RootsChat.Com
Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: deadants on Saturday 22 January 05 02:21 GMT (UK)
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Kazza suggest I start a topic on photo Colourising and a bit of restoration as well.
Here's aquick example of what I mean by Colorising.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/AthloneCastlecolour.jpg)
The photo is of Athlone Castle c1893. I only did the sky, castle and lamp post. The same techniques are used for skin tones whencolorising faces.
deadants
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If you wish to attempt this you will need software like Adobe Photoshop Elements aprox. £25.00
This has the ability to add layers.
Here are some tutorial links to get you started.
httpwwwsitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=186357 link broken
http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/photos/colorizing/
http://www.mandarindesign.com/tutorials/colorizing.html
deadants
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Thanks for those links. Have been playing around with photoshop and now you've inspired me to try colouring some of my old pictures.
Louise
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If you are using Windows XP or Windows 2000 Paint.net which is available on a free download from http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/ can handle layers .
deadants is being a little modest here, and colourising takes patience and skill especially to the degree that has been shown here.
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Well I didn't know about Paint.net, but if it has the capability to add layers then it should work with colorizing.
For those people who are reading this and wondering what layers are, Here's the description from the photoshop help.
Layers allow you to work on one element of an image without disturbing the others. Think of layers as sheets of acetate stacked one on top of the other. Where there is no image on a layer, you can see through to the layers below. You can change the composition of an image by changing the order and attributes of layers. In addition, special features such as adjustment layers, fill layers, and layer styles let you create sophisticated effects.
I don't want to get too technical, as this is after all a genealogy forum not a graphics forum. but some simple manipulation of photos can realy make a difference to a web page or a printed form. So a few hours of playing around can give spectacular results.
I added one more photo to show that complex photos are done in little steps. An hour a day for about a week and this photo of my G Grandmother and her family would look stunning and make a great enhancement to your famil tree files.
deadants
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There was a post today about photo Restoration. and I just posted a reply.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,29377.0.html
If you think you would like to learn how it is done, Check this out. it's well worth a look.
deadants
http://digitalretouch.org/
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Hi deadant.
Great site you have here. I need to ask though how you get your photos on the replie postings. I have tried and failed a number of times. I kept the pictures down to 300kb combined and listed them under the Additional Options but I keep getting file name errors etc..
Ted
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Hi Ted, there are two ways of putting files on this forum. The first way is the way you are attempting which is probably the easiest, then there is the bbcode but we will save that as a last option.
First make sure the file size is a small as you can make it without degrading the picture. Second, make sure it has a unique file name. Third make sure you have the right. file type, eg. txt, jpg, jpeg, gif, pdf, mpg, png, ged
If this doesn't work. I will write a small tutorial on some of the ways to prepare a file for posting.
What graphics programme are you using.?
deadants
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Hi Deadants,
I am using Adobe Photoshop 6. and I guess my question is where is the file name. Are you referring to what I put into the Additional Options fields?
Ted
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Are you referring to what I put into the Additional Options fields?
Ted
Yes that's the question. But it sounds like you know where the file you are trying to attatch is on your hard drive. So there could be another problem. If you want, email me the file and I will do a test post. I will examine the file for anything screwy that may be going on.
I wil pm you my email address in a second.
deadants
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Images that are larger than 100 kB tend to take a while to load on People's browsers if they are using a dial-up connection. So this is one way of getting those photographs and documents onto the forum and keep the file size to a minimum.
The first thing you need to do is to scan the photograph or the document at a decent resolution. 300dpi is desirable so you can zoom in and look at the detail. The problem at this resolution when you save it, it will have a file size of 600kB or more. Obviously this is far to big for posting onto the forum. So, we need to reduce the file size without losing to much detail.
While viewing your document in a graphic program, you need to decide which part of the document you want to post. If it is a photostat copy from a birth registry for instance, you may only need one person on the list. So the first thing to do is use the cropping tool. Then drag a rectangle over the details you want to keep and crop. Bingo, this has already dropped the file size dramatically without losing detail on the area of interest. If the file size is still above 100 kB, what you need to do is reduce the image size to 72dpi. 72dpi is the maximum resolution that most monitors can handle. As there are whole lot of different software packages out there. i cant't tell you where the image reduction menus are, so here's one way to do it that works for everyone.
With the file open, zoom in or out to the size you think looks good enough for the forum members to look at. If you are using a pc, hit the "Print Screen" key, this will take a snapshot of the screen and place it on the clipboard. If you are using a Macintosh hold down the "apple, shift, 3" this will take a snapshot of the screen and put a file on the desktop.
With your graphics programme open. With the PC you go to file/new, this will ask if you want a new blank document. Say OK. then go to edit and paste, the contets of the clipboard will appear on screen at 72dpi. With the Macintosh you go to file open, and look for a file called "picture1" and open it. Now wether PC or Macintosh you do another crop to get rid of the excess image.
Now when you save the image its file size should be below 100kb.
This is probably as clear as mud. Here's a link to a tutoial which is a bit more professional.
deadants
http://www.inform.umd.edu/UMS+State/UMD-Projects/MCTP/Technology/image/size.html
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Hi Deadants,
I know what you are talking about and I am converscent with the graphic. What I am unable to do is add the photos to a reply on your posting as you have added pics..
It seems not to like a "file name" stating it has already been used???
I hadnt used it before???
So given I reduce the images which makes sense and I have done I am unsure how to add these pic.
I am getting to the point I dont want to bother.
sorry to say that, as I wanted to help others also with their graphics as I have been doing it for a while.
Thanks so much for your help.
Ted
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Hi from Tallted again,
Do you want to meet on the chat line we could meet and move to a seperate room to go over any suggestions you may have. I will go there now and if you can I will meet you. If not its ok some folks don't care for the chat line as it is getting a bit frivolous.
Ted.
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Hi,
I just thought I would share some photo restoration I am working on. I have used Adobe Photoshop 6 and found it great for restoring and colourising old photos. The one attached was torn very badly, but I was able to piece it together with Adobe and restore it. I also eliminated 2 children not related to the family and left my dad, his brother and sister together. I will now be colouring it using the layer programs.
If any one is purchasing or has Adobe photoshop 6, I would suggest you purchase with it the book "Adobe Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible." by Deke McClelland. The book is so much better than the manual. Well worth the extral outlay if you are serious about doing this.
If anyone needs any help I to will be happy to accomodate. Just e mail me.
Ted
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I'm impresset Ted. Just one little thing you could have done before posting two files is to put the two together as one photo. Side by side.
deadants
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Here's a tip about posting pictures.
When you save your graphic files before posting, make sure you save them with a very unique file name. If you just go with the generic name the computer supplies, chances are someone else has posted a file with that name. When that happens, and you try to attach files, the forum software doesn't like it and you get file name errors. :o
deadants
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Here's another type of restoration. This one pulls a faded and stained photo back to life.
This one is my G Grandfarther c1880
deadants
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After you have collected all those old family photos, how should you store them? The folowing link has some great advice on this as well as tips all things photographic.
http://www.city-gallery.com/digital/index.html
deadants
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Whats strange about this photo in this forum?
deadants
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,24403.msg91886.html#msg91886
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Hi Deadants, by the way what is your first name, mine is Ted.
The photo you refer to seems to have been composed of more than one photo superimposed, the flooring looks wierd, the head of the gent has the superimposed halo, so there are a number of wierd things going on in it. A hoax possibly or what.
Ted
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Hi Ted, My real name is Anthony, Thats where the ants part comes in, and researching dead people gives me deadants. If that makes any sense!!
Yeah I thought that photo had been doctored. I think we should ask teddybear1843 where he got it from. The forum was talking about the super natural, mybe he's a ghost. ;)
deadants
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Hi Anthony,
Maybe your right abut the ghost. It may account for the wierd floor and halo, hahaha.
Take care my friend.
Talk to you soon
Ted
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I Wonder what software people are using to store their photographs on their computers?
On the PC I use digital photo librarian http://www.pixelationllc.com/index.asp.
On the Macintosh I use apple's iPhoto which comes with Apple OS X
Having the ability to cross reference photos with multiple fields is a must if you are dealing with thousands of photos.
deadants
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This is how to post a picture on the forum.
At the bottom left of the message window there is the Additional Options. There you can use the browse button to navigate to the files on your hard disk. When you save your graphic files before posting, make sure you save them with a very unique file name. If you just go with the generic name your computer supplies, chances are someone else has posted a file with that name. When that happens, and you try to attach files, the forum software doesn't like it and you get file name errors. Don't forget, there is a size limit of 300Kb so keep them files to the smallest size possible. See the tutorial on reducing file size in my previous post. See this link. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,31111.msg121717.html#msg121717
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/photoAttach.jpg)
If you want to show a photo that is on another web page you can use BBC tags. That's what those other buttons are for. See picture below. The button marked with a red circle is the one you press to bring the little bit of code into your message.
insert the web URL* of the photo between the the two little bits of code surrounded by square brackets. NB. There is a difference between the web page URL and the actual photo URL. To get the exact URL of the photo you want, place your mouse over the photo and right click. Choose properties. This will show the Location of the photo of intrest. Try right clicking on either of these two pictures and choose properties. You can see that these pics are at a web site called photobucket. http://www.photobucket.com/ You can then copy and paste the address. Make sure there are no spaces between the square brackets and the web address.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/img.jpg)
BBC stands for Bulletin Board code
URL* stands for Uniform Resource Locator, it is the address of a website
Check Berlin-bob's tutorial at the folowing link for a very descriptive explanation.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,12753.msg43066.html#msg43066
deadants
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Hi,
Just thought I would update my photo, finally got around to colourising it.
Ted
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Looks great, Ted! :)
Paul
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Not bad at all Ted. I downloaded it and zoomed it up to have a good look.That grass looks the real deal. The girls dress probably could be a shade lighter to lift the photo a bit. But not knowing what the true colours were, it's always going to be your own interpretation.
I hope this spurs a few more people into having a crack at this, as it is a true Revelation to see these photos come back to life.
deadants
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The other day I read a post from a person who had a photograph that was in such bad repair that it was almost impossible to put it on a flat bed scanner without doing further damage. They also stated that their attempts at taking a photograph of the photo was a failure. in the end, they were going to take the photo to a professional photographer and get them to digitize it and if possable, repair it.
I recently did something similar. Although my photograph was in excellent condition, it was far to big for a flat bed scanner. so, I took the photo out of it's frame, took it outside and took a whole lot of photo's with a digital camera. Getting as much light as possible onto the subject is the secret to get the best results.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/ben1.jpg)
To reproduce a photo using digital cameras without getting distortion is a problem. So to avoid taking the photo from an angle, which you may have to do avoid reflection from a flash. I found that if you place the camera on a flat surface on or near the ground, you can stand above the photo and get square over it. this will avoid perspective distortions.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/ben2.jpg)
The best thing about digital cameras is you can take as many photos as you like until you get the result your after. Once you transfer the photos to the computer, It's just a matter of cropping the excess around the photo and adjusting the brightness, contrast and colour balance for best effect.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/deadants/ben3.jpg)
deadants
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Great job Deadant,
Do you think the person you were chatting with could but pieces of the photo on the scanner, if so we could possibly reconstruct it.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
I sent a reply to vastrida with this link. Hopefully he will post the photo so we can have a look. He has certainly piqued my curiosity.
deadants
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Hi d,
Great job on that photo of yours. YOu went to a lot of work to make sure the perspective and integity of the original were right.
Yes I am also interested in what can be done with v's photo, it should be a really interesting project for v to do..
Ted
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Hi deadant,
How have you been keeping? I am puzzled by the lack of response to this thread. You would think that there would be more people in a genealogy "club" pocessing old photos needing restoration than the responses indicate. Maybe we need to get this on the Commong Page instead. I did help one person and do a small restoration for her. She had helped me with searching for lost relatives and I did it in return, but since then nothing.
Just a thought.
Keep well.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
Yeah you would think there would be a bit more intrest. You are probably correct about this thread being in the wrong place. Maybe we could get Trystan to move it to the common Room. Not everyone puts their nose inside the Technical Help unless they have a problem with their computers or the forum etc.
I have been busy this week learning a new application for digital video. It has a fairly steep learning curve so my Genealogy has taken a back seat for the week. Hopefully a long awaited birth certificate should turn up sometime this week which should open up some new avenues to explore., then the game will be afoot once again.
cheers
deadants
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Hi deadants,
We do take an interest you know - but got to show something - struggling to do anything like yours - but trying!!
Think about you tho - see my comments earlier on :D :D
Deadants - you would have liked the stand showing you what to do with old photos - must find that gamma button to improve the colour on old photos
Sure lots of people would like to try their hand - but finding like me it's a looooong learning curve.
Keep posting any comments.
Cheers
Keith
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Hi Keith,
while you were at the fair, did you get any photos of the event? I would love to have been there but just a tad to far to travel for the day :D
what do you think about moving this thread to the common room!
deadants
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Hi Ted, Hi deadants
Keith's right - you've got a few fans watching this thread. I'd love to take up digital photo processing sometime but at the moment its just another thing of my list of things I want to do. But its great to see what you've been doing.
In fact, I have a great photgraph somewhere (ashamed to say I think its in my garden shed :-[) which I picked up in a charity shop maybe ten or twelve years ago. Someday soon I'll get it scanned and let you see it, or maybe take a (probably very poor) photo: its a group shot of about 40 men, with one woman in the foreground. Would love to see it 'tidied up', but just as importantly, I'd be interested to know if anyone can place it.
So - keep up the good work, both of you: you're an inspiration!
:)
Paul
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Hi deadants,
Sorry - never thought about a photo - even tho my digi camera is always in the car!!
Yes - might be better in the Common Room - in a new heading - as not Technical re PC's which I think is what this topic is usually used for - called - Helpful hints?? - together with other pages.
See if any moderator is watching!! ;) ;)
Cheers
Keith
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Hi Paul,
If you don't have a scanner, your local library should have one. My curiosity is in overdrive now Paul. So get your photo out of the shed, get your skates on and get it scanned so Ted and I can have a peek.
deadants
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Well Keith, maybe someone else took some pics of the day.
I'm open to suggestions for a new topic name. maybe "Repairing your Photos"
This topic of photo restoration seems to come and go. Here's a link to one which has slipped down the list. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,12686.0.html
So it shows that people have questions but don't know their is help at hand.
deadants
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Hello Deadants and Tallted, and Everyone else,
I've been watching this thread too - maybe you can persuade Trystan to have another board - Photographic Solutions maybe.
I've been learning from your tutorials too, I didn't know that about BBC tags! thought that was to do with the tv! now I know better.
I have quite a few old photos, I've tried to have a go, but have now decided to try a course in Photoshop - have to start somewhere.
Newbie
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Newbie,
If you are going to do Adobe Photoshop version 6 or better please do yourself a favour and get the book
Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible by Deke McClelland. Published by "Hungry Minds, Inc.".
They also have a web site www.hungryminds.com
This book is soooooo much better than the manual, he tells you the how to and whys, also the weakness's and strengths of all the features. An actual tutorial. Without it the Photoshop product is very difficult to learn if you are new to it.
Ted
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Well newbie,
I'm always more than Happy to give anybody a helping hand with their treasured photos. Bringing a photo back to life which seems beyond help, is extremely satisfying and makes learning an application like photoshop worth all the effort.
If you are contemplating doing a course, check this out http://www.vtc.com/ I used their photoshop course and was up to speed in no time. Also, like Ted says, a good book is always a must. Their are plenty to choose from. Whichever title you go for, make sure it fits you level of experience. one more thing about books. Out here in Australia we pay more for books than most other countries. if I was to go to my local shopping Mall and go to the Book Store, to buy a book like Deke McClelland's "Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible" I would expect to pay $99 If I buy on line through a computer book specialist, I would pay $80 + free delivery. So look on the net for those book bargains. Here's one example of an on line computer book store in the UK http://www.compman.co.uk/scripts/browse.asp?ref=454790
I will have a chat to Ted and Trystan about a dedicated photo section on rootschat.
deadants
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Hi ants,
I havent seen or heard from Trystan whether we will see this thread as a board or not. Have you heard anything.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
Still no word. I guess he is busy with more pressing matters. Patience is a virtue so they say. I will send him a PM during the week sometime to see what's happening.
I finished converting all my old analogue video to digital yesterday. Now I start the editing process. This will take a couple of hours a day for a few weeks to finish. It should be well worth the effort.
I used a VHS VCR connected to a PC with a 120Gb HD and a video capture card. I ended up with 45Gb of raw video. I took the HD out of the PC and connected it to my G4 Macintosh.I copied the data from the PC HD onto my Macs HD. Now I have to convert the video to a Quicktime format that allows me to edit both audio and video. Once the conversion is done, than I can start editing.
Whew, I'm getting a headache thinking about it.
deadants
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Hi,
Just got the photo below sent me - am I taking on more than I can do?
Not tried to have a play with it yet - can't do any harm if I keep the original I know!
That's the problem/advantage in finding new relatives - they send you old photos!!
I have Paint Shop Pro 9 - which I have used to alter/amend small amounts and colour.
Any Advise from you 2 - or anyone else!!
Cheers
Keith
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wow keith,
It is a tough one. The little boys lower face is obliterated completely, don't know how you would reconstruct that.
In the case of the eye use the opposite eye and flip it horizontally and shade it down a bit after you position it where it looks like it belongs. The rest is sort of do able but really tough. I would suggest that you scan it in at about 800 resolution or higher. That makes it easier to zoom up and work on a smaller section to rebuild it.
PM me if you have any questions. I am sure ants could help alot too.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
Thanks for that about the "eye" - thats the sort of experienced information which is valuable - I was thinking of doing same for the coat etc - but hadn't thought about flipping his eye!! :) :)
Great - wish I could have blocked off my ex-wifes mouth as easy as time has done to the boy!! ;D ;D
Will have a go - look out for a PM in the future!!!!
Cheers
Keith
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I have to agree with the others. Everything except the boys lower face is recoverable. Unless you can find another photo of the boy, I'd say you would only be able to repair his face from guesswork. That is starting to mess with historical evidence to much.
You really do need to scan the photo to a much higher dpi so you can get down to the details.
Also, do it in small steps. Consentrate on just one part till you think it looks respectable. Take your time. You won't complete this job in one sitting until you get a bit more experence under your belt, or mouse.
Try the tutorials for photo restoration for PSP here http://www.designertoday.com/tabindex-14/tabId-39/itemid-1212/DesktopDefault.aspx
Here's the big list of tutorials http://www.psplinks.com/content/Photo_Retouching.html
it's a curly one, but a great challange.
deadants
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Hi deadants ,
Thanks for those sites - will go away and have a good read - and play.
One problem is we don't know who the boy is - so will have to work round that - leave it to the last perhaps.
Another thing to learn!! ??? ???
Thought now I was retired that I would have stopped learning new skills - seems just the opposite - must have been lazy before!! ;D ;D
Cheers
Keith
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Thought now I was retired that I would have stopped learning new skills
Hi Keith,
You should try and learn something new every day. :)
I hope Paul gets that photo out of the shed soon.
deadants
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I hope Paul gets that photo out of the shed soon.
So does my wife! I'll get working on the case.
From memory, its a very intriguing photo - can't work out whether it may be regimental. I'll sort it as soon as I can - may have to just be a digital photo rather than a scan though.
Best wishes
Paul
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Keith,
Have a look at my previous pics on this thread. I did recover the girl in the tear, but we did not know her or the other lad in the picture. The other girl was my aunt, the boy to the left my uncle and the boy to the right my dad.
I took the liberty of eliminating those our family did not know to get a great pic of those people we knew and were related to.
So the decision is you and may save a lot of concern over who the boy was.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
I noticed you had removed the girl - but not the boy as well - until you said - yes that might be an option - perhaps make a separate one of my boy for later when we work out if he is ours??
Thanks for your help - have started on an easier one to see how it goes!
Cheers
Keith
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just to Highlight the problems faced with Ted's photo, I have removed the major areas of destruction. The next step is to start rebuilding this photo with bits of other photos. In Katrin Eismann's book "Restoration & Retouching" She shows how to do this by recreating the scene with the help of some of your friends dressing in siilar clothes and taking a new photo, then extracting the parts that you need. Katrinn Eismann calls this creating a parts library. You could also look on the web for similar period poses and copy parts from them. Those faces are the big worry.
http://www.digitalretouch.org/
deadants
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here's a small section of the man on the right I have played around with. The face is a pure guess.
so you can see that small steps is the secret to a reasonable result.
deadants
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Hi deadants,
Thanks for those tips - wondered how to retouch his face - not artistic enough to draw - but might be able to copy!!
Might even buy that book - looks interesting even tho I have Paint Shop Pro - but will work in a similar way.
What a fountain of knowledge 8) 8)
Thanks again
Keith
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Hi everyone
Well, I dug that photo out, and the best I could do was take a piccie with my rather underspecified digital camera!
I'm really interested in what this group of people might be. Its not part of my family (just think if they were all brothers!) but I picked it up in a second hand shop because it intrigued me.
Any ideas?
best wishes
Paul
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Paul,
The pic looks like it needs minimal restoration, I could not look at detail as the resolution is not high enough.
Also you may want to look at Ant's demo on taking a photo and have no distortion due to perspective( angled).
If you want to send it at a higher resolution let me know re pm and I will give you my email addy.
Ted
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Hi Ted
I think I need to get it scanned!
Any ideas on what the group might be? It has a sort of colonial look to it to me.
Paul
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Hi Paul,
If you could get it scanned so we can all get a good look at the detail, then we could all have our two cents worth of guessing what or who this group might be.
In the mean time, I have straightened it up a bit so we can have a better look.
Ants
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Keith,
did a bit more, but ants is right more resolution is needed and definetly need to patch and paste some parts. The child could be taken out or a cowboy hat put on and a bandit mask across his face, hahaha.
Oh well it is a tough one, good luck. write if I can help any.
Ted
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Hey Paul, I was wondering if your mystery photo could possibly be an embassy photo. US ambassador and staff. Maybe a touring cricket team. Royal family and cabinet ministers.
I starting to get sucked into this intriguing photo.
Please get it scanned. We have to solve this mystery
deadants
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Keith's photo is starting to look pretty neat. Not much to go and it will be ready for a sepia tone to lift it back to life.
How's the PSP going Keith? Here's a link to some video tutorials for psp. http://www.computer-training-software.com/paint-pro.htm
You might want to have a look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/main.html It will alow you to do all the repair work but a lot cheaper than the full version.
deadants
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Hi deadants,
Thanks for your help - have had a little play with the picture - trying to learn on a simpler photo - going fine but slowly.
I have asked my new relative for a better scanned photo, but she's not come back yet - the original one sent was 500kb.
I didn't expect you to do it for me when I put the picture on here - only to show you we were watching "your" page with interest!!
But any help is appreciated.
If you want I could email you the better quality photo or resize this one to max. allowed of 300kb. and put it on site.
Any more suggestions and tips are always helpful - keep up the good work with the others.
Cheers
Keith
PS - I have found 3 new relatives in the past 2 weeks - so am busy exchanging info with them - so apologies for not coming back sooner.
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Hi Keith,
Sorry about the slow reply. I have been up to my eyeballs learning Apple's video editing software, Final Cut Pro HD. After learning 2D & 3D CAD and photoshop, this is a complete paradigm shift in thinking for me.
I was hoping to spark you into a little reconstructing of your own. Your photo is probably at the extreme end of the scale for reconstructing. I think you need to start with something a little less challenging. I suggest something like the following photo that I have deliberately defaced. It should be easily repaired with just one or two tools. Try the clone stamp tool for the spots and try and repair the wing by copying from another section of the wing to paste over the missing piece.
Everyone who is reading this is welcome to try this challenge.
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Hey Paul, I was wondering if your mystery photo could possibly be an embassy photo. US ambassador and staff. Maybe a touring cricket team. Royal family and cabinet ministers.
Please get it scanned. We have to solve this mystery
deadants
Hi deadants
I'll get it scanned as soon as I am able to - no access at work I'm afraid so it may take a while.
I too wondered about an embassy. Didn't think about cricket (possibly too many peeps!), ditto cabinet members. But maybe a trades union or something.
One of the genealogy mags over here offers to try to identify pics, so its an option to send it to them, but I think rootschatters are likely to come up trumps (just as soon as I've got the bleedin thing scanned!)
best wishes
Paul
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Hi deadants,
Interesting little challenge!
I did say I was retired - and finished learning new tricks didn't I ;D ;D
Anyway - first attempt - did you put the white spots in as a test as well??
Cheers
Keith
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Hi Keith,
Nice job on the plane. Keep up the good work.
Ted
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Really,really,gobsmacked,impressed,overwhelmed!! So much to learn ,so little time.
Noticed the VH rego on the plane,and you are an Aussie,clever boy,not all faculties are gone!
Cheers,Goggy.
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Hi there ant,
I've had a go, first thing I found difficult was choosing the brush size, too small and you can see them, I've only managed to do the black bits, as I don't know how to copy yet?
Hope pasting this works, all tips and hints are welcome!
Newbie
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Hi Newbie,
It Tallted. What program are you using for your work on the picture?
Do you have layers on the program?
Ted
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it's photoshop7, whats layers? I think so , but it doesnt wash the dishes.
Newbie
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HI,
It should have a layers drop menu on the tool bar. If you use layers and duplicate the pic you can work on the duplicate and do all kinds of tricks. I would suggest that you get a book by Deke McClelland called Adobe Photoshop 5 Bible. It is a great tutorial. Deadants has also suggested at least one other book by Katrin Eisman on Photo restoration. These books are great tutorials and so much better than the Adobe manuals which tell you what the features are but dont really teach you how or when to use them.
If you have other questions drop me a line.
Ted
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Thanks Ted,
I've made a note of the books both you and deadants have recommended to me, just haven't got round to it yet, I've also had a look at the web site tutorials that have been recommended, I just wanted to have a"play" at this one, I'm a great believer in play leading to learning, if I don't try it how will I learn?
Will try and discover the layers then
thanks
Newbie
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Hi again,
Thought to mention the "clone tool" Try playing around with that one. It is great.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
Thats the one I was using when I did the "repair" the problem is you still have to choose a brush and then the size which affects the outcome, first of all the brush size I was using was too small and thats when I found out it leaves round "stamp"marks, a larger brush enables you to use it like laying a flat wash (an artists' term), but then to do the tail of the plane I had to switch back to a smaller brush, still not sure what I'm doing but I must be gaining experience if nothing else!
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Hi,
Try Zooming in as large as you can without loosing detail, which may not be enough seeing as though the pics on this site are under 300 kb. Then use a bruch that has the fuzzy look to it. After you use it use the blur tool along the lines that you copied, use it sparingly just to rid the line of the cloned bit of its sharpness.
Ted
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Man O Man, The reason for my absence is I just went through the pain of changing ISP's. When they switched me over, I could only access a few web sites. So I spent 3 hours on the phone, fault finding with the tech guys. To cut a long story short, they had me logged in twice at the same time which caused huge DNS conflicts.
Well looks like my little restoration challenge has created some intrest. This is great to see. First of all, yes well spotted goggy. The VH rego puts that plane in Australia. My Grandfather took that photo about 1930 near Armidale, NSW.
OK Keith, your well and truly on your way. By using a combination of layers, Clone stamp and the Lasso Tool. These three tools can be used for the main manipulation. If you can master these tools, the rest of the tools will be used for blending, smoothing and general trickery.
Now, newbie. If this is your first attempt then you are doing the right thing. Start with the simple things first. You really should put in a couple of hours of getting a handle on layers. Here's the description that photoshop gives to layers.
Layers allow you to work on one element of an image without disturbing the others. Think of layers as sheets of acetate stacked one on top of the other. Where there is no image on a layer, you can see through to the layers below. You can change the composition of an image by changing the order and attributes of layers. In addition, special features such as adjustment layers, fill layers, and layer styles let you create sophisticated effects
Try coppying a section of the wing and pasting it over the missing bit.
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By the way, does anybody know what kind of airplane it is? I could add that information to my photo album.
deadants
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I can't identify it - but would say the "VH" is an Australian airplane marking
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Yep, the VH is the rego for Australia. My Grandfather worked in the New England district of NSW between 1928 and 1930. He was a keen photographer. I think this might have been a mail plane from Sydney. It doesn't look like it was for passangers.
deadants
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Hi deadants,
Asked around about the plane came up with this:
The registration sure looks like VH-BQQ in which case it will be the one
in the attachment although the details say it was re-registered as BXE.
Look at this website.
VHBQO was destroyed in a crash so I'm sure it is not the one in your
photo.
Those markings definitely look like BQQ and it looks like it wouldn't be
flying too far from that photo of yours. It looks like it's parked in the
outback somewhere!!.
Anyway it is a Percival P26B Proctor 1 if it is the redex one which I
think it is.
Check this site.
http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/Austcivb.html
Cheers
Keith
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Well Keith, that's an absolute mind blower. I just showed my mother and she set me straight. Apparently she took the photograph using a Box Brownie camera on her honeymoon. She even knows the exact date she took it. January 19 1953. It was flying out of a paddock near Toowoon Bay, which is about halfway between Sydney and Newcastle.
Mystery solved. I love it when you get the story from the eyewitness. I think I need to tie my mother down with the photo album and get the story on all her photos.
Here's one my grandfather took in 1930 near Taree, on the manning River.
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Keith, Just thought I'd let you know. I sent an email to the guy who runs the web site for the Aussie airplanes. He confirmed that the photo we have here, VH BQQ is the same plane. I also sent him a copy of the float plane and he seemed very excited, especially with the VH UIH rego. Apparently Float Planes were fairly rare in Australia at the time. The VH prefix started in 1930 so this was one of the first planes to have the new VH rego.
I had to rescan the float Plane at a higher Resolution for the guy and he is going to put in on his web site.
deadants
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Hi deadants,
Just shows you - help someone - someone helps you!! ;D ;D
Now he's happy as well.
Bet you didn't know you had valuable information kept in the box!!
Cheers
Keith
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The Aussie Plane guy has put the float plane on his web site. He even has the owners name, P.G. Taylor.
http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austu/VH-UIH.html
P.G Taylor was an extremely experienced Catalina pilot and had also made several similar pioneering flights. He won fame in 1935 as the crew member on Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith's flight in the Southern Cross when he transferred oil from one engine to another by climbing out of the cabin and balancing on the struts in mid-flight.
from the power house museum.
here's a link that tells the story of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain P.G. Smith
http://www.airborne.org/flying/history.htm#smithy
deadants
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I downloaded Paint.net which has layering options but I don't understand it! I want to remove the stains in this pictures how do I do that? Thanks, Laverdiere
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Hi Laverdiere,
Do you have access to the original? You will need to scan this photo at a much higher resolution to see the detail. at the mooment this photo is a bit hard to see skin tones and hair line.
I downloaded paint.Net to see what tools it has available. It has Layes with a few blending modes. you will find them by clinking on the layer property button at the bottom of the Layers window. (http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/t1/t1_pdn6.jpg)
Layes are not my worry, It's the clone Stamp tool an the brush tool that are a bit rough compared with photoshop, but you got to use what you got.
So lets try something simple. After you have opend the photo, create a new layer. In the layer window click the new Layer button bottom left. Give this Layer a new name by either double clicking on the new Layer or clicking on the Layers property button, bottom rigt, name it clone1 or whatever you like as long as it's unique. Zoom in about 150% on his head to see a little better. Next we will look at the Clone Stamp Tool, just below the pencil tool. After you have it selected, change your brush width. The Brush With is resized at the top of the main window, to the right of the Fill Style. Make the brush size about 7 or 8 now have a look on your photo there is a couple of white spots above his head. Move you mouse just off the white spots and Ctl click the mouse. This will take a snapshot of the screen under your mouse pointer, now you can start to carefully brush over the white spots.
If you can do a little bit of practice on the clone stamp tool, we can move on to the next step. I have to learn what Pain.Net can do. It's not full featured as Photoshop so we might have to find different ways of doing things.
Thats enough for one day, let me know when your ready for the next step. Hopefully we will get some input from the other pixel pushers who watch this board.
deadants
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You can see that by selecting the background with the lasso tool and adding a Gaussian Blur, it lifts this photo dramatically. I must admit I used the Lasso tool in Photoshop for this as the lasso tool in Paint.Net is only a click and drag operation and I can't figure out how to select exactly what I want.
deadats
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I'll have to check out those sites.
Here's some of my first cracks at colorization.
This is my Gran as a kid.
(Gran is my foster grandmother / cousin)
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Hi Tariana,
You are doing great. The colouring is coming along.
Keep us posted on the progress.
If you need help just email me or deadants.
Ted
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Hi again Tariana,
I was just interested. Do you know the year of the Pontiac. I owned a 1954 Chev of the same colour you have chosen.
Ted
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thanks. I used a program that came with my old computer. I lost it when I got a virus >:( Lost everything but windows when I took it to be fixed.
I don't know what year the car is. I didn't even know it was a pontiac. Cars aren't my forte' From the little girl, I'm guessing aged about 5. So the photo would be dated about 1952.
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Hi tariana,
Close anyway. Do you have a program to continue the colourising of the pic.
Ted
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Hi again,
YOu could try a download of http://www.gimp.org/windows/.
Try it. It used to be a free download.
Ted
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Well I don't Know what year the photo was taken but that's about a 1941 Pontiac with the Pontiac Indian hood ornament. (http://www.antiquecarparts.net/41sturbridge.jpg)
The colorurizing is coming along nicely. you just need to concentrate on the detail a little more to get that realistic effect. I removed the blue from the chrome trim to show you what I mean.
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I downloaded Paint.net which has layering options but I don't understand it! I want to remove the stains in this pictures how do I do that? Thanks, Laverdiere
Well I have played around with Pain't.Net and found that it just to limiting. So I download The Gimp that a lot of others seem to have done. This proram is a million miles ahead of paint.Net.
The Gimp has a complete set of Layer modes, which was the first thing I looked at when I installed it. It's brush selection is full featured and the clone tone tool has lots of features that will work wonders on any photo.
Do yourself a favor and download Gimp.
Here's a tutorial for Gimp doing colorizing http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/
deadants
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Hi deadants
Before I splash out on a package for photo manipulation, I would like to try one for free. Would you recommend the Gimp as one which will allow me to transfer skills into other packages that I might buy, or would I have to learn a lot of new procedures over again?
ta
Paul
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Hi Paul,
I had a play with Gimp today, at a glance it has a lot of the features that Adobe Photoshop has so it should be a good program to cut your teeth on. Look at Adobe photoshop Elements for a shop bought package. It does most things It's big brother does but at fraction of the cost.
Read this before you downoad Gimp.
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/faq.html
deadants
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Hi deadants
Those FAQs scared me witless! :o Am I going to get a stack of error messages?? Maybe I should go for the Adobe Elements...
Anyway - good news is I bought me a scanner this morning so am looking forward to setting that up tonight - may even be able to post a decent image of the group photo I have.
best wishes
Paul
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Paul,
I would recommend th Adobe Photo Shop V 7 and a How to book by Deke McClelland if you plan to be serious about doing a lot of pic restoration. It is a pretty stiff price for both but worth it. If you just want to fool around a bit then as Deadants suggests Photo shop Elements will get you going and you will enjoy doing it.
Hope you have a lot of success.
Ted
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Hi ted
Thanks for this - I definately am at the fooling around stage - but as suggested, I'd like to use something to fool around with that I can hopefully transfer my skills across to another product if I decide to take it further. The Gimp certainly looked interesting, apart from the FAQs! :)
Paul
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Great to hear Paul.
What type of scanner is it? and did it come with any graphic software?
Don't let the FAQ scare you, what you need do is download and install the GTK+2 runtime environment. Then you can download and install The Gimp v2.2.4
Don't panic we can talk you through it.
deadants
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Hi deadants
Nothing fancy in terms of a scanner - an Epson combined printer scanner. I've had my first go (as you have seen elsewhere in the Common Room - you;re right: its certainly not a Koala bear: I guess you should know! :))
Now all I've got to do is raid my mother's photo album next time I'm in Durham!
May give the Gimp a go (even though the name's very Reservoir Dogsy!)
cheers
Paul
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Paul, do you have broardband? I guess you do, judging by the amout of time your online. Have a look at the demo video of Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 here.
http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/photoshopelwin/main.html
or download the trial version here.
http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/tryadobe/reg_photoshopelements3.0wintryout.html
It has very attractive features and dead easy to use.
deadants
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Hi deadants seeing what a great job you were able to do with Adobe Photo I downloaded the 30-day trial version from Adobe's website and being playing around with it (that's why I haven't been online). It is out of my budget right now so I might try that other you recommended.
I have a lot of faded old pictures which I would love to restore. If I get stuck I'll email again.
Being able to restore the faded print of William Wedderburn is a real gift as his picture is my 4th great-grandpa.
Thanks for your help! Laverdiere
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Hi Laverdiere,
Is this your web site?
deadants
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/euroleader/wedderburn/settlers/georgerichard.htm
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No it's a good Wedderburn website though. Laverdiere
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Hi,
Could you please give me some advice?? I have a locket which is about an inch high and contains two photos. Having checked with a jeweller I've been told under no circumstances to try to remove the photos as they and the locket are likely to suffer irrepairable damage, so...
Being at the "point and click" stage of photography, how can I take a good digital picture of the photos? (I have a Canon S40 camera). I would like to create a clearer picture as the end result.
Following are a couple of "efforts" to show you what I'm talking about! Any advice will be welcomed!!
Thank you
tabitha
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What a cool treasure!!
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Thanks Laverdiere, it is a treasure to me! The pictures are of my Great Grandmother & Great Grandfather and the locket was my Great Grans and passed to me via my Gran & my Mum.
Tabitha
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You could try using a scanner instead of a camera. Some of the people selling jewellery on ebay do it that way and results look very good.
Cheers,
Carmela
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Thanks Carmela...I hadn't thought of that :-[
Here are the same pictures scanned
Tabitha
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Hello to Lav,
You could try the free download from Gimp for Windows. It is free and does challenge Adobe Ps.
http://www.gimp.org/windows/.
Try it, dont get intimidated by the questions re downloading, and enjoy.
Ted
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Hi Tab.,
I will download your pics to see what I can do with them, no promises, but you never know.
Tallted
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Hi tabitha,
Your two photos don't look to bad. Could you rescan them at a higher resolution. I'm not sure how savvy you are with a scanner but this is what you should do. After placing the locket on the scanner, do an initial preview scan. This will give the position of the locket on the platen. Next, select the locket with the selection tool. Then set the resolution to 600dpi then scan. Save the file as a jpeg, this will reduce the file size. Remember, it has to be 300Kb or less to post on the forum.
I will send you a PM with my email address and you can send them to me if the file size is to big. Remember the bigger the photo is the easier it is to work on.
See the example below. the whole compass is at 150dpi and the zoom in was at 1200dpi. You can really see the detail in the high resolution scan.
deadants
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Hi Deadants & Ted,
Thank you for trying to help out! I've learnt something already....how to increase the dpi on my scanner!! That'll tell you you're not dealing with a technical whizzkid here ;)
Below are the two pictures which I scanned at 1200dpi, saved at maximum quality then shrank to fit on here, they're so much clearer than my photographic attempts I'm quite amazed...I'll have to use my scanner more often!!
Cheers
Tabitha
P.S. Thanks for your pm's too.
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I downloaded the GIMP program and it looks lovely!
Your pics look great Tabitha.
Do you folks have any suggestions how to make my great-aunts in this picture become less unfaded. I already did and multiplied two layers which made the picture a bit darker but it is still very faint.
Thanks, Laverdiere
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Hi Lav.
I took a quick shot at the pic.. There isnt much there to work with. I tried a few tricks I had but they didnt work to get rid of the stains, and grain deteriation. I did a change to gray scale and did a level adjustment.
Hope deadants has better luck with it.
Ted
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Do you folks have any suggestions how to make my great-aunts in this picture become less unfaded. I already did and multiplied two layers which made the picture a bit darker but it is still very faint.
Hi Laverdiere,
I could only see one in the bath. Unfortunately the other Girl is no longer recoverable.
deadants
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Hi lav,
One last try brought it a little brighter.
Ted
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Below are the two pictures which I scanned at 1200dpi, saved at maximum quality then shrank to fit on here,
Hi Tabatha,
I think you might have shrunk it down a little to small. If you look at my compass example you will notice at the bottom of the photo some details. There is the filename and then in brackets the file size and then the dimensions of the photo in pixels. The big compass is 706x705 pixels. this is the size you should try to make your locket. Remember big is easy to work on.
deadants
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Thanks for trying guys. It would have been nice to restore that one but at least they are only great-aunts and I have other pictures. This one looked like it would have been cute though.
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It's a pity, but you can only manipulate data if there is data to maipulate. ;) Do you know what year the photo was taken?
I have run a few filters, and this is the best I can do. There is a ghotly second person I have enhanced.
deadants
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Hi,
Laverdiere, very ghostly seeing a second person emerge and very clever!!
deadants, I've increased the size of the locket as you suggested and here goes....
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Hi Tabatha,
Here are a couple of versions I have had a crack at. They don't look to bad considering.
deadants
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I think I might have given him a swollen eye. I will have another go tomorow. but I think she is looking not to bad.
deadants
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Thank you deadants, I'm very impressed....Great Gran's looking lovely :)
Thank you again, I really do appreciate it.
tabitha
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Deadants
If I had any hair on my head I would have pulled it out over the last two days >:( how the hell did you do that Colourising in the photo at the start of this posting.
I have tried most of the links to tuts but I just cant get to grips with it
I have PSP pro 9 & Adobe Photoshop CS so programs not an issue.
Any chance of an "Idiots Guide to Colourising" ;)
Regards
Ken
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hi kenhar,
I can certainly help you with Adobe photoshop CS. This is my weapon of choice. here are a couple of quick tutorials to look at first.
http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/photos/colorizing/
http://www.olate.com/articles/125
And this is a good one, it comes from a great collection of tutorials at wwwworth1000.com
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018
Let me know how you go after a couple of these tutorials.
deadants
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Hi Tabitha,
Here is my revised version of your grandfather. I'm still a little worried about it though. He looks a little different. It's a real jugging act around the lips and chin. What do you think?
deadants
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Hey, deadants - just bought a graphics tablet - the best toy I've had in years! The pen makes it so much easier to crop things. Looking forward to posting here and gleaning your advice!
For anyone in the UK, I'd suggest a pretty quick trip to ALDI, who are selling a highly specified graphics tablet with remote mouse and pen - bigger than A4 - plus Ulead Photoediting software all for just £24.99
(Advert over)
Paul
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Hey Paul,
No advertising. Now that I'm the sheriff in this here board, I may have to throw you in the cells for the night. ;)
deadants
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OK ... in the interests of balance (and to prevent a shoot-out):
"Other graphics pads may be available from other suppliers. Mention of a particular item or supplier* in this thread does not imply endorsement".
* Especially the T-shirts on sale at www.nervousnigel.com (http://www.nervousnigel.com) ;)
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Ah, I feel much better now. The key to the cell door are on the hat rack next to the cell door. I also have a graphic tablet, but unfortunately when Apple upgraded to OS X the graphic tablet wouldn't work. The tablet maker has just but out an upgrade driver but it doesn't work with photoshop. Go figure.
deadants
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Hi Deadants,
I think you've done a grand job! It's hard to guess his lips and chin as the edge of the locket has distorted the photo. Withoug having a similar picture to compare it too I'd say it's pretty darn good ;D
Thank you very much for doing this for me, I'm definitely going to have to do more studying...I want to be able to do it too :D
Cheers
tabitha
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I hope you do have a go at learning how to do this as it is a very relaxing hobby.
deadants
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Thanks for getting my photo clearer, it's nice to see both girls. It's even in colour!
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Hi Lav,
That was a real revalation when I highlighted that second figure. It just shows what can be rescued. Well, kind of.
deadants
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Interesting the young Muriel appears so ghostlike. She grew into a beautiful woman who unfortunately suffered from depression and ended up committing suicide. A ghost indeed. I think the picture was taken in the early 1900s.
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By the look of Muriel, I'd say shes no more than two years old. Maybe if you have a date for Muriel's death, you can get a close approximation of the photos age.
deadants
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Hi deadants,
Its TT I regret to say I wont be on line very much until the fall. I am now at our summer home till the fall and I only get very very slow dial up service, so to receive photos for restoration will be next to impossible at a high resolution. I will keep in touch and if anyone needs help and cant get to you they coan pm me.
See you.
Ted
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No problem Ted. I look forward to you contributing whenever you can.
deadants
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Enjoy the summer, Ted!
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Well we have done a bit more work on Laverdiere's two bath Tub Kids. I posted the file on the RetouchPRO forum http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10423 and those Guys have gone to work on it. Fiona from RetouchPRO, has allowed me to repost her latest version.
Hi,
deadants,
Welcome to RP!
Just to stir a bit more confusion , here is what I saw in your picture...
in my opinion the girls are in an outdoor tub (could be in some South Mediterranean country (or some exotic part of the world...). At the sides of the tub I made out only plants (some long leafed(? did I say that right?)) .... and I think that the 'feature between the girls' heads is an ornate outdoor wall water tap....
Muriel seems to concentrate on something hidden in the tub or to be sulking .... and, in my opinion, her arms are kept close to her body .... Joan seems to be holding one knee...
I strongly blurred some of the body parts to emphasize what I saw ...
see below for Fionas Version.
Now that I have a copy, of the original we can have a really good look at it.
deadants
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Here is the latest version of Laverdiere's Picture. First a big thankyou to Flora from the RetouchPRO forum http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/member.php?u=401 for her restoration work on this photo.
As you can see the steps in the background are the steps in the original. So we have crept a little closer to pulling this photo back from the dead.
deadants
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Dear Deadants, thank you for all the work you put into helping me with this picture. Laverdiere