The highlights, particularly in the window and on the baby’s clothes, are pretty much gone, but at least there’s a little detail on the shirt. I tried bringing the highlights down but they kept going cyan. Maybe that’s my lack of skill, or maybe it’s just a JPG. I spent a little time between the Clone and Heal tools to get rid of a bunch of spots. In places it was kinda challenging to decide whether a spot was in “external” or real. I think I actually “healed” a real tear in the lamp shade. LOL
As an added note, this image has brought back many memories. I can feel the synthetic fabric of that couch and I know exactly what kind of thick fibrous paper was used to wrap the lamp shade frame (typically laced on with a dark-colored thin plastic “string”). The streaky tiles were very popular and I’m guessing that’s a GM car of some make (Pontiac? Cadillac?) through the window, based on the inverted shape of the front vent window.
I was born in 1959, so this is from not-too-far off the era of my early childhood, from appearances. Then again, maybe it was a decade earlier and my relatives just had old stuff!! LOL
Wow! You guys are amazing! Oh, man. I feel bad. I never thought I would get this much attention by asking for help here. And, It’s going to take awhile to learn just one editor much less the interesting variety exposed on this forum.
There are actually very few internet forums that are this lively.
@lphilpot the detail that emerged from that photo was obscured by the red cast. What a difference, even if the improvements are not perfect. This should be a lot of fun.
The family resemblance is striking, particularly between your wife and (I assume) her mother.
Speaking of details, on of my aunts / uncles had a couch with similar upholstery but it was a wine color. I also like the little tapered wood feet with a pseudo-brass covering. It just screams 50s-60s. Out of curiosity, do you know the year this was taken?
Hi Len,
The photo was taken in 1959 in Niles, Ohio. The child is now 63 years old. My wife’s first husband is Italian. My wife says her mother’s family was Farmer and they were “Heinz 57” variety. That photo is a treasure because it was the only instance she remembers all four generations were together.
My wife found it really interesting when you mentioned the couch and other details now revealed in that photo. We didn’t know this would have an impact on other people. What an interesting conversation this has been!
I asked her about the original slides and, surprisingly, she says she still has them - somewhere! After probably 20 years I suspect they will likely not reveal more detail, even with heroic means.
More of the story. The slides were individually scanned some 20 years ago. They were then written to CDs and sent to several family members. The scanning equipment was cheap and a couple of MS Windows upgrades made it obsolete.
We found the original Ektachrome slides. We haven’t had a chance to go through them yet. My original strategy was to find a common (enough) correction factor to correct all 411 slides in batch. That I may still do even if the result isn’t that great. It seems more reasonable to take just a few of the very best slides and make a genuine effort at restoration. I have a Canon Maxify MB2720 All-In-One printer with scanner which I will try but I don’t think specialized equipment is financially justified on a retirement budget. Perhaps I can take a few of the slides to a professional in my locality.
I have 2 semi-professional scanners to scan negatives and slides. The problem is the distance, I’m in Italy and I could very well do them without problems, I have fun and pass the time. Too bad, if you find a way to send them I’m available. The problem of restitution also remains, while for files there are no problems. Hello Adolfo
A scanner needs to have been designed to cater for film scanning, as it needs to put the light source behind the film/slide. I don’t know about your model of Canon. One of the best ways to scan film/slides on a “reasonable” budget is to use DSLR/mirrorless camera with a macro lens, and a light source behind the film. There’s a little device called the Pixl-latr designed to hold the film flat on the light - which can simply be a phone or tablet screen showing a white image! Another route is to use a slide copier - I have a 35mm one of these. Again in conjunction with a digital camera and suitable lens (instead of a film camera as it was designed for).
There’s quite a few film enthusiasts around still, who will usually have the equipment to scan one way or another. Maybe you could find out if you have a local club or something… just thinking aloud!
Either way, if you find someone to do them, make sure that they can provide you with a RAW file (if they use a camera) or other wise I think a TIFF file in as high quality as possible would give the most options for restoring.
If you still have a slide projector, there are methods people have used to combine the projector carousel auto-advance mechanism with a camera that has a macro lens to batch-digitize slides. Simple Rapid Slide Digitizer | B. A. Bryce is one example
An alternative mechanism is something like the Nikon ES-2 or a clone such as Amazon.com - I’m using this to digitize a bunch of negatives that have been sitting around for 25 years.
They will have degraded, but it is surprising how much you can still get from them!
As for digitizing slides, in the nearest big city there will very likely be a (semi-)professional that has the equipment to digitize slides properly. Otherwise, I would also be willing to help out, but yeah, oversees transport is a pain…
This is how I started to digitise some slides with a modified projector and a camera that fits in portrait format next to the slide magazine that comes out:
I am still feeling really challenged by this image and not yet happy with the result. But this is an attempt in GIMP using the color balance tool. What is special about the color balance tool is that it allows you to adjust the shadows, midtones and highlights separately. This can be an advantage with scanned film. I also had to use levels to adjust contrast and brightness on this image.
I decided to try the same technique with color balance on this image.
Alright, catching up on the recent posts. I still have a Kodak Carousel 140 slide tray but the projector and screen belonged to my parents and I think they went to their garage sale many years ago.
My wife says she doesn’t want to spend the money to fully restore a few family photos. (Sigh) We think the last two presented by Terry Pinfold are excellent and good enough for placing in a family tree album (so that SOMEDAY, perhaps after we are gone, the kids and grandkids can spend a few moments looking at them).
Meanwhile, when I have the time I will try to learn one of these photo applications. In Raw Therapy I simply could not figure out how to do color curves. They work fine in GIMP but I couldn’t get them to do anything to the selected slide in RT!
I am grateful for all the help offered here - overwhelmed actually! This is a very nice forum - one of the best on the 'net. Bravo!
Hello, two more suggestions that cost no money (to keep your wife happy )
Find an amateur photograph in your area. I think any amateur in the world would be happy to scan a few family slides for free, or for a beer.
Second, supposing you own a normal scanner. Remove any dust from your slide and place it on the glass plate. Close the cap, make a preview, select the slide area and scan. I think any scan software is able to scan at least at 1200ppi, if possible higher.
Save the scan, open it in Gimp. Use Rotate to straighten the slide, then make a selection around the slide and say Crop to selection. Next, select Colors - Levels, hit Autolevels and adjust the result with the three sliders in the Input levels field above.
With a slide from 1981, so 41 years old, of a painting by the French painter Watteau (1864-1721), that gives the following.
One thing in RT that has tripped me (and others) up is that most modules have to be ‘switched on’ with a little power button at the top left of the module… in case it helps!
Good luck! (and let us know if you have any problems).
Thanks Paul for the coaching and examples. I especially appreciate anything that tends to keep the wife happy
Steven - thanks for pointing that out
Graphical User Interfaces were designed to make the computer “intuitive.” That “power button” is counterintuitive!! Why is this even a feature? <insert “shrug” emoji>
I used to agree, but I realised that sometimes it’s nice to be able to ‘preset’ parameters, and only then switch it on… it’s ok once one knows anyway. (says a user who keeps forgetting… but doesn’t really mind )
Not sure if this applies to RT, I put a checkbox in my operations’ parameters panes early on so I could turn off an operation in the toolchain to compare its effect vs “no effect”… I’ve found it to be quite handy in that regard. Also, if I put in a denoise tool I usually turn it off to do other processing, then turn it back on to export the final image. Denoise tends to bog things down…
Here’s my amateurish attempt in Affinity Photo:
Appreciate you.
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