Re: [Gimp-user] Black and White photos

["Liam R. E. Quin" <liam holoweb net>]

On Fri, 2016-01-29 at 08:52 +0100, oulefty wrote:
> Black and White Yearbook pictures that people have signed their name
> across their face. Wondering if there is a way to remove whatever
> they wrote on the picture?

It's difficult. Or at least it takes practice and patience.

Tricks like coying an eye and using flip and perspective and curves and
maybe a gradient fill over it in Darken mode (or dodge/burn with a
large brush) to match the "damaged" eye as much as possible, and a
layer mask to show the replacement "eye" as little as possible. In the
example you showed this isn't necessary though.

If it came from print, scan the picture at a reasonably high resolution
- at least 300dpi but maybe 1200 - so you can get closer to the pen
strokes and so the jpeg artifacts won't be a problem. Ideally scan to
png and not jpeg.

You can select by colour to get all of the green pen and then use
colour balance curves, etc on the feathered selection. First copy and
paste as new layer, or duplicate the whole layer, so you can still
access the original.

It's almost always best to start with tools that will affect large
areas, e.g. all the green, at the same time.

There are actually books on restoring photos, e.g. "Digital restoration
from start to finish" although they tend to assume you're using Adobe
PhotoShop.

Liam


-- 
Liam R. E. Quin <liam holoweb net>
http://www.holoweb.net/~liam
Words & Pictures From Old Books - www.fromoldbooks.org
The barefoot typographer