GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: XP - SP3
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

---

I have several old photos that I would like to "fix". The one I have attached here is probably the worst but is representative of several really bad photos. Can anyone give me some ideas on where to start?

I'm not concerned with the speckles or scratches at this point just improving the overall quality.

For starters, the very first thing I do with any old image is test the grain merge process to see what I can draw out of the image.

1. Duplicate the image. Change the mode to the duplicate layer to grain merge.
2. Flatten the image and then head to Colors - Curves to push it even more.

This gives me an idea of how far I can take it without investing a ton of time trying to enhance it.



I like to use G'MIC to smooth my images with anisotropic smoothing.

And it never hurts to use adjust the levels (Colors - Levels "auto")



I should have mentioned this first, but didn't think of it at the time. When scanning old photographs, scan at the highest possible resolution without taking your image into memory hogging zone. Usually 300 to 600 dpi (ppi) is fine. I never scan 1:1 because it leaves too many artifacts in the image to deal with. Scanning large, gives you the ability to refine, smooth, and remove noise/grain (or problem areas) before touching them up.

also, try clicking colors>>>desaturate if you didn't already. Sounds silly, but often these photos stain with age.

Best bang for the bug on your picture: the Levels tools. Looking at the histogram, your picture has lost its white and black about symmetrically. To restore the dynamic, you can just drag the handles from the extremities of the histogram to where the curve starts and ends:

Mahvin - Thanks for the tips. I don't fool around with photos much but when I scan them, I always use 600 dpi as my default for the same reasons. Your second pic looks quite a bit better than what I was trying to do. I tried to adjust contract and brightness/curves but didn't get very good results. I'll try the GMIC smoothing too.

Never occured to me to try your grain merge approach. Genius!

Tstandiford - Thanks for that. They are all greyscale pics anyway so I never thought of that either.(obviously) I do have quite a few with stains so that will help tremendously.

Eggcellent Ofnuts, Thanks! Pretty easy overall fix.

I knew someone would come up with some mo bedder gooder ideas than what I was doin'.

being lazy i only used a gmic filter i did for other reasons Wild Cartoonizer

Result is a quite grungy but most of details pop out

Also noise and scratc pop out but that may help to give give the idea of the gigantic works you did to recover so damaged photos..

All excellent suggestions above. After using the histogram, I would use the wavelet plugins.

Notice that there is whole section on photo restoration here. I would start there.

I'm not familiar with the term "wavelet". I would like to buy a vowel clue, please.

Try this link Drac.
http://registry.gimp.org/node/4235

I really think that simply making a levels adjustment and using the clone stamp to get rid of the little imperfections is the best way to go. Less is more in cases like this.

Duplicate the image
Colors>Invert the top one
Colors>levels on the top layer (exactly as Ofnuts showed you)
Set the top layer mode to grain extract.

This has always been a great way for me to get some more definition in a warn out B&W photo.

Thanks Molly. I grabbed both the denoise and the sharpen files. I'll play with them later when i work on those photos again.

Paynekj - Interesting, is Photivo freeware?

Thanks Rod, sounds like the easiest quick fix.

Much better than that. It's OpenSource, like Gimp ofcourse

Well, here is my take on it.

Follow the thread on restoring old photo - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1159&start=10

Then run a high pass filter to sharpen the edges.

Use some bilateral blur to smooth out some of the noise. I deliberately left is slightly unfinished. The last step is duplicate layer. Then set the mode to overlay and reduce the opacity to taste.

Very good Partha !!

Thanks to all of you, I have a much better pic now. I used several of the suggestions starting with the dup/grain merge then adjusting the levels. I then used both wavelet scripts to make some additional adjustments followed by Photocomix smoothing in GMIC. After touching up the flaws with a fuzzy brush and the airbrush tool by golly gee whiz I think I have a winner! Slightly blurred but any more sharpening just makes it worse.


Now it's on to the other 47 pics, uuuuugh!

Thanks PC!!