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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: Zaphod99 on Wednesday 02 September 20 12:24 BST (UK)
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I'm OK at blurring over creases or tears on a plain background, buy can anyone tell me, or point me at a tutorial for more advanced but still very basic repairs please. I'm not really sure what I even need to know.
Zaph
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I think you'll first of all need to use the same terms as others. What is blurring over a crease on a plain background? Can you post an example ? What program or app are you using ... they all have Help or Tutorial sections. paint.net and GIMP have massive online tutorials from the developers and the users' forums. Just use your search engine to find them ...
If you practice on a picture which is in need of repair or restore by using all the tools from your app's drop down menus you can always Control Z or Edit Undo if they don't have the effect you are looking for.
cheers, Ian
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here's a snippet of a page from a DuckDuckGo search for GIMP tutorials ... you should look at them all just so that you are aware of them but in the end you will probably use only half a dozen tools ...
that's without mentioning Select, Crop, Cut, Copy & Paste, use of Clone Stamp, the very basics
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Thanks Ian, I use Gimp. I can learn how to use the tools but it's knowing which tool to use at any one time that I find difficult. I can find tutorials, but hope for recommendations.
Zaph
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I'm still learning GIMP. It's not self-explanatory or intuitive when playing about with tools. Wikihow has written and video tutorials and I've just looked at HOW TO Colour Hair. It's comprehensive but to my mind it's a poor tutorial because it tries to cover all aspects of the job at one go. Paint.net's tutorials are simpler, step by step.
However, the first part of Restoring is to repair the damage and that can take most of the time as the colouring is Child's play using a Layer which you Block in the choice of colour solidly and then adjust the Opacity / Transparency of the Layer as an Overlay on top of the original Image. When you judge the result to be satisfactory you Flatten the 2 Layers into one, they have been Merged and you can Save ( or Export in Gimp) as a PNG file, or a Jpeg if you want to drastically reduce the File Size, but you will lose Pixels and Quality.
GIMP's clone stamp can be used to carry out 90% of damage to a Photo. By using a Clone Brush of a suitable Size you simply Select a GOOD area of the photo as close to the damage as possible and Stamp on the selected Damaged area. ( You are effectively Copying one selected area and Pasting it over a damaged area).
In paint.net I select the Clone tool, select a suitable size, adjust the Hardness to around 20% for smoothest edges then select Anti-alias. Then it's a case of changing the area to be copied to cover the damaged area. It's the same in GIMP.
Copy the Image of Father Ryan to experiment with as it's an excellent Black and White candidate for Repairing ... as evidenced by the posted results.
cheers, Ian
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Here's a composite of How to Clone Father Ryan
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There are lots of threads giving 'how to do it' advice on this board:
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/resources-tips-tutorials/
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You beat me to it Gadget, I saw this and was about to advise the same.
Carol
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I don't use Gimp but if you go on Youtube, type Gimp in the search and you will find loads of videos
from beginners on-wards. A lot easier to learn.
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Hi, Zaph. There's no easy way. Learn how to use the tools and practise, practise, practise.
I often compare it with carpentry: there are different tools and different brands of tools. You don't really know what they can do until you've used them a lot.
Rootschat is great because you can go back over years of restores and see what restorers have achieved then have a go yourself and use your tools to see what you can achieve.
You'll often find that you can do a job just as well with two different tools. Think of carpentry: is a nail better than a screw? Your choice of tools and how you use them will gradually become your "style".
Peter
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I would try YouTube, loads of videos explaining how to tackle various types of repair. Take small steps to begin with, and build your skills slowly.
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Thanks. I am inspired to give it a try. (McGroger, your tool analogy was good. It reminds me of "measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with an axe).
Ian, I now see that" blurring over a crease on a plain background "is actually called clone stamp.
Zaph
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Just found out... with paint.net when you select an area with the Clone Tool, the Copied area moves with the Pasted area and this means you have to constantly change your 'Area to be Copied'. ( unless there's a way to change that which I have yet to discover)
However, in GIMP ( which I'm practising - ( new version now available for download)). the Area to be Copied can stay fixed which allows you to Paste as often as you like without having to Re-Select an Area to be Copied. Yet, you can hold down the Mouse switch and they move as a pair as in Paint.net.
One up for GIMP.
Don't believe all the HELP tutorials though ... I tried one which says you have to have a Separate Layer for each colour to be Overlaid. I wasted 2 hours I'll never get back ...