Comments

seeker wrote on 8/8/2002, 10:10 PM
SB,

Do you have Photoshop, or a program like PaintShop Pro that can use Photoshop plug-ins? If so, you could use one of the Quantum Mechanic plug-ins for Photoshop. For more information, click on this link:

http://www.camerabits.com/QM2.html

Could you supply some more details on how you did the scans of the stills that turned out to be grainy? What camera did they come from? How many pixels? Stuff like that.

-- Burton --
Shredder wrote on 8/8/2002, 11:04 PM
What type of finish do the grainy pictures have? If they are textured matte, that may be the problem. Textures matte photos tend to reflect the like of the scanner and cause a sparkle over the image that looks like grain. This is a pretty tough task to solve.

I've heard of people spraying a clean piece of glass with water & putting the photo face down on the water glass. This seems to fill in the holes & the diffraction prevents such harsh reflections. Keep in mind you only want to try this on disposable images, as the water could damage the surface of the photo or even smear the dye.

Another solution is to scan the image with a scanner that has a 4th 'defect' channel, that detects texture, tears etc. and dynamically adjusts the scan accordingly. The only consumer flatbed I'm aware of with this technology is the Microtek Scanmaker 6800 which isn't on the shelves yet.

Finally, you could try taking a digital camera picture of the image under controlled lighting to minimize the glitter.

HOWEVER, if your issue is not due to a textured surface, than all of those points are useless. In that case I'd look into a smart grain removal plugin, like Grain Surgery http://www.visinf.com/gs/ps/ or Noise Reduction Pro http://www.theimagingfactory.com/data/pages/products0.htm#dnrp

sonicboom wrote on 8/9/2002, 12:11 AM
wow, you guys are amazing!!!
thanks for the tips: seeker and shredder
they were grainy and shredder hit it just right
i have been thinking about buying photoshop--i do not have it
i have to purchase photoshop in order for the (grain surgery) plugin to work
this may be the incentive i need to pick it up
anyway, thnx for the info
sb
Shredder wrote on 8/9/2002, 9:57 AM
SB,

If you've never used photoshop before, and rather not shell out the $$$ for the app right now, Photoshop Elements 2.0 is a really good alternative. With a street price of $90, you probably get more bang for the buck than the full-blown photoshop.

It has the majority of the features of photoshop 7 & even a few that PS7 doesn't have, like a red-eye tool, which is great for the casual user.

It's got a but simpler learning curve than the full photoshop, so you'll be productive sooner.

And it supports PS plugins, so for the cost of the grain surgery plugin $199 & elements $90, you're still way under the entry price for photoshop 7 of $580.

- Jon