Require Expert Help Please, Creating Best Possible Image fro

[ShopPaint]

Require Expert Help Please, Creating Best Possible Image from Old Halftone Newspaper Pictures.

First of all, I am a complete novice when it comes to photographic restoration etc., and would be very grateful for any help or advice or preferably tutelage regarding the following.

I have over one hundred old halftone newspaper pictures (photographs of the original pictures). All pictures are head and shoulder shots and reasonably small, printed size would be about 50mm x 80 mm, portrait.

I need to learn how to “shop” the pictures so that they will look at their best when re-printed on plain white paper.

I have PSP 2020 and have played about with Moire Pattern Removal and sharpness etc., but I don’t feel that I am getting the best out of the photographs. I just don’t have the necessary experience.

If anyone with the relevant experience would like to “take me under their wing” and teach me how to get the best results I would be extremely grateful.

Kind regards,

Pete.

[Jean-Luc]

Please, post here an example.
It is not possible to give an advice without seeing the picture. They are so many possibilities...

[jorgensen]

To get an idea of what is possible I use plugins like Perfectly Clear and Topaz Adjust AI.

[ShopPaint]

Please, post here an example.
It is not possible to give an advice without seeing the picture. They are so many possibilities...

Thanks for the reply, no problem I will upload an example.

[ShopPaint]

To get an idea of what is possible I use plugins like Perfectly Clear and Topaz Adjust AI.

Thanks for the reply jorgensen, the plugins sound interesting, if I were to upload a picture would you show me what these plugins are capable of, please?

regards,

Pete.

[ShopPaint]

Here is an example of one of the pictures, thanks.

[Jean-Luc]

Important: all images must be scanned at 600 PPI in color.

Duplicate layer.
The image is darker on the left.
To correct it a little, I do:
Adjust / Local Tone Mapping / Strength 4 (may vary with each image).

If you want to remove the halftone dots:
Resize the image to 200%.
Effects / Gaussian blur 2,80 (blur until you don't see the dots, no more).
Resize image to 50% to recover the initial size.
Adjust / Sharpen / Sharpen more (1 or 2 times).

See also here:
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=61696

[JoeB]

Excellent work, Jean-Luc. If I might offer a further suggestion, I took your result then added Edge Preserving Smooth at 10 to try to smooth out some of the remaining artifacts. Then I used the Freehand tool to select the man's face and again applied Unsharp Mask at 2.00/80/5. But I would add that this is just a personal preference.

[Kathy_9]

And, here's what can be done with a plug-in. I used Topaz Denoise AI. It's not free by the way.

[Jean-Luc]

I added this to my attempt:
- One Step Noise Removal tool.
- Blemish Fixer tool (Size 11, Strength 90). To be done manually...

[JoeB]

Great work again! I'm a firm believer in the principle that the more different approaches that we can take to improve an image is helpful to all of us reading the posts!

[Jean-Luc]

Great work again! I'm a firm believer in the principle that the more different approaches that we can take to improve an image is helpful to all of us reading the posts!

I agree. I'm learning too from different approaches.

[ShopPaint]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thank you to Jean-Luc, Jorgensen, JoeB and Kathy_9 for the replies and some excellent attempts at restoring the picture.
I think Jean-Luc has reproduced the best so far, well to my eye at least, but I am also interested/impressed with what Kathy_9 had achieved using the Topaz Plug-in.
It would be interesting to see if Jorgensen sees this post again and could offer an attempt, possibly using the Perfectly Clear Plug-in, fingers crossed.

Thanks once again to everyone who has so far taken the time to help me, it is appreciated.

Regards,

Peter.

[ShopPaint]

And, here's what can be done with a plug-in. I used Topaz Denoise AI. It's not free by the way.

Hello Kathy, was this achieved using just the Topaz Denoise function and nothing else?

Interestingly, when I print your version out (standard inkjet printer) and do a side by side comparison with Jean-Luc's when printed, your version is a little more defined and you can see more of the left side of his face and he is less dark around the eyes.

You have given me a lot to think about, which is a good thing,

regards,

Pete.

[Kathy_9]

This was just with Topaz Denoise AI. It's an interesting plug-in. You can download a trial and play with it and it integrates well with PSP.

https://topazlabs.com/denoise-ai/