Old Photos

You should be able to get them looking better.there are a variety of color correcting techniques. some nikon film scanners even have a feature called [roc] restoration of color, that can make great improvements automatically. you can post a sample photo here using <http://www.pixentral.com/> and myself or someone else may show you whats possible.

As a rough first aid (quick and dirty trick) try this:

Open the image in PS and view the red channel only.
Go to Levels and drag the end sliders (not the output ones) so they match the beginning and end of the existing histogram.

Do the same with the green and the blue channels.

Not perfect, but a nice startpoint for the real tweaking.

BTW scan the film in high bit depth.

also check:
<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/tutorials/tutorial_6_1.htm>

Rob

I posted the picture "GirlsandDolls" on pixentral.com after i tried Rob Keijzer’s suggestion. This is all way over my head at this point. I tried to go to Levels but Adjustments in grayed out. If anybody can give me a step-by-step, I would surely appreciate it. I have quite a few pictures that are yellow, so I need to know how to do it. Thanks, Jeannine

Jeannine, you need to provide a link to the image you posted on pixentral.

Are you saying that, from the Image menu, you can’t get to Adjustments? Exactly what are you clicking to get to Levels?

Also, what is the file type of the scanned image–JPG, TIF, BMP, or what?

What is the brand and model number of your scanner? Does it have a light source ABOVE the slide? (You can lift the lid to peek while it’s scanning.)

Like I said, this is way over my head. I don’t know how to provide a link, but here goes:

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1k26IrK1KSPNeai7km P0iqfC0tLVp1>

Actually, I think I just managed to do it. I clicked Image; Adjustments; Levels. Then I dropped down from RGB to Red and moved the outside sliders in, did the same for Green and then Blue.

Actually I did improve the picture, but now it has a lot of green cast to it.

To answer the rest of your questions, the picture is a jpg and I’m scanning a photo on a HP ScanJet 5370C with the light source under the glass.

Thanks, Jeannine

Congratulations, Jeannine–the link works fine. Nice photo, too; I bet one of those cute girls is you.

Ignore what I said about the scanner’s light source. Looks like you have scanned Kodachrome prints, not Kodachrome slides. I was puzzled about your initial post because Kodachrome slides tend to hold up just fine over the years. It’s the prints that fade and change color.

To correct color casts, you can use Levels or Curves. For what you’re doing, either will produce identical results. However, Curves is the more versatile function, and it is just as easy to use, so I suggest you choose it instead of Levels.

Also, there is a better way than doing Image>Adjustments>Levels (or Curves). That method alters pixels on the image layer, making it difficult to undo changes. The preferred method is to add an Adjustment Layer because, later on, you can easily edit or remove that layer if you like.

Here’s how. Look for the Layers palette on the right side of the screen. If you don’t see it, the F7 key will toggle it on and off. At the bottom of that palette, click the little half black/half white circle to "Create new fill or adjustment layer," then click Curves. (I use this a lot, so I have mapped Ctrl-M on my keyboard to bring up a Curves adjustment layer. If you like, you can do the same via Window>Workspace>Keyboard Shortcuts & Menus.)

For your first time in the Curves dialog, a little setup is in order. Click the Options button. Click the Enhance Per Channel Contrast entry. You can also experiment with Find Dark & Light Colors, but the former seems to work better with the image you provided. Enter 0.10% in both Clip boxes. That tells Photoshop how much of the shadows and highlights it is allowed to clip off in making its adjustent. Click Ok.

That finishes the setup, so now press Ctrl-Z to undo the correction it just made, so you can see how easy this has become. From now on, you can just add an adjustment layer and click Auto to make a vast improvement in your image color.

That will get you started, but will not necessarily produce the very best results for all images. If and when you want to exercise more control, you are ready to learn other things you can do with Curves.

In the Curves dialog is a diagonal line. Its lower left end represents the shadow details, the middle of the line relates to the midtones, and its upper right is for the highlights.

If your image appears too dark or light, drag the center of the line up and left or down and right. With the Preview box checked, you will instantly see the change in your image. You can also drag the ends of the line to affect dark and light values independent of each other.

That should get you pointed in the right direction. Curves can do more tricks, but I don’t want to overload you at this early stage. If you don’t get consistent results with these techniques, or if you would like to try applying exactly the same correction to hundreds of images, I can show you how to automate the process. Just say the word.

Granny typed:
[snip]

Like I said, this is way over my head. I don’t know how to provide a link, but here goes:

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1k26IrK1KSPNeai7km P0iqfC0tLVp1>
Actually, I think I just managed to do it. I clicked Image; Adjustments; Levels. Then I dropped down from RGB to Red and moved the outside sliders in, did the same for Green and then Blue.
Actually I did improve the picture, but now it has a lot of green cast to it.

To answer the rest of your questions, the picture is a jpg and I’m scanning a photo on a HP ScanJet 5370C with the light source under the glass.

Thanks, Jeannine

Jeannine,
I played with your picture…. I clicked CTRL+J to duplicate the original.. then went to windows, then layers.. unchecked the eyeball in the bottom original layer.. then went to image, adjustments, Auto color…
That looked pretty good so I went to image, adjustments, curves… picked the last eyedropper on the right.. (set white point) and clicked on the trim of the doll apron.. clicked OK.. after that I clicked CTRL+J to duplicate that layer.., in the layers box there is a space right under layers that says "normal".. change that to "multiply" and adjust the opacity and fill (click the lil blue arrow beside the "100%"to get the sliders).. till the girls faces look like you want… hit SHIFT+CTRL+E (to merge visible layers) back to image, adjustments, hue/saturation,..in the popup where it says master.. change it to "greens", using the hue slider move it to the right till the jeans look sorrta blue.. click OK. DONE.. It took much longer to type than to do! A lot of what I did can be put into actions if you want to try that…

For storage, save as PSD file, with layers checked,… then as a JPG for the web, email, send to friends, etc..

To see what all this looks like, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yxb8pj

Or you could try a simple tutorial "remove a color cast from an image" at: http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=24

I noticed that this pic was only 150 resolution…. I would scan your pictures at the highest resolution possible.. and most of what I did can be put into actions if you want to try that

I am not a power user or a pro.. I just have fun trying new things.. I am sure others who are much more knowledgeable than I, will gladly offer you better, more professional solutions.. I pay particular attention to all the helpful people in this forum.. They are the best and are very helpful..

Practice, Practice, Practice… or should it be Play, Play, Play… U can do it! just have fun!!..

—
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

"granny" wrote in message

Granny typed:

G,

They can’t see you, they are in the Adobeforum.
MH

This is along the lines as in my first reply (Levels per colour channel), but I stopped as the extreme Jpeg artefacts kicked in (a.o. the wall)

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1biL9QZTrDNQJHxxn8 DNHJYSHCdgP51>

Jannine, Scan again, and this time use 300 ppi, and not Jpeg but tiff or bmp.

You use Jpeg only as an output format, when reduced file size is important, but not in the middle of the workflow. there’s no point in reduced file at that stage.

Rob

That and possibly having cs or cs2 and hitting auto color,which gave almost the exact same result rob posted.

You might also consider asking your question at:

<http://www.retouchpro.com>

Jeannine,
I played with your picture…. I clicked CTRL+J to duplicate the original.. then went to windows, then layers.. unchecked the eyeball in the bottom original layer.. then went to image, adjustments, Auto color…
That looked pretty good so I went to image, adjustments, curves… picked the last eyedropper on the right.. (set white point) and clicked on the trim of the doll apron.. clicked OK.. after that I clicked CTRL+J to duplicate that layer.., in the layers box there is a space right under layers that says "normal".. change that to "multiply" and adjust the opacity and fill (click the lil blue arrow beside the "100%"to get the sliders).. till the girls faces look like you want… hit SHIFT+CTRL+E (to merge visible layers) back to image, adjustments, hue/saturation,.. in the popup where it says master.. change it to "greens", using the hue slider move it to the right till the jeans look sorrta blue.. click OK. DONE.. It took much longer to type than to do!

To see what all this looks like, go to: <http://tinyurl.com/yxb8pj>

A lot of what I did can be put into actions if you want to try that…

Or you could try a simple tutorial "remove a color cast from an image" at: <http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=24>

I noticed that this pic was only 150 resolution…. I would scan your pictures at the highest resolution possible..

I am not a power user or a pro.. I just have fun trying new things.. I am sure others who are much more knowledgeable than I, will gladly offer you better, more professional solutions.. I pay particular attention to all the helpful people in this forum.. They are the best and are very helpful..

Practice, Practice, Practice… or should it be Play, Play, Play… U can do it! just have fun!!..

Granny typed:
[snip]

They can’t see you, they are in the Adobeforum.
MH

TY Mike,
I copied N pasted there.. seems like she is starting out the same way I did.. lots of old pics and slides to convert to digi.. I had over 3,000 and it was definitely a learning curve.. and the advise from the "Pros" was overwhelming.. they advised me like I knew what I was doing… NOT… so most of my stuff was and is done by trial and error, and googling tutorials.. but some of the guys like you are great at giving good solutions so I am always here in the NGs lurking for knowledge —
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

"granny" wrote in message

Granny typed:
[snip]

They can’t see you, they are in the Adobeforum.
MH

TY Mike,
I copied N pasted there.. seems like she is starting out the same way I did.. lots of old pics and slides to convert to digi.. I had over 3,000 and it was definitely a learning curve.. and the advise from the "Pros" was overwhelming.. they advised me like I knew what I was doing… NOT… so most of my stuff was and is done by trial and error, and googling tutorials.. but some of the guys like you are great at giving good solutions so I am always here in the NGs lurking for knowledge —
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

Hello Granny 😉
How long did it take you convert them? It’s a job I have been putting off now for a few years, I have 20 years worth of transparencies in my loft which I need to get onto DvD at some stage, but there is always something more "pressing" to do.
Doing by trial and error, I think, is the best way to learn, make your mistakes and learn from them. When I began using PS, I only bothered to learn a technique to correct a specific problem and progress was quite slow. They say that when your only tool is a hammer every problem is a nail. I have learnt more about PS in the short time I have subscribed to this NG than at any other time. They say that if you want to learn something, try teaching or explaining it to someone else.
Happy "lurking" 😉

Mike H

Old N Fast, Prefer Quick N Dirty 😉

Granny typed:
[snip]

How long did it take you convert them? It’s a job I have been putting off now for a few years, I have 20 years worth of transparencies in my loft which I need to get onto DvD at some stage, but there is always something more "pressing" to do.

Don’t want to hijack this thread… But..
T’was a labor of love… getting ready took most of the time, I made a light table out of a glass patio door, sorted and collated a couple hundred slides a night… after sorting and getting all the slides in sequence I tackled the negatives… Fun, Fun… trying to find the negs that I had given the prints to the kids and grand kids or just plain didn’t have a hard copy of, then deciding which ones I wanted to reproduce.. very frustrating and took a couple months going through old photo albums and scrap books putting negatives with pics.. I did not scan any pictures that I had hard copies of.. and I don’t have a slide/negative scanner but have been a photographer since I was a teenager so I rigged up a copy system.. that worked ok for my purposes.. long story short… ’bout 6 months of aggravation… and all the equipment cluttering the house and causing problems with family members wondering if I was ever gonna get finished.. made slide shows with music from 1956 thru 1986 put em all on disc. I was very proud of my achievement… nobody else cared… they were looked at halfheartedly once and then sent back to oblivion… now they are on a disc tucked away along with the boxes of slides tucked away.. BUT, I had fun in the process of revisiting the good Ol days and being reminded of memories that were slipping away, so it was worth it to me.
—
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

"granny" wrote in message

Granny typed:
[snip]

How long did it take you convert them? It’s a job I have been putting off now for a few years, I have 20 years worth of transparencies in my loft which I need to get onto DvD at some stage, but there is always something more "pressing" to do.

Don’t want to hijack this thread… But..

There’s only you and me in it in this NG 😉
Your "industriousness" has put me to shame and provided the much needed kick up the but, I musn’t put it off any longer and the slides will not hang around without deteriorating much longer. I’ll endeavour to scan a couple of boxes a day, something to show the younglings.

Many thanks and goodnight

Mike H

T’was a labor of love… getting ready took most of the time, I made a light table out of a glass patio door, sorted and collated a couple hundred slides a night… after sorting and getting all the slides in sequence I tackled the negatives… Fun, Fun… trying to find the negs that I had given the prints to the kids and grand kids or just plain didn’t have a hard copy of, then deciding which ones I wanted to reproduce.. very frustrating and took a couple months going through old photo albums and scrap books putting negatives with pics.. I did not scan any pictures that I had hard copies of.. and I don’t have a slide/negative scanner but have been a photographer since I was a teenager so I rigged up a copy system.. that worked ok for my purposes.. long story short… ’bout 6 months of aggravation… and all the equipment cluttering the house and causing problems with family members wondering if I was ever gonna get finished.. made slide shows with music from 1956 thru 1986 put em all on disc. I was very proud of my achievement… nobody else cared… they were looked at halfheartedly once and then sent back to oblivion… now they are on a disc tucked away along with the boxes of slides tucked away.. BUT, I had fun in the process of revisiting the good Ol days and being reminded of memories that were slipping away, so it was worth it to me. —
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

Thank you all so VERY VERY much. That was pretty easy! This is kind of fun when there’s somebody there to help. I don’t have any background with photo editing, so I am just plain baffled to say the least. But, I bought Photoshop several years ago and darn it, I’m bound and determined to use it! After I work on these using everyone’s suggestions, I would like to learn how to automate the process. Will you still be reading this thread for the next few days or so? Thanks, Jeannine