Removing Halftone dots and patterns from photos

[waynenort]

For those wanting to remove/suppress halftone dots and patterns from photos, I came across this free plugin (for photoshop users) with a tutorial on how to use it.

http://ft.rognemedia.no/

It does a reasonable job. Here's an example I tried with an image of my late father.

The only adjustment I made after using the plugin was to adjust the curves - to boost the dark and light tones and see how much of the patterning was removed.

[Gadget]

I referenced it last Friday. I think you were on the thread.

In the olden days (i.e. 10 years or so ago) we used an FFT (fast fourier transform)  plugin filter to remove unwanted texture like this.  I've not go one anymore and can't seem to find one onlne. There must still be one available somewhere.

Found this

http://ft.rognemedia.no/

[Gadget]

Fast Fourier Transform programs are not new. We used them 10-15 years or more ago. (See some very early threads of this board)

It very much depends on the original scan. Ones with jpeg artifacts and other damage don't come up very well.

I see you still  have horizontal bands.

[Gadget]

Some earlier discussions/refs to FFTs

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=245600.msg1343888#msg1343888

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=752815.msg6308888#msg6308888

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=772024.msg6250570#msg6250570

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=773174.msg6262677#msg6262677

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=698886.msg5420788#msg5420788

[HughC]

Would wavelets do the trick?
It's a subject I looked into over 10 years ago, but decided I wasn't quite bright enough.
The old brain has atrophied more since then.

I used to get quite good results with photos scanned using Microsoft Photo Editor if I declared the image as type 'Magazine'.  Can't now get the program to save scanned images.  Is there a version for Windows XP still available for (free) download?

[waynenort]

Fast Fourier Transform programs are not new. We used them 10-15 years or more ago. (See some very early threads of this board)

It very much depends on the original scan. Ones with jpeg artifacts and other damage don't come up very well.

I see you still  have horizontal bands.

Oops didn't read the entire thread.

[Ian Nelson]

I tried GIMP the other day and wasn't happy with the results and spent ages looking at MORE plugins designed to cure the problem, but, I tried again today and played with every filter to see what happened.
  Eventually I stumbled on applying 'Canvas' and then 'Gaussian Blur' and hey presto! all it needed then was adjusting Contrast.  What do you think?

[Gadget]

Oops didn't read the entire thread.

Don't worry - it's well worth discussing the various ways of getting rid of various patterns. Unfortunately none are fool proof. It's also best for such photos to have as little jpg compression as possible - or be scanned in a non-lossy format. 

[Gadget]

Just found this for anyone with PS:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/removing-newsprint-pattern-from-photos/td-p/7645875?page=1