Glenna's Newest Toughie

[glennab]

Hi!

As promised, here's my latest.  This is the original, and so far I've just done a lot of studying and trying things out.  It's a gorgeous painting but very textured and faint.

Suggestions?

GG

[cmpentecost]

Hi Glenna,

IMHO, I don't think the damage is that bad in this picture, and curves will do wonders to it.  If you are familiar with using the threshold tool to set the white and black points, then fade curves afterwards, you will probably get a good result (I tried it on my computer).  You'll still need to do some touch ups, but the biggest problem seems to be lack of sharpness and clarity.  Based on what you've done with your other photos, this one should be a breeze for you!

Christine

[klassylady25]

AMEN!!   CM  Go get em Glenna!   :crazy:

Hi Glenna,

IMHO, I don't think the damage is that bad in this picture, and curves will do wonders to it.  If you are familiar with using the threshold tool to set the white and black points, then fade curves afterwards, you will probably get a good result (I tried it on my computer).  You'll still need to do some touch ups, but the biggest problem seems to be lack of sharpness and clarity.  Based on what you've done with your other photos, this one should be a breeze for you!

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Glenna,

Just a few ideas, I tried this, duped the original and set the dupe layer to multiply, flattened image, curves just hit the auto button, then run image through Neat Image to remove some of the texture.

This is the result:



Then on this one on the faces I used the healing brush, very fine, don't follow the scratch follow the texture lines running across the paper, many light strokes over the same area, A good time to get the graphics pad going, the healing brush is pressure sensitive with the pen so you can have a fairly large brush and yet work a fine line.

On the younger Lady's shirt I used the patch tool, and some blending with the healing brush, there is still a lot needed to get a good result but this was done in about 10 min.




Hope this helps, got to go storm coming!

Max

[Ziaphra]

I just wanted to add that considering it is a painting so I wouldn't try to make it look 'real' if you know what I mean. ;) Also, to get rid of those lines use the Deinterlace filter...first get rid of the odd lines and then the even ones.

[Ausimax]

Ziaphra,

The De interlace filter works wonders, makes working it a breeze without the lines, another day on which I have learned something new ( if I can just live long enough I will be a genius - in my dreams).


Max

[glennab]

Hi Volunteers

Sorry, but I have to say this first: GO GATORS!  Okay, now I can contain myself

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback.  I know I've seen the Deinterlace filter mentioned before, but I can't remember if it's part of Photoshop or something that has to be downloaded.  I'd love to try it. 

And Max, what's Neat Image?  I've never heard of it.  There appear to be many tools out there of which I'm not aware.  I did start with the dupe & multiply routine.  That's brought out quite a bit.

Ziaphra, Max, Candy & Chris, you've all given me a lot to work with.  Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

(I started Scott Kelby's book on channels last night -- great bedtime reading!  I have a feeling it's going to be invaluable.  Actually, I recommend any of his books or DVDs.  The guy's amazing!)

Oops -- better run.  Gonna be late for work.  Have a wonderful day!

GG

[kiska]

I googled 'deinterlace' and found some for video. Will they work in Photoshop??

Neat Image

http://www.neatimage.com/download.html

[Ziaphra]

It is a filter in PaintShop Prov9...neatimage will probably have it though.

[kjohnson]

There is this texture removing filter (plug-in) that was posted awhile back, here's a brief blurb about it & detailed info's posted on the website:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=185

The FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) technique offers a way to remove (most of) the texture, leaving us with a photograph that can now be easily retouched.

And if you google FFT you'll discover that the filters we use are based on some amazing "what the...?" math formulas.

[zapphnath]

In CS2, De-Interlace is found under Filter > Video.
Although I've never tried it, before, I just gave it a go on your image and it does the job.
Thanks, Ziaphra, for pointing out yet another under-utilised aspect of Photoshop.  It'll come in handy, for sure.

[kstruve]

Hi Glenna!

I'm torn between thinking that this is a hand painted photograph and thinking that it's a painting.  It probably doesn't matter too much however, as knowing which one it is doesn't really change the way you restore it.  But I'll launch into my thinking on this issue anyway ;)

It looks like a hand painted photograph because of the way it has faded (usually the photograph underneath the paint fades more, leaving the paint on top being more prominent - which is what this looks like).  But I've never seen an old photograph printed onto canvas before either, as this looks like.

But either way, I actually like the original texture of the paper or canvas, or whatever it is, so I would try to leave it alone.  Whether it's a painted photo on canvas or a painting on canvas is irrelevant - it was put on canvas on purpose and I don't think they would appreciate having it removed.

Now onto the filters being discussed:  Max and Keith are talking about two different things.  De-interlace and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) are two totally different filters.  De-interlace is a built-in filter in Photoshop and has been there for many versions now.  It's under Filter>Video>De-interlace.  It will get rid of small-scale (1 or 2 pixel) banding usually caused by the scan lines in video.  It won't do much of anything for the texture on your full resolution image.  FFT is a plug-in that you can download and add to Photoshop that would get rid of the texture in this image, but it's a little complicated and takes several steps to do well.

Ah, but how to restore it?  Well there are a few main problems with this image.  The colors have shifted and faded.  The values (lights and darks) have faded.  There is physical damage to the image.  I would duplicate the background layer and change the copy's blending mode to color.  Then I would either desaturate the original layer underneath, or replace it by copying one of the channels - maybe the green or blue channel.  This way you can deal with the colors separate from the values.  The colors have faded and shifted to the yellow, so I would make these changes to the color layer.  The values have faded, so make these changes to the desaturated image.  The damage can also be dealt with on this layer.  I would use the clone stamp or healing brush to maintain the texture, but you may want to use something else if you want to get rid of the texture.  The older woman's chin has kind of disappeared so I would use the burn tool to add shading back to it.

Well I'd better stop running off at the mouth.  Best of luck to you on this one, Glenna!

Kurt

[glennab]

WOW!  I thought I'd check this thread while I'm at lunch, and I'm overwhelmed with all the response.  You've all given me much to contemplate.  One of my first restorations was the little girl by herself, and when I posted her I only got one response, so I did the best I could, and have now decided that I'll probably rework that one as well.

Kurt, one thing I appreciate is your comment about retaining the texture, because I wanted to try to do that if I could figure out a way.  That would definitely make it closer to the original than eliminating the canvas look.

Now I'm frustrated that I have to wait until I get home to get started!  Have a bunch of ads to design before 5:30 and probably more web work.

Where's my darn winning lotto ticket!  Working for a living bites!  But then, of course it does support my habits: EATING, SHELTER, COMPUTER, CATS, etc.  Guess I'd better get back to it.

Thank you many times!  You're all the greatest.

Later!

GG

[Ziaphra]

Texture can always be added back. ;)

[kstruve]

Very true.  That may the the easier way to work - to remove the texture while you restore so you don't have to worry about it, and then just add it back in at the end.

Kurt