scratch filter and then brushing in white on the mask to hide some of the damage:

It's still going incredibly slow, though. I'm doing some digging through some tutorials, but in the meantime does anyone have any hints on how some of that can be removed a little more easily while maintaining the detail? (or am I getting a little too picky?)

Two other thing that I'm holding off on because I'm not sure how I'm going to approach it - for the man on the left, there's not a lot to go on to recreate the jacket under the damaged spot. Would it be worth trying to guesstimate and recreate from the little that's there (looks like a darker blue than the rest) or use the lighter blue area to fill that in and lose the dark?

The second thing I'm wondering about is the text in the lower left. I'm not too concerned about the rest of the border damage, there's more than enough to sample and repair those areas, but that text has me a little stumped. Any guesses as to what that first word is? If I can't figure that out would it be better to remove just that word and shift the year down between "Saturday" and "Lunch"?

jesterjeni · January 12, 2012, 12:15:31 PM

I tried tweaking the luminosity layer a little bit , but I think your picture is coming along with allot better results . Restoration is a form of art...we the person doing the restoration are far more critical then the person who is going to receive their beautiful photo that they thought could have been lost forever.

Tori803 · January 12, 2012, 02:11:45 PM

Sometimes the best solution is the slow and tedious one! Hang in there.

Tori

glennab · January 12, 2012, 02:18:55 PM

Hi corpusdei

I played around with the date at the bottom of your photo, and my guess is that it's January 2006. I'll post the image I got with calculations. I'm sure of the 2006, and I extrapolated January by looking at the position of what's left of the letters - for instance the last letter of the month looks like a y, because you can see the little dot at the end of the descender of the last letter. That gives you either January or February. The first letter looks as if it descends just slightly below the base line, which some Js do in serif fonts. It's a guess, and it's up to you if you want to go that far with it. I'm certain of the year.

I just revisited your question about the copy. I wouldn't move any of it - or delete it - even the month - without checking with your distributor.

Also, a comment on the gazillion dots. In the busy areas you can only get rid of a few of them with all the methods we know by blurring and other shortcuts. Partly because these are usually small photos and partly because we already have detail shortage, we have to just plod on dot by dot and get rid of them one by one. CS5 has made it much easier with the new healing tools and content aware, but there's always going to be the drudgery of doing it the hard way. I've read just about every book I can get my hands on about restoration, and while there are quick and easy ways to eliminate some damage, especially in the background, most don't work on the type of destruction we deal with.

That said, you're very wise to post and ask if there are easy ways, because our volunteers have run the gamut, so if there are, one of us will know them.

Re the man's jacket: I'd try to follow the lines I'd think the edge would follow, add a little dodge and burn for a look of folds and let it go at that.

It's looking fine.

Cheers

GK

Mhayes · January 12, 2012, 05:41:32 PM

Hi Corpusdei,

You've done a great job so far and with the tips from Jersterjeni, Tori, and GK should help bring out more of the photo. When you get photos with this much damage it will be slow going. :(

Margie

Hannie · January 12, 2012, 06:23:07 PM

Hi Corpusdei,

If the month in the date stamp turns out to January then the date can be either 7, 14, 21 or 28.

Hannie

Bambi · January 12, 2012, 06:43:23 PM

Hi Corpusdei,

There is no quick way to get rid of those tiny spots. My favorite technique to maintain color and texture is 300-400%, each tiny spot with the Patch Tool. The Blur Tool with a small soft brush set at about 10% will smooth out areas around the patches when the transition shows too much.

A very slight (2px) Dust and Scratches correction can help if there are just no undamaged areas, but any detail lost in blurring can't be recovered.

It's a long, tedious process. But when you click back and forth from your WIP to your original, it looks like you have just wiped away the damage with a clean, soft cloth.

Bambi

glennab · January 12, 2012, 08:36:41 PM

Hannie, you gave me pause with the entire date. I hadn't thought of that, since I don't use date stamps. That would mean it would be a short month name, as the numerals would be where I thought I saw the y. Back to the "drawing board!"

In that case, the numbers look like 29, but now the month is a mystery. I'll hold out for younger and sharper eyes to figure them out. Darn!

GK

corpusdei · January 12, 2012, 09:14:36 PM

After much concentration (or at least, staring at the photo until beads of sweat start showing up) I think I may have it. It looks like it's a "23" and a comma, which would possibly make the rest "Sep" (the only Saturday the 23'd in 2006):

Possibly maybe? (or has this officially made me go blind?)

corpusdei · January 14, 2012, 12:44:07 PM

Whoohoo!!! Almost done!
WIP PA2:

I'm haven't been able to find anything in the metadata that gives much of a clue as to that date in the corner - at this point I'm still leaning towards "Sep 23 2006". Outside of that it seems to be coming along nicely *does a little happy dance*

Bambi, I've got to say thank you! I hadn't thought to try using the patch tool at that small a level and the results are simply amazing. Even though it's on a smaller scale, I think it's actually moved a little faster because there's less going back, reblending, undoing, trying again, undoing, retrying, and muttering that if I hit ctrl+z one more sodding time I'll snap, then sulking off to make a stiff drink. My liver thanks you!

Pat · January 14, 2012, 01:54:33 PM

I wonder if it would be possible for us to check with the family to confirm the date?

Pat

Mhayes · January 14, 2012, 02:22:25 PM

I contacted the owner and she thought it was either 2005 or 2006 and I would go with the 2006 as it looks closer to that. As to the rest of the date, the owner couldn't remember and that was 5 1/2 years ago so it would be hard to recall the exact date. The owner will be happy with that.

Thanks,

Margie

Johnboy · January 14, 2012, 02:39:00 PM

Corpusdei,

I concur with Bambi on using the Patch tool. I have not used it at the magnification she said but between the Patch tool and the Healing brush those spots disappear.

I am in Photoshop CS so I don't have all those fancy tools. I do find with the Patch tool you can come real close to matching patterns, because you can see in the selected area how things match up. I basically started out with OPR using the Patch tool and Healing brush. If you have a large damaged area that is rather bland such as a wall, rug, water, or such, and copy a good section that closely matches the paste it in. The do some healing and patch tool work. I did this on my last restore of a baby on a rug.

Many times when I use the healing brush on spots within the same density, I will make my selection and set it so it doesn't follow the brush. Then as you change tonal areas change selections.

Now the best news. I think you have done a great job on the photo. This is one to be proud of.

Johnboy

Bambi · January 14, 2012, 04:22:31 PM

I sometimes use the Content Aware Spot Healing Brush (in CS5 only) in open background areas or centered over spots right on an edge, especially a curved edge. But the larger the brush, the more the Content Aware-ness is going to select surrounding areas with spots to replicate. Grrrrr. Then I'm back to the Patch Tool.

Bambi

glennab · January 15, 2012, 04:38:55 PM

Bambi and JB

I've found that it's a real crap shoot as to which of the healing tools will work on a particular area of muck - and often I go back to the good old clone tool when I'm too close to other colors for the healing tools to not pick up stray colors. That's one of the reasons I don't usually recommend one tool over another on anyone's restoration, because a lot depends on what they're comfortable with as well as the nature of the damage - and sometimes a tool may work better for me than it does for another volunteer. One reason I love the forum is finding out how differently we all approach these challenges and still get the job done in such a masterful manner. We are awesome! Whoo hoo!

GK