I have a few old pictures that have a pattern of tiny squares that were put there intentionally. They are 1970 school pictures. I lost a program that would remove them and other geometric shapes, like hexagons and pentagons. Now I can’t remember what it was called. I guess these effects are from a special lens. But they make it almost impossible to repair the picture. Any ideas?
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My guess, this is either 1. a scanned image, and the pattern is due to textured photo paper, OR it was scanned through glass/plexiglass. or 2. was shot with cam through glass/plexiglass in a frame.
I have ran into this before, just the way the orignal looked. I guess somebody thought it looked pretty. Alot of school pictures are like this. I had a program that allowed me to select different geometric shapes and then use them to cover the unwanted shapes.
I wish I did. It was a PS plug-in. Very limited. As I recall it was made to install the different effects, rather than remove them. But could be used to cover.
….but seriously, I can’t think of anything that would remove an array of intentionally placed squares.
Why do you think these squares were put there intentionally? and who would do such a thing? How big are these squares? They wouldn’t by any chance be 1/72nd of an inch in a 72ppi image?
Those aren’t squares that have been deviously deposited on your photo, but hexagons, and I suspect bees could be at the heart of this apparent conspiracy!
I think this pattern is there intentionally. It is the kind of thing that is put on proof images to avoid illegal copying. I should point out that, even if you have paid for these prints, if you don’t own the copyright, copying them is illegal.
[You don’t say which version of PS you are using, but, if it’s CS, it would probably detect this pattern and email the FBI … 🙂 ]
I think this pattern is there intentionally. It is the kind of thing that is put on proof images to avoid illegal copying. I should point out that, even if you have paid for these prints, if you don’t own the copyright, copying them is illegal.
The pattern in the linked image is of a very small area. It is produced by "silk finish", which was common several years ago, beacuse is was supposed to hide fingerprints due to handling the prints. I once printed a picture where the customer wanted a man’s face coppied from a group snapshot, about 3/8" square (done with film on a copy stand). The "nobbies" were over an inch in diameter in the final 8×10.
One quick way is to dupe the image layer, apply Dust & Scratches until the marks are completely gone, then move it below the original layer and set the blending mode of the original to lighten. (Adapted)
It’s old Kodak textured paper but isn’t it ironic that in this day and age when we are trying to protect our images from copying, Kodak had the answer under their noses in the seventies.
Zeb, like that workaround , will have to try it. You forgot to note though you have to right click on the background layer and change the settings to "Layer 0" for those who don’t know.
I used to duplicate the layer and apply "Median" till they disappeared and then lighten but this didn’t completely get rid of them.
Colin, you’re not entirely correct. I get lots of photos which were taken by the client themselves but have lost the negatives but I stop short if it’s a wedding photo and the photographer is still alive. It’s go back to him but it’s astounding how many repro houses don’t even ask and some of them big names.
They are still copyrighted but most papers are really good about granting permission especially for "artistic" use
You may also want to try rotating the pix by 90 degrees on the scanner bed scanning it 3-4 times, rotating it each time by 90 degrees–sometimes the scanner will pick up different information in the different rotations and you can use blending modes to play with dropping out the pattern
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