scanning textured photo?

And lo, peter emerged from the ether
and spake thus:
I have some old b/w photos with textured surface like a fine grit sand
paper. When I scanned these photos with a flatbed scanner (epson 4870), the
textured surface shows up as specks of light and dark spots, almost like a
digital photo taken in high ISO. I can reduce this effect somewhat with
photoshop and noise reduction software, but they never completely go away.

I'm thinking if the scanner's internal light source is more diffused instead
of a bright "line" light, the textured surface would not be as prominent.

Does this kind of scanner exist? How do professional scanning service deal
with this problem?

All of the other posters had good ideas. As far as using fluid on the
original, I would shy away from that. It is possible to use mineral
oil to lessen the sheen of silvering, but what you're talking about is
(I believe) the artistic textured surfaces applied to photos in the
'60s and '70s. Often the texture is made up of hexagonal or octagonal
shapes, also sometimes diamond.

One technique I've used before (with some success) is to scan the
image both right side up as well as upside down so that in each of the
two versions the flatbed scanner light is hitting the texture from the
opposite angle.

Combining the two can be a trick. First, you must align the images
perfectly. To do this I typically set the top layer to "difference"
mode and adjust it until the whole image appears black. Then you can
try different layer blending modes (darken sounds like a good bet,
although it depends on your situation). There are probably more
sophisicated combinatorial techniques such as the ones discussed on
the ImageJ page, but I am not much of a guru in that area.

I really do hate those textured photos.

--
Aaron
http://www.fisheyegallery.com
http://www.singleservingphoto.com

I wonder if you couldnt just... you know... copy them
photographically ?

maybe playing with softer lighting and/or a polarizing filter(?) might
produce good enough results with a digital ?


On Jul 11, 9:50 pm, "peter" wrote:
I have some old b/w photos with textured surface like a fine grit sand
paper. When I scanned these photos with a flatbed scanner (epson 4870), the
textured surface shows up as specks of light and dark spots, almost like a
digital photo taken in high ISO. I can reduce this effect somewhat with
photoshop and noise reduction software, but they never completely go away.

I'm thinking if the scanner's internal light source is more diffused instead
of a bright "line" light, the textured surface would not be as prominent.

Does this kind of scanner exist? How do professional scanning service deal
with this problem?

And lo, stuseven emerged from the ether
and spake thus:
I wonder if you couldnt just... you know... copy them
photographically ?

maybe playing with softer lighting and/or a polarizing filter(?) might
produce good enough results with a digital ?


On Jul 11, 9:50 pm, "peter" wrote:
I have some old b/w photos with textured surface like a fine grit sand
paper. When I scanned these photos with a flatbed scanner (epson 4870), the
textured surface shows up as specks of light and dark spots, almost like a
digital photo taken in high ISO. I can reduce this effect somewhat with
photoshop and noise reduction software, but they never completely go away.

I'm thinking if the scanner's internal light source is more diffused instead
of a bright "line" light, the textured surface would not be as prominent.

Does this kind of scanner exist? How do professional scanning service deal
with this problem?

The best approach I've ever seen for eliminating specular light
reflection was by Bill Atkinson in his photography of rock slices:

http://www.billatkinson.com/Generate...&filter=_Rocks

He used two hot lights (of some obscure variety for certain color
temperature reasons) rigged with diffusers made from home improvement
store materials and polarizing filters. This requires somewhat large
polarizing "gobos" and I'm not sure where he got them.

The lights are positioned at 45 degrees and the polarizing filter on
the camera is turned perpendicular to the filters on the lights,
thereby eliminating almost all specular reflection. Diffuse
reflection, of course, is not longer perfectly polarized so it makes
it through.

I learned this in one of Michael Reichmann's videos
(luminous-landscape.com); I think it's the only one with Atkinson in
it. Truly amazing results.

--
Aaron
http://www.fisheyegallery.com
http://www.singleservingphoto.com