Cleaning up images in Photoshop etc

[Yorkie]

I use Photoshop Elements 4 intended for photo editing - an aging program, of which I'm only capable of using the basic functions, but find it useful for cleaning up dial scans and such like. I also use it for modifying and helping create PCB artwork at a very basic level. I'm in the final stages of my restoration of a Stella 105U, which has been awaiting attention since Nov 2010 Golborne Swapmeet, and one of the things I wanted to do was to clean up and reprint a shabby paper label stuck to the inside of the cabinet, which shows the valve positions.

I don't possess the sklls to create a new label, which - to anyone who does have such skills - will I'm sure be a quick and easy task. Hence, I scanned the old label into Photoshop and set about cleaning it up using the eraser, brush and fill tools. I've attached a couple of pics of the before and after results, which might be of interest to anyone wishing to clean up dial scans and the like. It's a time consuming task, which takes several hours, because to do it properly it's necessary to enlarge the scan so that you can, if need be, edit single pixcels, then save the cleaned up scan in whatever size you wish it to be.

Really, it's dials where this sort of software comes into its own because without a dial, a radio is all but a write-off even if the chassis works well and the cabinet is in good condition. The serious limiting factor with creating dials, which I've mentioned before, is that we can't print white on a conventional ink-jet printer when making water-slide transfers (decals as the Americans call them).

Old and new labels below.

Hope it's of interest.

David

[tiv48]

i use photoshop 7 cost me £25 used but worth its wieght in gold
rob t

[Aerodyne]

I use Photoshop CS3 and would not be without it. A brilliant program, I use it for everything graphic.
-Tony

[Brianc]

Instead of playing solitaire on my computer, I use Photoshop 7 to clean up service information, operation manuals and any other ephemera I get for the sets I restore. It can be done during those moments when it's too late to go out into the workshop and too early to go to bed - watching TV is normally a pointless waste of time due to the dearth of good (for me?) programming.

One hint David - use the "replace colour" tool under the "image - adjustments" menu to clear most of the background rubbish. Just sample to background using the "eye-dropper" icon to sample the background. Then reduce the saturation to zero and increase the luminance to the desired level. When the background is speckled, you may have to sample several times but it really does work and saves a lot of work with the erase tool.

The clone stamp tool is also extremely useful when "repairing" a textured finish such as on the coloured cover of a users' manual.

When the going really gets tough, recreation is the only way as can be seen on the last two pics. These are from scans of a rough Pye 815 manual and neede a lot of work The line drawing of the set, for example, had to be completely re-drawn using a CAD package (ACAD) and inserted into the cleaned-up page but the result was worth it.

The attached pics show the result using these methods.

[attachment=2099] [attachment=2100] [attachment=2101]

[Yorkie]

I use Photoshop CS3 and would not be without it. A brilliant program, I use it for everything graphic.
-Tony

But you, if I may say so Tony, are soaring with the Eagles, whereas I'm swimming with the pond life! I attended a ten week course 2 hrs a week to use Photoshop, and pre-enrollment, students were given a check-list pointing out that the course assumed a level of competence in using a PC. For example, how to use WinXP, how to load, open and save a file, use a mouse an keyboard, and understand terms such as cursor. Anyone who didn't have these basic skills was told to not enrol on the course but to do a basic computing course first.

The reality was that most fellow students were a bunch of numpties, so much of the time was spent by the excellent tutor teaching them basic computing skills. EG, he started by saying 'boot up your computer, look on the desktop and you'll see an icon 'Local pictures'. Open that folder and open the file entitled Wilmington Bridge'. Some were quite literally looking on the tops of their desks and saying 'I haven't got a folder on my desk' - that's how stupid they were. They'd been asked to bring along their digital cameras and a 1gB memory stick. The woman next to me brought a digital cemara she'd had as a Christmas present, still shrink wrapped in its box two months later without the battery having been charged. Half of them hadn't a clue what a memory stick was or what one looked like, and some didn't know how to use their cameras When we got past that point, they were continually saying 'I've saved my pictures and can't find them on the computer. Because of course, they'd saved them back on the momory card. None of this had anything to do with developing competencies in the use of Photoshop. Absolutely dire, and truly frustrating for the tutor who had to slow things down to the lowest common denominator. Personally, from day one, I'd have told them they were on the wrong course and wouldn't be capable of competing this one.

That course was in Feb 2006, the fee for which, being over 60, was £25 for the ten sessions - very good value. However, the concessions have long since been scrapped and the fee for a ten-week course is now £130 - £13 per session. A well run course is far better than fumbling around using HELP screens and reading books, but not at that price.

Not wishing to get too political, but Governments (of any persuation) bang on about older people keeping active and getting stimulation and social contact to aid their mental wellbeing in their 'third age'. Many who in the past would have attend evening and day classes no longer do so because of the cost. Instead, they languish at home, often living alone, and then queue up in Doctor's surgeries to be treated for depression brought on by lonliness and lack of stimulation, and walk out with free prescriptions for anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Not me of course - it's being so cheerful that keeps me going - that and my Gospel singing (not!). But I do think it shows that when costs are cut and prices go up tenfold, that the law of unintended consequences kicks in and it becomes false economy. Back in 2006, I used to attend Model Engineering classes, and my wife and I attended French lessons. They've all folded - not enough enrol so the course gets cancelled. No prospect of any changes in the present economic climate.

Moan over - back to the plot, I think that a CAD course would be more approriate to such things as creating radio dials and the like, but I only use a fraction of the capabilty of Photoshop. I find the clone stamp tool especially useful for cleannig up pics, such as removing unwanted street furniture and signage, and poke around with the crop tool, fill, erase and paint.

David.

('Rotational whinger' - whose turn next?)

[Joe]

I did four years in FE and even back then getting the numbers up to the minimum required by the bean-counters was a problem. That's probably why a lot of your fellow students shouldn't have been on that course as if they had been back-squadded there wouldn't have been enough left to run it. This, of course, doesn't help the students who are at the appropriate starting level.

I've never done any evening classes or the like because I know I'll have to pay through the nose for something that's not very good. Apart from the thirteen quid a session fee you mentioned I'd also have to add £4.30 a time in 'bus fares.

- Joe

[Aerodyne]

I have to admit that I sympathise with you, David. Joe makes the valid point about the poor standards of tuition. When a course is offered an attempt is made to justify it - and the pay of the tutor - by enrolling sufficient numbers. If these happen to be drawn from less than able or suitable groups, so be it. The tutor has to do his best to teach against the odds. Of course it doesn't help matters if the tutor himself is a poor communicator (as they often are). Although in principle it has to be better to attend a course rather than read the HELP tab or consult a manual in order to learn a given program, in reality, unless the tutor is especially talented or able to overcome the difficulties he faces in getting his subject across to numpties (your word, David, but a useful one) then it may be best to muddle through on your own.

I've never attended evening classes for anything, having seen the general standard of the tutors back in the 1950s when I compulsorily attended night school for printing (we covered science, English language and practical skills and at the age of 16 I knew more than the English teacher and at least as much as the science teacher). I may be being unfair and it could be that many tutors are indeed perfectly capable of teaching - but that doesn't get around the numpty problem. On cruises I've watched as 'lessons' in basic computing were offered, and have seen the difficulties faced by tutors!

Teaching yourself something like Photoshop is a laborious process and getting older doesn't help, but I've been using it now for many years in its different iterations and feel at home with it. All I can suggest is that anyone contemplating Photoshop for the first time will indeed feel crushed by its apparent complexity... and perseverance is essential. That said it is the best program of its type that I've worked with.

I love the idea of souring with the eagles, which is one reason for my 'Aerodyne' handle - but try as I might, no matter how hard I flap my arms, I remain firmly attached to the ground...
-Tony

[Brianc]

The only evening class I have attended was one on basic clock repair given by an enthusiast. There were about 10 of us attending for 2.5 hours every week for 10 weeks. The tutor was excellent. He made us all little plywood stands to enable us to work on the clock movements, he brought in his own tools (none were supplied by the local authorities) such a spring winder, a bushing tool and his set of broaches. His enthusiasm certainly rubbed off on me and he was really able to help us all. We must have been very lucky. He got me so interested in clocks that I decided to make one of the well known John Wilding clocks, the English Regulator, and it stands in our dining room keeping good time and is a real tribute to Peter Stone, our tutor. Naturally, the course is no longer available!!!

[Steve_P]

You don't really need Photoshop actually. There's a program that Microsoft do called Paint, and that does the same thing. It's free and comes with the machine.

There's probably a similar program for Linux users.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[Yorkie]

Thanks for the interesting responses guys, and well done to Brian on his excellent creation from scratch of the TV info, also for the helpful tips. I do use Paint for such things as anotating pictures and drawings, and I've seen some splendid efforts by people who've made front panels for home-brew projects using Paint. I think the problem for some of us - me for example - is that we dabble in so many things that we end up not being truly competent in any of them because the time that has to be invested in moving up the learning curve is disproportionate and the 'opportunty cost' (the things that you could otherwise do with your time) is too great.

Photoshop has moved on quite a lot since the version that I still use from 2006 - Elements 4, and probably has lots of features that I'd never want to use. The nearest book I could find was 'Elements 8 in Easy Steps' so I fumble along with that, though naturally it's more about editing photographs than about what I want to do. I've been quite pleased with what I've been able to do in cleanning up dial scans and PCB artwork which has often been poor scans of magazine artwork, not of good enough quality to make a mask for UV exposure until the opacity of the tracks has been increased, and sometimes tracks widened or re-routed.

All good clean fun!

David