remove scratches on old photographic paper

[awais400]

hello every one
can any one tell me that how to remove scratches on old photographic paper in photoshop 7. i restore my old photo very hard but i dont know that what i do next. s photo is attched.i am realy thank full.

[Sahil]

Can't see the photo, mate.

[awais400]

hello every one
can any one tell me that how to remove scratches on old photographic paper in photoshop 7. i restore my old photo very hard but i dont know that what i do next. s photo is attched.i am realy thank full.

now the file is attched.

[Sahil]

Oh, the experts will take care of it. Colin does a wonderful job
But I feel it should be left as-is. The old look looks good.

[Colin Southern]

There aren't any "magic tricks" for repairing images like that I'm afraid - you'll need to do it the same way you eat an elephant (one bite at a time).

[awais400]

There aren't any "magic tricks" for repairing images like that I'm afraid - you'll need to do it the same way you eat an elephant (one bite at a time).

thanks for reply. i eat elephant 70% but only some work that i dont think that what i do scratches on old photographic paper how can i remove it kindly help me. New image is attched.



thanks

[Dave Humphries]

thanks for reply. i eat elephant 70% but only some work that i dont think that what i do scratches on old photographic paper how can i remove it kindly help me.

Hi awais400,

(Is that your name?)-400?

Hmmm, This is a BIG elephant, and I'm not being rude about the subject

Here's my attempt, which I am only partially happy with.
You will see that apart from some whole image Noise Reduction to remove the embossed pattern and increase contrast and sharpen a bit, I have not cloned away any scratches apart from a few bits on the face.



It will take hours to do properly and your second example is quite good apart from lacking some subject contrast and sharpness.

Obviously, on mine; the sharpening has made the scratches worse where I haven't cloned them out yet, so when reviewing, only consider the face please.

I used Elements 6 and the Neat Image (Noise reducer plug in) which works by sampling an area to determine a noise profile, in this case the embossing pattern, and subtracts it all over. I did it in two passes, both whole picture, one I sampled on the face, the second on the background. Being lazy, I didn't apply these via a mask to only those areas, so with more time, I'm sure this could be improved upon by selective masks.

Cheers,

[awais400]

Thanx Dave.

I really appreciate your effort which was very helpful for me. One thing to tell you that I am using Adobe Photoshop 7. Could you please tell me the same procedure you did on Element 6 using Adobe Photoshop 7. It will be really appreciated..... agian...

[Dave Humphries]

One thing to tell you that I am using Adobe Photoshop 7. Could you please tell me the same procedure you did on Element 6 using Adobe Photoshop 7. It will be really appreciated..... agian...

Hi,

The menu paths might have changed (between PS7 and PSE6), this is roughly what I did;

a) Opened the Levels dialog (Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels)and set the black point to 20 to even up the histogram with equal blank areas left and right.
b) I think I then did a Neat Image at 50% removal, from a sample on the face.
c) Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) using USM set at 10%, 40 pixels radius and 0 threshold
d) A bit of cloning out on face and hair line surrounding face
e) Sharpen, using Enhance > UnSharp Mask.. at 150%, 0.7 radius and 10 threshold
f) Another Filter > Reduce Noise > Neat Image, 50% again, but this time sampled on the background
g) Final tidy up clone and publish

Looking at the histogram now, even after the LCE, it still isn't using everything it should

Now some, more experienced than I, might consider I did some of these things in the wrong order - they could well be correct
In my defence I was rushing it

Of course, you would probably do all the cloning at d) or even a step earlier, before doing the other stuff, but I didn't have hours to spend on it.

Cheers,

[awais400]

Thanks dave this is reary helpfull for me thanks for your this effort.