Restoration of prints
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November 04, 2009, 05:10 AM
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I have a sepia monochrome 1-1/2 by 2-1/4 inch print that I want to restore, so I started a new thread for prints.
This will be my first-ever attempt to restore a print. I scanned the print at 600 dpi and converted to tiff. You can download it from here:
http://sp6tcilsrn.web.aplus.net/challenge4
(save with .tif extension).
The goal is to clean it up and make a 4 x 6 sepia print (the resolution will be somewhat better than 200 dpi, which is good enough). I don't want to crop out the troublesome areas. I want to restore them, even if that means faking it.
If you don't want to do the restoration, then at least tell us (in detail) how you would do it, including how you would digitize the original print, what Gimp tools you would use (and in what order), etc., etc.. Would you use a scanner -- and if so, what kind of scanner -- or would you photograph the print with a macro lens? Aside from scanning, does restoring prints pose any particular challenges?
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November 04, 2009, 08:58 PM
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I have a fair bit of experience in dealing with scanned prints such as the one you have posted and, as far as I am aware, a flat bed scanner and scan at 600 dpi is OK. Question does the scanner output in various extensions or only in jpeg although I don't think that is vitally important?
The first thing to decide is what do you want when you have finished such as do you still want a border and do you want to try to get a result as near to the original as you can? Everything else you do will follow from this. Next step would be to convert to black and white do all your restoring of blemishes and then tone the finished image.
You decide on what end result you are looking for and I will accept the challenge.
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November 04, 2009, 09:21 PM
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My scanner is able to output TIFF in addition to JPEG and other formats. I uploaded the TIFF to http://sp6tcilsrn.web.aplus.net/challenge4.
I wanted to restore the entire print with the possible exception of the border. I wanted to retain the sepia tone. I already started work on this and I decided to work in the original color, rather than converting to B&W and later adding the tone back in. Which way do you think is best?
The main main challenge is to remove the blemishes and creases. The cleanup could be fairly tedious, but I thought maybe you knew some plugins that simplify this. For removing blemishes in the past, I have used G'MIC Region inpainting. But this print has so many blemishes, and the blemishes are so close together, that Region inpainting fails miserably. I have also tried the Resynthesize plugin, but unfortunately the Windows version of Resynthesize is buggy.
The second challenge is to restore the shadows in a meaningful way. They contain very little information and lots of noise. How do you make them look like real shadows again?
I worked on this some last night and will post my result shortly.
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November 04, 2009, 09:35 PM
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There is no short cut method I am afraid it is just hard slog and lots of patience. I noticed there were a lot of what looked like dust spots and wondered whether these were on the original print or possibly stuck to the surface of either the print or the scanner.
I still think it is best to convert to B&W because that is how the print would have started so get cloning, healing and, maybe, blurring.
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November 04, 2009, 09:47 PM
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I was also suspicious of the scanner, but I scanned a good-quality B&W print at the same resolution and it came out flawless. The challenge4 print looks like it was carried around in someone's wallet for sixty years.
I just posted my result a few minutes ago. I worked in color. The Easy Zone Adjustment retained the sepia tone nicely while increasing the contrast.
Cloning and healing I understand, but how does blurring fit in?
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November 05, 2009, 07:38 AM
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You have produced a very good result although I think there is a small white patch at the left side of the ladies face just below the hair. I could not produce a better image and I would be wasting my time trying to do so. I might have tried a slightly different sepia finish because I think that the original which you have tried to preserve was probably faded. However, if you are content that is all that matters.
Blurring may be used sometimes on backgrounds with lots of tiny spots where cloning and healing would be a very tedious process.
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November 05, 2009, 03:51 PM
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Ah, yes -- selective sharpening (foreground) and selective blurring (background) using the inverted layer mask. Have done that before for bees on flowers, etc. I this challenge I wante to keep the background as close to the original as possible. However blurring the shadows might have obviated the need for manual cleanup. I will definitely try this.
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