Hi All, I was asked to explain how I had made the faint scrip stand out better in a Photoshopped copy of the record I attached to another post. So, I thought I'd start a new thread on the topic.
I used Photoshop Elements 10, and it only took a few minutes. PSE is easy to get started with, and I like it for most of what I do. [The] GIMP is also an excellent-- and free-- program that's more powerful, but it also has a steeper learning curve. I'm not familiar with many other image editors, so I don't know what alternatives there might be. Essentially, what I did was to create a set of layers with the "multiply" blending mode, and then I made a Lighting Levels adjustment to increase the contrast. That may sound complicated if you haven't used Photoshop or a similar program, but in practice it's very easy. Translated out of Photoshop-speak: First I used Photoshop to imitate a set of transparencies stacked on top of each other. Imagine a real life stack of several very faint photographic slides which are all of the same picture. Each faint slide/photoshop layer in the stack helps to make the whole image darker. Then second, I adjusted the light and dark areas of the image to make the lights lighter and the darks darker. Here are the quick and dirty steps I used to bring out the script on that document: STEP 1: MAKE A STACK OF LAYERS Copy the image to your computer (right click on the record and select "save image"), and open it in Photoshop. Copy the background layer to make a second layer. Change the blending mode on this second layer from "Normal" to "Multiply." Copy this second/Multiply layer, and then copy it again (and again ) until the writing on the image looks dark enough to you. There were three or four layers in the image I posted, IIRC. If necessary, you can fine tune the top layer of the stack by changing its opacity by moving the "Opacity Slider". STEP 2: COPY ALL THE LAYERS INTO A NEW TOP LAYER Now, create a new blank layer on top of the layer stack. With that layer active (i.e., click on it so it is highlighted), turn it into a "Copy Merged" layer by pressing CNTL+SHIFT+ALT+E all at the same time [for mac, use CMD instead of CNTRL]. The new top layer now a contains a copy of all the layers below it, merged together. STEP 3: CHANGE THE LEVELS OF THE TOP LAYER To improve the contrast between the background and the writing, change the "Levels" of this new top layer. Click on the "Copy Merged" top layer to highlight it. Then, go to Enhance--> Lighting --> Levels, and change the black point and the white point using the eyedropper or the slider. I clicked the black eyedropper on a dark section of ink and the white eyedropper on the background paper Finally, slide the middle/grey point (the slider in the middle of the graph) back and forth 'til the contrast between the ink and paper looks good, and click the OK button. That's it. Save the file and you're done. NOTES: On JPeg and TIFF files. The file types of the records are jpegs. Jpeg files don't support layers, so to save your layers and your editing work, you have to save the image as either a PSD (Photoshop's format) or a TIFF file. To post the edited image to the forum, make copy of the TIFF/PSD file by using "Save As" and selecting jpeg as the file type. Pros and cons of this quick and dirty process: Pro = The technique of making a stack of "multiply" layers is widely used in digital photo restoration, and there are good tutorials on the web that will walk you through the process better than I can. Con = There are better practices for making levels adjustments (it's much better to use special "Ajustment Layers"), but using a separate copy-merged layer is an easy way to get started. And finally, Curves, Channels and Colors are probably more powerful and useful tools overall, but I haven't got the hang of them yet. That's it-- three easy, quick, and dirty steps to (hopefully) improved legibility. I experimented with some other adjustments last night that might have (but probably didn't) help to sharpen the writing too. I'm just starting to try to figure out what the best workflow for these record images might be, so if anyone has methods/suggestions I'd love to know more. I especially would like to learn some methods of smoothing out the pixelation and sharpening them. I know that the low resolution of the images limits what can be coaxed from them, but every little bit helps. I hope others will add to this thread with their image processing tips and tricks too. best, Linda -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
