[Leica] Restoration Project

[hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)]

Jim, I went through this exercise with a scrap of photo (stuck on the back
of another print) that showed my grandfather and great grand father. Same
scanner, in fact.
Since the photo is obviously of great family importance, you can afford to
ignore how much labour you put into a reproduction. (a labour of love).
If you do a good high resolution scan then put away your original, you can
play to your heart's content. If your efforts don't work out you can still
go to a professional service with your original.

I notice from the other responses that Tina has posted links to what looks
like an excellent resource as well. I'll be looking at getting that one for
myself, also. Tina has good taste in photo books!

Firstly I would suggest scanning with your 4990 at a higher resolution than
you would normally use for a print original. You could try 600dpi? Even if
you ending up with a big file with some info you will discard it will do no
harm in your master scan. Unless you particularly want to preserve the aged
appearance of the original you may like to consider a grey scale file. After
manipulating the file you can tone it again if you wanted. Once you have
that high quality scan, I'd seek some good advice on preserving the
original. I would think acid free wrapping, cool dark and dry?

Make a copy of the master scan and keep it aside as well.

I suggest that, if you have Photoshop, you do all of your correction in
there, rather than the scanner's software.
If you are starting with a high bit scan you will have much more room to
adjust the tones where you are seeking to bring out more detail and
contrast.
Unsharp mask can likely be bettered with the new smart sharpen or some of
the plug-ins have great options too. Don't sharpen till you get to the end
though.

Hey just send me the scan and I'll have a go as well and send it back

Cheers
Hoppy
 


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Jim Christie
Sent: Wednesday, 23 August 2006 10:19
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] Restoration Project

This may not be appropriate for this forum (if so just tell me so), but I
just discovered a very old picture of my great grandfather taken during the
Civil War, in his Union soldier's uniform. To the best of the family's
knowledge, this may be the only photo that we have of him. Unfortunately, it
is in pretty bad condition and I'm trying to restore it as best I can. The
reason I am posting the picture is that I would very much appreciate your
thoughts and suggestions on how to improve on what I have done so far.
Please visit my website for the picture:  SmugMug - Jim Christie
<http://www.jim-christie.smugmug.com/gallery/1804924>  : Restore Project

 

You'll see the picture in three versions. The first is my first scan (Epson
4990 Photo Scanner), with no correction at all. The second picture is a
rescan using the scanner's Color Correction feature. The third picture is
the second scan plus a little photoshoping from me, i.e. I fiddled with
"Levels" a little and the applied the "Unsharp" adjustment. I know I need to
do a lot of cloning to get rid of some of the ugly blotches, but do you have
a suggestion for improving on what I have done and/or should I send it out
to some professional restoring shop somewhere? All input will be much
appreciated. Again, if this is inappropriate for the group, please let me
know.

 

Jim Christie


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