[twokatmew]

My brother has taken it upon himself to "restore" some old family photos. He's not a photographer, so to him, this means having his local drug store scan them....

The final scans, are of course, very small. But the most pressing problem is that my brother decided he'd like to permanently note who is in these photos. Instead of doing this using tags or even file naming, he's written large text right on the photos themselves. What's worse, is that he's gotten the names wrong on most of the photos!

The best solution, of course, would be for me to get the originals and rescan them. Unfortunately this just isn't possible, so I'd like to rescue these awfully small scans by removing the text my brother added. Only a couple photos would survive cropping off the text. Most have patterned backgrounds, so I don't think I could manage cloning over the text.

So this brings me to my question. Is there a way to get rid of the text? I have PSP X3 and PSE 8 along with ACDSee Pro 3. I also have Faststone Image Viewer installed. Ideas?

Here's one of the photos so you can see what I'm dealing with.

TIA!

Probably not. Other than cloning them out. Why can't you get the originals and rescan? If you really want to preserve them rescanning at a larger size would be best. Or at SS with a higher resolution. Really the same thing. You could try going to a local print shop and having them do it if they have a copier with scan to file capabilities.

[Wheatfield]

Either get the originals and do it yourself, or write the thing off as bad family business and move on.

[twokatmew]

Either get the originals and do it yourself, or write the thing off as bad family business and move on.

Wow, that's really helpful, Wheatfield. I asked what I could do to fix the scans I have to work with, which is a legitimate question BTW.

[twokatmew]

Probably not. Other than cloning them out. Why can't you get the originals and rescan? If you really want to preserve them rescanning at a larger size would be best. Or at SS with a higher resolution. Really the same thing. You could try going to a local print shop and having them do it if they have a copier with scan to file capabilities.

Sorry, what's SS? If I could get the originals (which unfortunately I cannot), I could scan them myself. I've scanned and revived many old slides, negatives and photos before. Unfortunately these originals were lost after they were poorly scanned.

Sorry, what's SS? If I could get the originals (which unfortunately I cannot), I could scan them myself. I've scanned and revived many old slides, negatives and photos before. Unfortunately these originals were lost after they were poorly scanned.

SS Same Size. Sorry about how you feel about Wheatfield's response but he's right. You may not like it but it is accurate. Sorry.

[dosdan]

With cloning/healing/blurring it will be possible to do this, but it will take a lot of work & time per photo. I think you'd be sick of it after fixing 1 photo.

Dan

[George Lama]

As dry and to the point as Wheatfield's comment was, he is giving you a valid suggestion (to either get your hands on the original prints or give it up).

Simply put, there is no easy way to fix the issue you are faced with. You are stuck with low resolution scans and lettering all over your images. As others suggested, you would have to manually clone out each and every letter, and although this might be easy to do with solid or semi-solid colors, patters will be a challenge - case in point the sofa and couch set, the end table full of items, and the wall paper.

Also consider that these photos were probably scanned at low res because they were smaller photos in the first place (4x5 or smaller?), so whoever scanned them probably didn't think of setting the scanner for high res (they can if they know how to run the machine).

Sorry I can't offer better suggestions, but you are faced with certain limitations that can't be easily surmounted.

[Wheatfield]

Wow, that's really helpful, Wheatfield. I asked what I could do to fix the scans I have to work with, which is a legitimate question BTW.

Why is telling a person they are on a fools mission any less helpful than telling them how to best waste their time?
But, if you really want to fix the scans, about all you can do is break out the clone tool and have at her.
I'm pretty good at this stuff and I'm thinking ~4 hours per photo.
Or, just crop the offensive text out.
Much faster, and in the end, probably as esthetically pleasing.
You could paste the remnants of the images onto new canvases that had the correct names embedded.
You should go after the dust specks and fix the contrast while you are at it.

[HGMonaro]

since cropping the text might reduce the photo too much, another quick & dirty option might be to fill the area and add your correct text... something like..

[twokatmew]

Why is telling a person they are on a fools mission any less helpful than telling them how to best waste their time?
But, if you really want to fix the scans, about all you can do is break out the clone tool and have at her.
I'm pretty good at this stuff and I'm thinking ~4 hours per photo.
Or, just crop the offensive text out.
Much faster, and in the end, probably as esthetically pleasing.
You could paste the remnants of the images onto new canvases that had the correct names embedded.
You should go after the dust specks and fix the contrast while you are at it.

Now that's a more helpful response, Wheatfield. Thank you.

As others have pointed out, yes you're right, of course, and blatantly obvious. In my OP, I'd already said getting my hands on the originals was not possible. Figuring the photos are pretty much a lost cause, I thought I'd post for advice before giving up on them. Pros can remove watermarks, so I thought there might be a solution better or more efficient than laboriously cloning the letters out -- or perhaps some cloning tips that might yield better results.

I suppose my error was not simply posting a sample photo and asking how (if at all) I could repair it. But you see, after my brother had the photos scanned, he mailed them back to my dad. Unfortunately the photos never arrived. That marred photo I posted is the only photo our family has of my uncle and grandfather. My dad and brother thought they were doing me a favor by not "bothering" me by asking me to scan and restore those old photos, and now we've lost some precious family memories as a result. All of us feel a bit sick over it, so no, I didn't find your original response particularly helpful.

[twokatmew]

since cropping the text might reduce the photo too much, another quick & dirty option might be to fill the area and add your correct text... something like..

Thank you, I hadn't thought of that! Nice job on the contrast correction. And thanks for taking the time to demo your idea.

[twokatmew]

With cloning/healing/blurring it will be possible to do this, but it will take a lot of work & time per photo. I think you'd be sick of it after fixing 1 photo.

Thank you, Dan, that's what I was afraid of....

[twokatmew]

Thanks for all your suggestions, everyone.

I have a polaroid of a lioness sitting beside me and leaning on my thigh. It was taken 15 years ago, and the lioness had a heavy chain around her neck, held by a handler. I'd scanned the photo (at a higher resolution than these photos, but still not high enough), cropped and then finally cloned out the chain and extraneous personnel. It took me hours and hours, and although the photo is a bit more pleasing, it's definitely not what I'd hoped.

Years later, I'm a bit better at cloning, but my skills are definitely not what they could be. Perhaps I'll spend the time to clone the most important photos and then rescue the others by cropping (or blocking out the old text and replacing it with new). Creating a collage on a new canvas might work, too.

I have another very small photo of my mom and grandmother taken ~1940, and fortunately I do have the original. It's cracked and discolored, but otherwise it's a nice photo, and I'd like to have it professionally restored. Any tips on where to send it?

Thanks again for your help!

[kxr4trids]

If they are all flat (low contrast) like the one you posted, and they all have black text, you can select just the text using the wand or color range tools. Then lighten it, expand a couple pixels, and gaussian blur it until it blends with the background, then adjust overall image contrast. It's not perfect but it's a heck of a lot quicker than cloning. CS5 might have a tool to deal with this, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

hm. apparently forum no longer supports inline image posting, linked to imageshack.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8748/tempmal.jpg