An urgent plea for help to fix a picture

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

01/13/2005 01:20:57 PM · #1

Greetings all,
Recently, a good aquaintance of mine and a very respected automotive industry expert passed away (age 45) and his family & auto industry friends have asked me to help in restoring a picture of him for his Memorial Service and memory card.
There were little if any pictures of him and the one that they want to use has already been compressed and is small dimension and file size-wise. They want to be able to print copies at 5x7 (doubt it) and 4x6 (maybe). They want only him in the shot (removal of his friend in the picture - easy), but increasing an already crunched image seems a bit out of my league, as I'm not an artist and that seems to be what's needed.
Here is the best, and actual file size image they sent me:

Here is what I have managed so far and isn't to good:

Is it as hopeless as I think it is? I hate to give them the bad news.
Anyone have any ideas?

On behalf of Keith and his family, Thanks in advance.

Message edited by author 2005-01-13 13:32:00.

thewriterside

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

01/13/2005 01:37:07 PM · #2

I played around a bit and this was best I could do. My suggestion- explain the photo dilema, then tell them that you created a painting of it instead. I'd think his family might feel honored to have an image that appears to be a painting, but then again, I don't know them.

roonie

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

01/13/2005 01:51:07 PM · #3

Hello. BTW. I love your portfolio.

I recently had to do the same thing for a family member.

Is there any way you could get the actual photo sent to you? The one on the website has a very low resolution. I don't think there is much that can be done with the photo that was sent to you.

When they scanned the photo, do you know if they had the scanner set to scan at the maximum dpi?

roonie

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

01/13/2005 01:52:32 PM · #4

The idea of making it look like a painting isn't a bad idea. I like it.

Nelzie

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

01/13/2005 01:59:58 PM · #5

I know how you feel. I was tasked with a similar issue myself not to long ago. My wife's great uncle passed away and the most recent image of him was at our wedding 6 months prior.

After editing the photo to look like it was taken as a portrait, which could really only be done by cropping the image. I was stuck with noticeable jpeg artifacts in the image. I wasn't happy with the results, but I took the file into a local shop, dropped it off for an 8x10 print anyway.

When I came back, the two guys behind the counter claimed that their software wasn't able to read the image. I got the strong vibe that they took one look at the image and decided that it would have been less of a possible hassle for them to deny the print, then to explain why the results would look like crap.

I ended up printing the image at home, which looked poorer then it did on screen. I am still not extremely happy with the image, but my wife's family was extremely happy with the results.

The only thing that I can say is that it is likely that the family will be happy with an image that you would be almost ashamed to call your work.

Beyond what they have already provided to you, the only other way you might get something better would be to see if that is/was on a 35mm negative or scanned from a print and see if you can get that negative or print to scan at a higher resolution.

I wish you the best with this.

moodville

Nikon D100

01/13/2005 02:00:14 PM · #6

If that is the only size they have then you dont have much chance. Do they have any better/larger images of him when he was younger? Football player or something? Anything larger than they can scan or get scanned at kinko's?

soup

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0 L USM

01/13/2005 02:04:58 PM · #7

i'd agree - you're not going to get a decent print from that image no matter what you do.

if they scanned it from a larger - better quality print - and did a bad job of scanning - then maybe there is hope.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

01/13/2005 02:06:08 PM · #8

Actually, the image of the two of them IS the only and best picture. It was taken with a digital camaera a few years back and has been "edited" and is the only copy known. The original file was lot a long time ago with a computer failure.

David.C

01/13/2005 02:07:50 PM · #9

If you can somehow get a rescan of the original it would be best, but barring that you might try using one of the programs that specialize in large-scale enlargement (such as a "Genuine Fractals" by Lizardtech, I believe). It may be that someone on here has it and is willing to do the upscale for you. Even that is uncertain given the size and quality of the original. Good luck.

David

Kylie

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

01/13/2005 02:08:17 PM · #10

I kind of like the "painting" idea also. Perhaps try a few filters and see which renders the best result. That could be a very kind and unique memorial. Best of luck and blessings to the family.

blemt

Nikon D70

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Nikon

01/13/2005 02:25:49 PM · #11

These are the worst kinds of images. You have a remote chance of improving it if you try using something like //www.focusmagic.com/ in combination with Graduated Fractals.

Do they have a print at all? Or is this just web?

Clara

riotspyne

Nikon D80

01/13/2005 02:26:49 PM · #12

Sorry to hear about your loss. This is a quick edit. If you like it I can try again.

01/13/2005 02:27:41 PM · #13

Thanks for the painting idea, and actually seems to be the only way to fix this one, seeing as there was really no detail in the tiny original.

Here's what I am going to send them and see if it will work for them:

Kylie

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

01/13/2005 02:28:56 PM · #14

Originally posted by BradP:

Excellent, Brad. I think they will be very pleased.

w24x192

Canon PowerShot S50

01/13/2005 02:32:37 PM · #15

I read in one of those Photoshop for Digital Photographers books that if you want to increase the size of an otherwise small photograph in Photoshop, you can increase the photo in 10% increments and get little noticable loss. The book explained, as best it could, that for some reason, 10% or less is the magic number in Photoshop - trying to increase by a greater percentage in a single action can create that digital ugliness we all know. But, using the 10% increment, Photoshop can somehow prevent the digital fuzziness. In their example, the were able to print a 3mp picture at 18x10 with little loss.

This seems like it might help get you a photo that could be of a more printable size. And, if it doesn't work for this photo, maybe it can help on another project down the road.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

01/13/2005 02:44:58 PM · #16

Thanks all for everything.

Clara, I tried Focus magic, but there is really only so much that can be done with a 15K original.
Dusty, Thanks for the nudge - I hadn't thought of modifying it, basically I was stuck in "Preservation Mode" I guess. LOL
Paul, I did basic do the same thing, but because of the original fle size, I increased in smaller increments (10 pixels each step).
Katrina, thanks for the effort. I spent about 45 minutes playing with about every adjustment in Neat Image to see if I could help it out. (probably broke it too - LOL)
David, I sent it to a friend with Genuine Fractals and he said it was pretty much hopeless with a 15K, 288x229 pixel image as this.
Kylie, Hi! Thanks for the vote of confidence. I ran this through various filters in PS, but ended up using an action called Bill's Oil Painting, and worked on it a bit more manually after that.

I've sent the oil painting with an explanation and I'm pacing waiting to see if will work for them.

Message edited by author 2005-01-13 14:47:44.

thewriterside

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

01/13/2005 02:45:20 PM · #17

Originally posted by BradP:

You did an excellent job!

Imagineer

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

01/13/2005 02:54:49 PM · #18

[]

Message edited by author 2005-01-13 15:53:30.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

01/13/2005 02:59:53 PM · #19

The painting effect was a big help for the portrait on their web page too.
Here is the before & after:

thewriterside

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

01/13/2005 03:04:43 PM · #20

Originally posted by BradP:

The painting effect was a big help for the portrait on their web page too.
Here is the before & after:

It's too bad we can't give you a ribbon for this.

01/13/2005 03:08:24 PM · #21

Originally posted by thewriterside:

It's too bad we can't give you a ribbon for this.

Thanks!
Too bad I can't give a ribbon to this site and it's members for all the help and eductaion I have recieved since joining last April. Being able to make a positive difference in other people's lives is what's it's all about and is all the "Ribbons" I could ever wish for.

01/13/2005 03:38:05 PM · #22

Just received an email regarding the picture:

"Bless you Mr Brad...I love the painting one - just awesome work! This actually had me in tears looking at it and enjoying the memories of Keith.
You know how dear Keith was to me all of us on the Network, and seems fitting to help out his family with such a simple request, yet with over 47,000 members here, you were the only one that could pull off this magic.
You are one of the shining lights on this network, and have been for many, many years, and now bringing even more talent to us.
From the bottom of my heart, Thank You Brad. I will never forget this favor, and highly suspect his family won't either.

Cindi"

Cindi is kinda' the "Mom" on the Automotive Network I belong to, and have known her for about 8 years now.

Dang - emotions are powerful!! Anyone have a Kleenex? Geez!