5 replies to this topic

[nbanjogal]

Hey Nikon friends, 

 

I could use some Photoshop advice (and it does need to be Photoshop because that's what I have at work).

 

I'm working on images of a document that is 176 years old. I have seven different multispectral images with different filters applied. The document is chiefly written in ink, but it has some very faint graphite that I'd like to enhance. I've chosen the filtered image that seemed to show the graphite best, and now I'm working in Photoshop to enhance it even further.

 

No one cares what the ink looks like in the image--all eyes are on the graphite--so it's ok to get a bit extreme. I've been messing with levels and curves and have achieved some decent results. 

 

The image is already filtered by color wavelengths, and it's grayscale to boot, so there can be no messing with color channels.

 

Is there anything else you'd recommend to bring out some faint graphite? (Sorry--I can't share the image here.)

[Merco_61]

When you set the levels, have you tried to set the blackpoint on the faint graphite, the whitepoint to the darkest part of the background and then pulled the greypoint as far to the left as possible?

 

It might be worth trying a highpass filter using a ridiculously high radius before setting the levels.

 

Do you have any plugin that lets you emulate a litho process? This can sometimes bring out faint details.

[nbanjogal]

I've been pretty extreme with the levels, but I'll give it another go using your advice. I have also been using the highness filter, but I probably haven't done as much with the radius as you suggest--I will also try that. Thank goodness for nondestructive editing with layers, eh?

 

And no, I don't have any such plugin. I may check with our archival team since they may have something like that. I'm with research and publishing, so we don't have all their goodies. If they don't have one, is there one you'd recommend? 

 

And thank you for taking the time to respond!

[Merco_61]

As I haven't had to do things like this since the PS 5.5 days, the plugins I used to use don't work anymore. I don't know what works well in the current market.

[nbanjogal]

Ah, ok. Thanks though--I'm sure I can look around and see what's out there.

[nbanjogal]

Just thought I'd let you know that I tried your suggestions, and it worked out quite well, so thank you very much. It made the graphite quite legible, though, as expected, the rest of the document was a mess once I went that extreme. The editor I was working with had originally wanted to publish a single MSI with some slight enhancements, but the graphite was just too faint for that to be useful. So instead we're publishing three images: one high-resolution scan that shows how the document appears to the naked eye; one of the multispectral images; and one of the ultra-enhanced images. So, it turns out the enhancement was for more than just research. 

 

Thanks again!