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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: algy on Thursday 17 August 23 10:21 BST (UK)
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Is there a possibility of improving the quality of this old newspaper photo From the Warrington Examiner dated 1937, the newspaper is no longer in existence since the late 1930's.
Please, algy.
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Had a go but......
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Hi Algy... I am afraid I do not see much hope for that. I see that you shot it with your Galaxy and that was a good idea. Scanning something that is already a dot pattern, will often produce even less desirable results. It often results in a distractive moiré pattern. So a camera capture was a good idea. If you believe you have captured all that there is in the original, then it is likely that the halftone dot - first reproduced in newspapers in 1869 - is not very good in this reproduction. Also... if the original size isn't very large, then you are dealing with even less possible detail to begin with. Many of the early attempts by smaller papers did not hold fine detail. Highlights were blown out and blacks filled in quickly. Some publishers overexposed their screens in an effort to keep the 3/4 tone and shadows from filling in and subsequently blew out their highlights. Bottom line, it is hard enough to "descreen" modern newspaper halftone reproductions, and even more difficult with vintage impressions.
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Anyone who has ever tried to make the best image of a WW1 soldier's newspaper photo will identify with what you said. Short of making it up, the best that can be achieved, I have found, is a more even tone.
Carol
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There's a routine that I've used in the past that was quite good but I've forgotten what it's called. I think Peter has used it. I think it might have been based on Fourier transforms!
I'll see if I can find ref to it.
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See
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838610.0
and list of other discussions here:
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838610.msg7042557#msg7042557
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Gadget, Image J is a free downloadable app that has an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) tool that is useful for diminishing the lines/dots in some pics. I tried it on this one but it didn't give a decent improvement. I tried a few other things but achieved nothing worth posting.
Peter
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Did you try:
http://ft.rognemedia.no/
mentioned here with an example~
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838610.msg7042360#msg7042360
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No, didn't know about that one, Gadget. Thanks for pointing it out.
Two problems though:
My Mac has the M1 processor which that app apparently doesn't work with.
And, I think the bigger problem is that this app, along with the FFT tool (which may be at the base of the rognemedia tool anyway) removes or reduces the lines or dots from an otherwise reasonable image. In the present case the dots are the image, so the app blurs or distorts the detail you want to keep.
The AI developers need to keep inventing ;D
Peter
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I agree with Carol... there is likely very little that can be done with this - short of making something (detail) up. There is simply nothing there in the highlight tone. No dot, no detail. The midtown is very flat and the 3/4 tone and shadow are not refined (resolved) very well. And I doubt this is a capture (scan) issue, as much as it is the nature of the original halftone impression and its age.
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I don't think you should write off these apps without trying them or seeing some of the results from others, jmagarac. There have been some pretty good results in the past that I can remember.
This particular image is probably too far gone but to dismiss the apps without trying is very negative.
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I don't mean to be negative. I retract anything that I may have written that deters anyone from giving it a go. I "hope" someone can do something great with this. I am not dismissing them Gadget, I am simply stating what I believe to be likely in "this particular" case. I would recommend that anyone attempting to convert a halftone into a continuous tone image try any and all of your suggestions already mentioned, and or any others out there. I simply thought that this image was going to be very difficult.
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My Try
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And a little bit of color
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First, I have been out of commission for a while would wish to thank all of you for your replies and for the effort that you have taken in finding an answer to the problem, I have decided that I shall reduce the size of the image which although obviously makes the image smaller the overall picture appears slightly sharper. Thank you again to all of you on Rootschat, Algy.