I am doing genealogy research and am new to Photoshop Elements 2.0. Is there any way I can improve old handwritten documents that have become faded and discolored. I am scanning from a HP Scanjet 5200C, and have a PentIII computer with 356 ram, with a HP Deskjet 970Cse printer. I can’t seem to get rid of the discoloration in the background, and improve the printed text. Most of these documents were written 160 years ago, and some newsprint 50 years ago. I am finding the help screens a little confusing. Any help would be appreciated.
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For starters, make sure you are working on a copy.
Have your Layers Palette visible permanently on the right side of workarea.
In the Layers Palette, click the blk/white circle and select "Levels" adjustment layer. Experiment moving the top row of sliders, probably starting by placing them under the beginning and end of the graph. Perhaps by moving the shadow slider (left one) inwards, will improve your text also.
For the discoloration, you might try the clone tool, create a new blank layer above your image to clone on. (make sure the box is check ed which says "Use all Layers". Sample from a good color area and dab on stain.
Or, you might try creating a new layer, setting the mode of that layer to Overlay, make sure white is the foreground color at the bottom of the Toolbox, select an appropriate size brush, fairly soft, make the opacity of the brush around 4% (but see what works with your image, it might require a much higher number) and paint on that new blank layer. Everywhere you paint the image will lighten up, slowly. It works best by building up strokes.
You could also try the Sponge tool, set to desaturate. Choose a brush and dab or drag over discolored areas. (Best to make a duplicate layer of your image before using Sponge, so you preserve the one you started with underneath. Then you can dump the whole layer if you don’t like it.)
Or you could draw a loose lasso (to select) around the words, maybe one circle around all the words on one line, then Select>Inverse, click the blk/white circle in Layers Palette, pull up the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Whatever color the discoloration is, change where it says RGB to the problem color. Try moving the saturation slide way to the left. It might take two colors you need to desaturate.
You could also try the "Replace Color" feature. You’d sample a midrange color from the offending color with the eyedropper in the dialog box and then click on the eyedropper with the plus sign. With this drag it over the other shades of the offending color. Watch the fuzziness slider, start with it quite far to the left and after eyedropping, try moving it little by little to the right while watching the little display within that box. After selecting the color, perhaps moving the Saturation slider far left would work, or maybe moving the Lightness slider far right. Experiement.
You could alternately pull up a Threshold adjustment layer from the Palette, play with the slider, this might be a good thing.
It is very hard to know what to suggest not seeing your image, I hope this leads you in some worthwhile direction though.
In teh days before digital I copied old documents -for the Archives of our town- using a red, orange or yellow filter, depending on the main colour of the paper of the document. Often it was very hard to guess which filter would work best.
In Elements I suppose using the colour channels would work the best way. Next to that, on the internet there is a free plug in (http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/filtersim.htm) that allows you to apply any existent B&W filter to your images. This might be worth a try.
In addition to Nancy & Leen’s great suggestions, you might try duplicating the layer and then changing the mode of the new layer to ‘multiply’. This will sometimes add enough density to faded script to make it legible. Additional layers can be added if needed. Once you’ve got it more or less readable, try adding a threshold adjustment layer as Nancy suggests and moving the threshold indicator around to see if you can improve things. Bob Warren
I’m going to repeat an experience that I shared on this forum a few months ago. I went to a family reunion and there was displayed a photograph of my great-great-grandmother. It was brown and faded, but I took a picture of it with my digital camera anyway. When I got home I loaded the picture into Elements and used the Auto Levels and Auto Color Correction commands from the main menu. Now I know that the advice is to not use these features, and normally I don’t. But in this instance, those two commands removed all of the brown aging from the picture, corrected all levels, and revealed a beautifully handpainted portrait. I had to push the saturation a little, but I was very pleased and excited with the result. You might consider trying the same commands on your documents. If it doesn’t work, all you have to do is undo the commands.
In teh days before digital I copied old documents -for the Archives of our
town- using a red, orange or yellow filter, depending on the main colour of the paper of the document. Often it was very hard to guess which filter would work best.
In Elements I suppose using the colour channels would work the best way.
Next to that, on the internet there is a free plug in (http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/filtersim.htm) that allows you to apply any existent B&W filter to your images. This might be worth a try.
Leen
The plugin is not available there, but a standalone Windows program can be downloaded.
I looked around that site, and it has other interesting tools.
I have just taken a course in PhotoRestoration using PSE, and have had wonderful success with some of our very old family photos and documents. But the additional information and methods here, will be a great help to me, as we plan to do many more this winter. Jim’s before and after of the grandmother is awesome! PSE is the best. Thank you, Jane
Ed, I apologise. You are right, it is not a plug in, but a stand alone. It works OK for me as I’m educated as an old fashioned B&W photographer and I know exactly what a filter can do to an image. I cannot understand what all these young folks are doing with channel mixers etc. 😉 Probably a generation gap. I cannot program my VCR either.
I once went for a job interview where I was asked if I knew how to program a VCR. I said "NO!" The interview told me that no one knows how to program a VCR and this question was just used to see who lied.
Jim, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using those features…the one click ‘auto’ commands. They aren’t perfect for everything but shouldn’t be overlooked….especially since you’ve proven to have success with them. I remember the first Challenge here…an image of Marty and a saddle. The saddle was very dull. I remember using the one click ‘auto contrast’ on it and it brought it back to life. I don’t always use it either but I tend to ‘try’ the buttons first to see what i get. Sometimes it stays and other times I fix it manually. I’m not lazy but if it saves time then…that’s more time I get to spend on another part of the image or another image altogether. So, take advantage of the tools provided i say.
Ray, a colleague and very good friend of mine asked me to return a video tape about the photographer George Hurrell he lend me. It took me about 10 minutes to find it. It was still in my VCR after two years. I never used it after watching this tape. A friend of my wife once set the time on the VCR, but since an interruption of the current it is blinking 11.11 friendly at us for about a year now.
Liar! They hadn’t invented VCRs yet Grant! 🙂 I was creeping toward my 20th wedding anniversary before they were introduced, and we’ve been married about the same length of time as you and Doreen!
Ed, I apologise. You are right, it is not a plug in, but a stand alone. It works OK for me as I’m educated as an old fashioned B&W photographer and I know exactly what a filter can do to an image. I cannot understand what all these young folks are doing with channel mixers etc. 😉 Probably a generation gap. I cannot program my VCR either. Leen
I downloaded everything in site, and played for a while.
Instead of programming VCR today, I read about dead pixels and JPG compression.
I remember reading something about Wratten filters from a Mr Miranda (Fred, Lou, Garry… I can’t remember.. too much of the good stuff already!), but I can’t locate the site just now.
I would really like to thank you all for help in my problem in restoring old print and photo’s. All solutions are greatly appreciated. Thanks again, and Happy New Year.
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