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Author Topic: An older film image I tried to save.  (Read 2247 times)

John R

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An older film image I tried to save.
« on: January 12, 2010, 10:32:32 pm »

Tried to save this older film image, a horse farm from the Caledon Hills. I like the old fog look, which I converted to BW and then tossed the film as the emulsion was deteriorating.

JMR
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Joe Behar

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2010, 11:00:43 pm »

Quote from: John R
Tried to save this older film image, a horse farm from the Caledon Hills. I like the old fog look, which I converted to BW and then tossed the film as the emulsion was deteriorating.

JMR

John,

I took the liberty of downloading your image and making a few adjustments, but I don't want to post my version without your permission, but if you contact me offline I'll e mail it to you.

No promises that you'll like it, but what I tried to do was minimize the fine horizontal bands while still maintaining the "old film look".  Its definitely stylized, but it may work for you.

I like the composition.

Joe
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John R

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2010, 11:18:59 pm »

Quote from: Joe Behar
John,

I took the liberty of downloading your image and making a few adjustments, but I don't want to post my version without your permission, but if you contact me offline I'll e mail it to you.

No promises that you'll like it, but what I tried to do was minimize the fine horizontal bands while still maintaining the "old film look".  Its definitely stylized, but it may work for you.

I like the composition.

Joe
Sure, go ahead. I sent you my email address. It's an old polaroid slide and that's why there is banding. Apparently as it deteriorates or shifts, this is the way it comes out. But I do like the foggy look. Or you can post it if you like. I think this farm was on 11 sideroad , just north of King side rd and on the way to Cold Creek.

JMR
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Joe Behar

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2010, 11:22:57 pm »

Quote from: John R
Tried to save this older film image, a horse farm from the Caledon Hills. I like the old fog look, which I converted to BW and then tossed the film as the emulsion was deteriorating.

JMR

John,

Got your e mail, here's my attempt.

I added grain to try to break up the banding, increased the contrast, put on a bit of a gaussian blur and then sharpened the image.

Again, not to say that there is not something more or different that can be done, but I like the soft look, en with the grain. Its definitely not as "foggy" as the original, but it reminds me of old film, through a toy camera, which can be an interesting look.

Getting back to the critique part, I like the image. Good, strong lines. Enough going on to keep my interest without clutter.


Joe
« Last Edit: January 12, 2010, 11:32:22 pm by Joe Behar »
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John R

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2010, 11:47:24 pm »

Quote from: Joe Behar
John,

Got your e mail, here's my attempt.

I added grain to try to break up the banding, increased the contrast, put on a bit of a gaussian blur and then sharpened the image.

Again, not to say that there is not something more or different that can be done, but I like the soft look, en with the grain. Its definitely not as "foggy" as the original, but it reminds me of old film, through a toy camera, which can be an interesting look.

Getting back to the critique part, I like the image. Good, strong lines. Enough going on to keep my interest without clutter.


Joe
Are you sure this didn't come from the CBC archives or something;) It certainly has that really old gritty film look and is not quite what I expected. Especially after you said you applied gaussian blur! You did somewhat disperse the banding and make the snow pop. A little too contrasty and coarse for my liking, but maybe it looks better really large as grainy images often do. Thanks for the effort. Not sure it is worth saving.

JMR
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cmi

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2010, 10:46:53 am »

John, I played with it trying to remove the horizontal lines. In case you want to repeat it, this is what I came up with:

1. Open the document, copy the background layer, and name it "compensate".
2. Motion Blur Layer "compensate", Angle: 0 degrees, Distance 4 Pixels. (Just blur out the other fine detail).
3. Filter > Other > High Pass, Radius 1 Pixel. This leaves mainly only the exaggerated streaks.
4. Invert layer "compensate", set Blend mode to Overlay, 44%.

This already looks better, but not ideal. Based on the brightness of the base image, the lines disappear with varying visibility of the "compensate" layer. Therefore we gonna make a layer mask based on the brightness of the base image:

6. Turn the visibility of the layer "compensate" off. Select the Background layer (the original image), load the image as selection (channels) and apply this selection as a layer mask to the layer "compensate".
7. Figure out an optimal gradation curve to completely remove the lines for each brightness level, or alternatively just apply one as shown in the attachment.

Not sure how this will work on the full size image, but it should behave similary. Hope this helps.

Regarding the mood... well, for me it has the charme of something old, of something long gone.


Christian
« Last Edit: November 20, 2010, 04:10:26 pm by cmi »
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John R

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2010, 08:51:50 pm »

Quote from: Christian Miersch
John, I played with it trying to remove the horizontal lines. In case you want to repeat it, this is what I came up with:

1. Open the document, copy the background layer, and name it "compensate".
2. Motion Blur Layer "compensate", Angle: 0 degrees, Distance 4 Pixels. (Just blur out the other fine detail).
3. Filter > Other > High Pass, Radius 1 Pixel. This leaves mainly only the exaggerated streaks.
4. Invert layer "compensate", set Blend mode to Overlay, 44%.

This already looks better, but not ideal. Based on the brightness of the base image, the lines disappear with varying visibility of the "compensate" layer. Therefore we gonna make a layer mask based on the brightness of the base image:

6. Turn the visibility of the layer "compensate" off. Select the Background layer (the original image), load the image as selection (channels) and apply this selection as a layer mask to the layer "compensate".
7. Figure out an optimal gradation curve to completely remove the lines for each brightness level, or alternatively just apply one as shown in the attachment.

Not sure how this will work on the full size image, but it should behave similary. Hope this helps.

Regarding the mood... well, for me it has the charme of something old, of something long gone.


Christian
Thank you very much for your efforts and comments. I don't have PS, so I can't do what you have suggested. However, in your version I do see an improvement. Some days I think of giving in and buying PS, but other days I am happy to have the simplicity and smallness of Photo Elements for small adjustments.

JMR
« Last Edit: January 13, 2010, 08:53:33 pm by John R »
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bill t.

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2010, 09:36:39 pm »

A good trick for pulling images off movie film or video is to average out several sequential frames.

Works well only if there is not too much lateral motion or zoom to compensate for by repositioning and scaling frames.  Very easy for lock-off shots, not so easy with a moving camera.  But with a little work you can recover images that are much better looking than any single frame, at the very least grain smooths out a lot and detail improves.
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cmi

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An older film image I tried to save.
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2010, 12:42:11 pm »

Ah, too bad  I was just playing with it.

Christian


Quote from: John R
Thank you very much for your efforts and comments. I don't have PS, so I can't do what you have suggested. However, in your version I do see an improvement. Some days I think of giving in and buying PS, but other days I am happy to have the simplicity and smallness of Photo Elements for small adjustments.

JMR
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