Photoshop CS5 Test Edit
May 10-12, 2010
By Ilene Hoffman
Please send comments to ilenesmachine-at-comcast-dot-net
This article was never posted publicly due to a publisher beyond my control.
Review Products Used
- Photoshop CS5 in 32 bit mode
- Epson V610 Scanner
- Engage mouse
- Dreamweaver CS5
Problem
Damaged photo of unknown relative that is glued to paperboard backing. The photo is in poor condition. Someone had leaned on it when writing and left imprints, had scribbled over part of it, plus part of the photo on the bottom is rubbed away. Tiny scratches appear all over the photo. (Note: Whoever this relative turns out to be, she looks amazingly like my older sister.
Process
The process I used to fix the photo appears below the pictures. Both photos appear in medium resolution at 72ppi, which reduces the visible quality online.
Original Image |
Edited Image |
Steps To Fix Image
My intent is to fix the image so that a new print can be made that highlights the important aspect of the photo, i.e. the subject's face.
- Scanned photo through Photoshop using the new Twain plug-in with EPSON Scan software.
- Scanned at 600dpi at original size of 3.86" x 5.59" in 24-bit color with Color Control on and Display Gamma set at 2.2.
- Used the new Content Aware filter in the Spot Healing Brush Tool to correct the most glaring problems, of which there are many.
- I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool and and selected the upper right area, onto which I applied the Dust & Scratches filter very carefully to reduce some of the white markings. There were just too many to effectively use the Healing Brush.
- After I corrected the most glaring problems, I converted photo to black and white. Adobe has a Photoshop CS4/CS5 tutorial, called Convert a color image to black and white, but I thought it was too simplified an approach. I used a combination of Gradient Map and Channel Mixer layers to preserve detail, while not highlighting more of the scratches. Conversion to black and white solved most of the blue ink blotches that appear in the hair and dress in the photo, which were added by the scanner, it seems.
- I removed more light scratch marks with the Spot Healing Brush.
- Cropped image and saved layers in a TIF file for posterity.
- Reduced resolution to 144ppi to preserve size.
- Saved for web at medium resolution and 72ppi with the PS command Save for Web & Devices.
Notes
I think the scanner introduced more noise than is on the actual photo. It also showed blue in the hair and dress that is not visible on the photo. I scanned the photo 3 different ways: Once in 24-bit color with Color Control on, with No Color Correction, and with no corrections at all, but the color photo has more detail in it and approximates grayscale. The plain scan came out in sepia, which would have added more steps to the editing process. I used the first scan with Color Control on to apply the fix, but there is more noise in that scan.
The photo suffers from a large number of scratches, including places where the picture is obscured, but none of that area is in the main focal point of the photo. Plus, as previously mentioned someone leaned on it while writing, which looks like ballpoint pen gouges. The mess on her right hand seems to be stems and leaves from the flowers, so I did little to correct that area.
Photoshop CS 5 performed admirably and I had no problems with the application while performing the edits, nor with multiple layers. When performing a similar edit on another document, using Photoshop CS 5.1 I did experience lags. The small update applied to PS CS 5.1 taxes my poor mid-2007 iMac with 4GB of RAM. I recommend more RAM for the newest version, but alas, my iMac is at its max.
The Engage mouse sometimes jumps, which didn't help the editing process. You can read a review of OfficeMax Engage Wired Optical Mouse here.
Update on mouse: A year later (5/2011), the area upon which I click has turned black and the blue color has worn off completely.
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