On the Mend

Well... I seem so be on the backside of this sinus condition thanks to sleep, liquids, Vicks, and Sudafed. Fortunately it never moved into my throat. So that is part of why I missed yesterdays post. So onto today.

*  *  *  G E E K   A L E R T  *  *  * 

Sandy and the rest "non-photo-geek types can take a pass until Monday.

This is going to be a two parter, the second will be up tomorrow. I got to thinking of all those prints we have stuffed into boxes from our family photo moments. Not the ones we would snap with a Kodak Instamatic or Disk cameras, but the ones from the Mall or Olan Mills. In this digital age, it would be nice to bring some of those memories back to life. The only practical way to do this is by scanning the prints.

NOTE: I am not advocating violation of copywrite laws but there comes a point in time where the originator of the image simply does not maintain original records or copies. The "big box" studios do not keep the negatives for ever. They typically hold on to the images or negatives for two years.

Most of the prints have a mat finish which just plays havoc on a scanner. The noise is tremendous from the three dimensional bumps of the mat. Programs like Noise Nija normally do a fabulous job on camera noise from high ISO problems but this is a different kind of problem. The other problem is that many of the prints are relatively small. The larger original is the better the final result will be in the scan and processing. In this case I have a photo of my daughter Sandy taken at an Olan Mills studio. As shown in the figure below it is not a large print at 3 x 4. The scan resolution at the time produced a 150 ppi image.

Photoshop normally does a good job at enlarging images that have relatively good quality to them to start with. In this case it really did not cut the mustard. So I turned to OnOne Software's product Genuine Fractals. Leaving the resolution the same I increased the size to 8 x 10 inches. I do not plan on printing at that size but by editing the image at a larger size and then printing smaller increases the quality of a print. In this case it would probably not be any larger than a 5 x7.

From the image below you can see there is a good amount of pixelation but it is a start for the workable solution we will get into tomorrow in Photoshop Elements 6.

Check back tomorrow for the Photoshop process that produces a good image for that 5 x 7 print size.

Cya... Doug