blending a seam using top and bottom of photo

AR
Posted By
Art_Resnick
Jun 16, 2007
Views
452
Replies
11
Status
Closed
I am trying to restore some 50 year old photos (b&w) and I scanned a large photo in two scans. Everything is fine except for the line that is apparent not matter what I’ve tried (clone tool,healing brush etc).

TIA

Art

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BL
Bob Levine
Jun 17, 2007
What version of PS? CS3 has some vastly improved tools for this.

Bob
AR
Art_Resnick
Jun 17, 2007
OK. I’ve left the file at:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1yQ0mCAfx8tn2zXWSf kyyu7H8gCklg>

While reducing the rez and size and saving it as a jpeg, the halos were introduced from sharpening. This of course is not my current problem.

thanks again.
AR
Art_Resnick
Jun 17, 2007
I am using CS 3, Bob
AR
Art_Resnick
Jun 17, 2007
see message below
Z
Zog
Jun 17, 2007
Looks to me like you are using an automatic exposure setting on your scanner, and changing what the sensor sees between scans.
BL
Bob Levine
Jun 17, 2007
Put the two photos into one file as separate layers. Select both layers and then run the Auto Align Layers command followed by the Auto Blend Layers command.

Those should get you pretty well along. Make sure the canvas is large enough before starting.

Bob
FN
Fred_Nirque
Jun 17, 2007
What Zog said.

Either set your scanner to manual exposure mode if that’s available, or adjust the density and contrast of one to match the other before flattening, or use Photomerge to join the two, or perhaps use auto blending. There’s any number of ways around this.
AR
Art_Resnick
Jun 17, 2007
Actually Zog, I scanned both pieces exactly the same way. I’ll try Bob’s recommendation. I remember seeing that somewhere but couldn’t find it again.

thanks for such immediate replies!

art
AR
Art_Resnick
Jun 17, 2007
Auto align and auto-blend are both greyed out!!!
I even reduced from 16 to 8 bit, but they’re still unavailable.

Don’t understand this.

art
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Jun 17, 2007
Auto align and auto-blend require that the images be put on separate layers in a single document; canvas size should be increased to accommodate both. Try File > Automate > Photomerge, which should do what you want automatically, especially given that you have CS3, where it is much improved. I have used this for scans of LP album covers in four passes, and it works extremely well.
T
Talker
Jun 17, 2007
On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:39:33 -0700, wrote:

I am trying to restore some 50 year old photos (b&w) and I scanned a large photo in two scans. Everything is fine except for the line that is apparent not matter what I’ve tried (clone tool,healing brush etc).

TIA

Art

Hi Art! What’s happenng is that you’re scanning one picture in two scans, but you’re trying to matchup a seam that was exposed to different sides of the scanner’s lamp.
A scanner’s lamp doesn’t have uniform brightness across it’s length, so that the left side of the lamp is not the same brightness as the right side. When you do a two part scan, you place the photo on the scanner so that one side (let’s say the left side) of the picture is resting on the scanner’s glass, with the right side of the photo hanging over the right side of the scanner. When you make this scan, the left side of the photo will be scanned with the left side of the lamp, and the middle of the picture will be scanned with the right side of the lamp.
Now when you try to scan the part of the photo that was hanging over the right side of the scanner, most people just move the picture over so that the right side of the picture is now on the scanner’s glass, and the left side of the photo is hanging over the left side of the scanner. When you make this scan, the middle of the picture will be scanned by the left side of the scanner’s lamp. In the first scan, the middle of the picture was scanned by the right side of the lamp, and in the second scan, the middle of the picture was scanned by the left side of the lamp.
Trying to matchup the two sides that were exposed to different lamp brightnesses will cause the problem that you have. The way to prevent this is to turn the photo around 180 degrees when you do the second scan.
Since you already have the scan, you just need to select one side of the photo at the middle seam, and adjust the brightness/contrast, then use the clone tool and healing brush to remove the seam. Here’s what it looks like:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=178DoYSnPilkItk7xC 2OSaqAAxF

Talker

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