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Posted on 11/02/11 11:26:35 AM |
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Elona Rogers
* Posts: 25 Reply |
Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
A family member wants me to improve some old 1930's to 1950's B/W photos. They are different sizes from postcard to 2"x2" or 3"x2" or 4"x4" My Canon MP630 gives a 1/3 setting for scanning whatever that means. I need to scan at 300ppi. Does the printer do this or do I change it after importing into P.S? I'll attach an A4 sheet with a number of the prints on it to show my dillema. (How do I replace the head?) Elona.  |
Posted on 11/02/11 5:22:13 PM |
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Sophie
Political Parodist Posts: 595 Reply  |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Hi Elona, I recently created an electronic album made up of some old photos that had to be scanned. 300 ppi is the minimum scan setting I used. You should be able to change the settings in the software that comes with the scanner before you scan. It's no good bumping up the resolution in PS afterwards. That will just leave thin patches where there aren't enough pixels. PS 'interpolates' or basically tries to make up the missing pixels. If you have the Camera Raw plug-in, you can open your jpegs in it before going into Photoshop with them and do a good deal of refinement of detail and colour on the Basics tab with the Clarity slider and others. Any work you do in Camera Raw is easily reversed. It is a non-destructive way of editing images. Experiment. If you want more information on this, let us know. All scanned photos, particularly old ones, have loads of dust and scratches on them. You can use the filter of that name in PS for some of the removal though if you use it too strongly it will add nasty artifacts to the photo. Just ask if you want more detail on that. You may also need to use the clone stamp, patch tool or similar (zoom in up to 200% - 300% for sensitive areas such as face and tricky detail etc.). For the missing bit of head, you will need to increase the canvas size at the top of your photo (Image menu). If you have PS CS5 you could try using the new Content Aware Fill. I have not used it yet so others may be able to advise you about that. Even using this sophisticated tool you will probably need to do more retouching to get rid of any lines between the additional canvas increase and the original photo and to the head/hair area. Hope this helps a little. |
Posted on 11/02/11 6:17:43 PM |
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Dooley
** Posts: 76 Reply  |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Whenever i scan old photo's, i scan at the highest resolution my scanner can manage. Sophie is right about the head. Ask again if you get stuck. |
Posted on 13/02/11 1:00:59 PM |
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Elona Rogers
* Posts: 25 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Many thanks to you, Sophie and Dooley - I haven't spent much time in getting to know my Canon printer really and so i'll have a little exploration over the next few days - i believe when the jpgs are being imported into PS i mustn't use the 'Auto' but go into the 'Advanced' tab which allows a choice of 300dpi and above - a friend says he uses 600 to scan in then after working in PS reduces to 300ppi - i haven't tried any of this yet so will now try things out. The other puzzle for me is how to enlarge the very small pictures into bigger prints without stretching the pixels out too much. Elona. |
Posted on 14/02/11 00:17:38 AM |
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Jota120
Ingenious Inventor Posts: 2615 Reply  |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Elona, I only had short look and tried a few things. I guess many people know this already, from scan of several photographs, File>Automate>Cope and Straighten .. does a very good job and gives you all in new files. I messed/fixed your man with the clocks. Following on Sophie, I tried his head. I'm sorry, CS5 will not help apart from give you some sky, but you can clone that. I think you will have to clone, distort that to make his head. Takes a lot time, bit of art, but can do  |
Posted on 14/02/11 09:50:09 AM |
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Dooley
** Posts: 76 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
You could also use the top of someone elses head and start from there. I used a spare foot on an old photo i did for someone. Cloning, content aware, copy and paste, blending, use whatever tool works for you. Scanning at higher resolutions should give you a bigger image to work with and also leave the same print size which you can change in photoshop. |
Posted on 14/02/11 10:43:11 AM |
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Dooley
** Posts: 76 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Just a quick example to show that it's not that hard to do. Took about 10 minutes. I'm no hairdresser. I used one of ian mcshanes spare heads. 
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Posted on 14/02/11 11:25:09 AM |
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Elona Rogers
* Posts: 25 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Thank you Jota for exploring that for me - while i have access to CS5 (not on my own PC though) I haven't got around to Sophie's suggestions. I am impressed with with your results Dooley - it felt quite emotional seeing my father staring out at me - his head/hair looks totally realistic - now i'll have to give it a go. Many thanks for your efforts on my behalf. (I am being obstructed in getting on with the old photos due to a problem burning a disc to play a QT movie, which I made from a ProShow Gold AV. It seems that .exe shows do not play in a Mac PC, hence making the QT Movie - the show plays fine from a 'File' but is all broken up when burnt to a disc to play - i can't move on from that at the moment, but i'll come back to the photos ASAP. Thank you. Elona. |
Posted on 14/02/11 12:03:31 PM |
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Dooley
** Posts: 76 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
No problem, let me know if you need any help, if i can i will. |
Posted on 14/02/11 2:57:00 PM |
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Jota120
Ingenious Inventor Posts: 2615 Reply |
Re: Old Photos and Scanning Resolutions.
Well done Dooley. I find trying to blend the creation into the image is challenge. Yes you are right it can be done quickly. I forgot can outsource, thanks. Sorry I did not know he was your dad. I would have been more personal. On my side I fixed some very bad small colour photos of my granddad and nan, that had been left in the sun for years. My mother wanted them on display. Me too. I was early to PS in those days PS7, but the results were amazing considering the original quality of the scanned very small prints. PS is/was very powerful and the results allowed me to get A5 prints can display in her room and she can see. Trevor |