Restoration problem – is there a solution?

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:27:18 -0500, found these unused words floating about:

The graphic at http://www.treadles.ca/problem.jpg is a quarter of a scanned page from a 1911 catalog. There’s a faint Art Nouveau design border around each page which barely shows in either the original or the scans. I’d like to preserve it and started drawing in the design freehand and cleaning the background as shown on part of the file but it’s a lot of work.

The scan was done in grayscale but noticed that the border is a very light yellowish green, the only colour on each page? Would it be easier to emphasize the border in colour instead?

Can anyone suggest an easier way to restore the border?

Depends upon your scanner ..

In an epson Perfection, I ‘window’ just a portion of the area I’m interested in having in the -=final=- scan. For you this would be a part of the border only.

Set the histogram and other parts on this, then enlarge to capture the whole -=without=- altering your settings. ("Auto" Mode must be OFF!)

Scan each quarter and stitch … erase the un-needed portions. *done*.

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:51:10 -0800, Sir F. A. Rien
wrote:

Can anyone suggest an easier way to restore the border?

Depends upon your scanner ..

Wow, never thought of that. Guess I’m too Photoshop-centric. Have a six month old scanner that will do what you suggest – will give it a try. Many thanks.

wrote:

The graphic at http://www.treadles.ca/problem.jpg is a quarter of a scanned page from a 1911 catalog. There’s a faint Art Nouveau design border around each page which barely shows in either the original or the scans. I’d like to preserve it and started drawing in the design freehand and cleaning the background as shown on part of the file but it’s a lot of work.

The scan was done in grayscale but noticed that the border is a very light yellowish green, the only colour on each page? Would it be easier to emphasize the border in colour instead?

Can anyone suggest an easier way to restore the border?

Trying using Burn/Dodge and combination of Level/Curve and Layers/Mask etc.

Try duplicating the images layer and changing the blending mode to multiply.

ljc

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wrote in message

The graphic at http://www.treadles.ca/problem.jpg is a quarter of a scanned page from a 1911 catalog. There’s a faint Art Nouveau design border around each page which barely shows in either the original or the scans. I’d like to preserve it and started drawing in the design freehand and cleaning the background as shown on part of the file but it’s a lot of work.

The scan was done in grayscale but noticed that the border is a very light yellowish green, the only colour on each page? Would it be easier to emphasize the border in colour instead?

Can anyone suggest an easier way to restore the border?

The scan was done in grayscale but noticed that the border is a very light yellowish green, the only colour on each page? Would it be easier to emphasize the border in colour instead?

If you scanned the document through a yellow/green celophane film then it should render the border black/dark grey, increasing the contrast with the background.

Chris

wrote:

The graphic at http://www.treadles.ca/problem.jpg is a quarter of a scanned page from a 1911 catalog. There’s a faint Art Nouveau design border around each page which barely shows in either the original or the scans. I’d like to preserve it and started drawing in the design freehand and cleaning the background as shown on part of the file but it’s a lot of work.

The scan was done in grayscale but noticed that the border is a very light yellowish green, the only colour on each page? Would it be easier to emphasize the border in colour instead?

Can anyone suggest an easier way to restore the border?

If the border is truly the only thing in color, then that’s the only way you’ll be able to restore it. Scan it in color, convert to LAB, and look at the A and B channels. The color information will show up there, without any of the monochrome elements. It will likely be very faint, so copy either of those channels and run whatever contrast-enhancing filter you want to on it. Then you can use that as a mask for replacing the border.

Note also that an unsharp mask filter will emphasize detail at small pixel values, but will emphasize shape at larger ones. An unsharp mask filter at, say, 50 pixels and more than 200% will pull the lines out once they’re isolated from the rest of the grunge.

HTH.

Many thanks to all for their great help. I was bragging to a friend a short while ago what a great help this group is. She’s just started learning Photoshop and so far I’ve managed to answer her questions. But I sure know where to go when she hits me with a tough one.

Thanks again to all. I’ve saved your messages and will try them all as the booklet I’m reproducing has 24 pages all with faint Art Nouveau-style borders which are part of its charm and I want to restore them all. Sure hope that they aren’t all different. (-: