Restoring a damaged photo?

[Starbase1]

I was looking to get some photos scanned in to get them digital, which I expected to be fairly straightforward, at least compared with the very old ones.

But I came across an issue which wasd only apparent AFTER taking a lot out of the album (from in plastic pockets or under film). The act of removing them appears to have removed the pigmented layer in small spots in many cases - see the attached image for what I mean.

Now I can use filters like 'dust and scratches', but they have an unwatnted softening effect on the image as a whole. And it occurs to me that as the damaged areas that need filling in are white, I'm likely to get MUCH better results if I can restrict the repairs to the white bits.

Is this possible?

I am on Photoshop Elements 9 and also have Corel PSP X2. I'd be willing to pay for an additional filter if the price is not too high...

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nick

[iczer]

Not sure, if PE elements has it but on Photoshop CS5 has a tool called the Patch tool (J); been in since CS3. What this tool does is somewhat like the Clone tool, but better.

What you do is, with the Patch tool selected, circle around what you want fixed, and slow drag the content to a similar area, making sure that the "dust" is not showing then release.

How that helps. Attached is a quick example of your picture. As for the bigger "dusty" areas, work small; also don't go to close to the edges of the selected area as it will cause black smudges.

[Starbase1]

Thanks Iczer - that sounds very like the 'heal' brush, my favourrite for fixing small areas.

Thing is I have something like 1500 photos to clean up! Which is why I was hoping for something that could be applied to the whole image, but only target the white damaged areas.

If it comes down to it though, I'll have to wade though them all with the heal tool...

Nick

[iczer]

Heal tool does do the same thing; (got my tools mixed up) this acts more like the clone tool.

Patch, I think is more precise and easier; since you don't have to sample a area.

[Starbase1]

I think I found the ideal program to fix the whole image in one shot, preliminary tests show it working very well. Its the Polaroid Dust and Scratches program.

There's a web page here with examples:
http://alphatracks.com/archives/134

Its a stand alone program, not a plugin, but its free. It seems rather old and is only available via the wayback machine.

Click on any link with a blue blob to get a copy.
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www...sr/pdsr1_0.exe

Theres a nice mouseover example showing what it does here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/phot...ust-filter.htm

In brief, you tell the software if you are after very light or very dark scratches / damage. Twiddle some parameters and it will show you a mask where it has identified the problem areas. These are the only areas affected so there's no loss of detail in other colours, unlike the PS / PSE filter, which just looks for high contrast.

Looks very impressive, highly recommended to anyone cleaning up scans or restoring old photos.

Nick

[lonewriter]

I just saw this thread, I know it's 2 years old but I have to ask if you solved it. I restore old photos to make some extra cash. I'm on my iPad now but I'll show an example when I get back to my pc in the morning.

[Starbase1]

The dust and scratches filter was the best I found, and not bad. Getting really old though...

[JackN]

http://www.downloadsource.net/17774/...oval-Software/

[Starbase1]

Originally Posted by JackN

http://www.downloadsource.net/17774/...oval-Software/

Well spotted! It took me ages to find last time around...

[Rigel]

They have a Mac OS version of that as well. I'm going to check that out.

Edit:

Aw phooey, it's a Power PC application and won't run any more.

[lonewriter]

I'm going to check that out. It takes me forever to fix that. I meant to show my work but haven't had the time to turn on my pc. My step dad almost died so I've been busy with him.