I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
Moderator: MOD_nyhetsgrupper
-
Dave Hinz
Re: enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
On 5 Nov 2006 01:07:59 -0800, benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca <benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca> wrote:
Probably too late after the fact, but I've seen studies where two photos
were taken of the same stone with lighting from 2 different angles. You
then digitally subtract the two which makes the letters stand out.
Requires a tripod and for you to not move the camera between photos.
Otherwise, I'd say photoshop and play with things in the "filters"
category. Edge detect may help, removing colors may help. Depends on a
lot of things.
I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
Probably too late after the fact, but I've seen studies where two photos
were taken of the same stone with lighting from 2 different angles. You
then digitally subtract the two which makes the letters stand out.
Requires a tripod and for you to not move the camera between photos.
Otherwise, I'd say photoshop and play with things in the "filters"
category. Edge detect may help, removing colors may help. Depends on a
lot of things.
-
Dennis Lee Bieber
Re: enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
On 5 Nov 2006 01:07:59 -0800, benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca declaimed the
following in soc.genealogy.computing:
Probably using a P&S camera with on-camera (close to lens) flash?
Such a flash washes out the details of carvings (no shadow/highlight on
the edges).
Suggest for the future that one obtain a fold-up reflector (a 32"
silver/white should be sufficient), and angle it to bounce sunlight in
from the the side of the stone (or, if you can find one, a silver/black
allows the black side to be used as a light block).
SSSSSSSS
r
r
r
r
C
SSSSs stone
rrs reflector
C camera
Disable camera flash. If the camera has a remote release, put it on
a tripod, set for remote, and then you can manipulate the reflector for
best contrast on the carvings (helpful when you don't have someone else
to hold the reflector).
As for the images you do have. Lots of experimentation in PhotoShop
(though with luck, as you get the details out of one image you can
duplicate the recipe on the others)
Edge detection. Maybe a touch of gaussian blur (yes, blur to flatten
out the sharp peaks of rough surfaced stone, in the hopes that
subsequent processing won't result in lots of speckles from surface,
just the highlights of the carving). Curves (trying to kick what little
contrast there is up higher). Duplicate layers set to multiple or screen
(the effect of multiply is to leave the brightest spots alone, but
darken the rest -- if you consider a color to run from 0.0 to 1.0, then
multiply is just that: 1.0x1.0 => 1.0; 0.5x0.5 => 0.25; 0.0x0.0 => 0.0).
Adjust saturation. Maybe use the channels mixer to see if one or two
channels result in a monochrome image with more details.
--
bieber.genealogy Dennis Lee Bieber
HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/
following in soc.genealogy.computing:
I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
Probably using a P&S camera with on-camera (close to lens) flash?
Such a flash washes out the details of carvings (no shadow/highlight on
the edges).
Suggest for the future that one obtain a fold-up reflector (a 32"
silver/white should be sufficient), and angle it to bounce sunlight in
from the the side of the stone (or, if you can find one, a silver/black
allows the black side to be used as a light block).
SSSSSSSS
r
r
r
r
C
SSSSs stone
rrs reflector
C camera
Disable camera flash. If the camera has a remote release, put it on
a tripod, set for remote, and then you can manipulate the reflector for
best contrast on the carvings (helpful when you don't have someone else
to hold the reflector).
As for the images you do have. Lots of experimentation in PhotoShop
(though with luck, as you get the details out of one image you can
duplicate the recipe on the others)
Edge detection. Maybe a touch of gaussian blur (yes, blur to flatten
out the sharp peaks of rough surfaced stone, in the hopes that
subsequent processing won't result in lots of speckles from surface,
just the highlights of the carving). Curves (trying to kick what little
contrast there is up higher). Duplicate layers set to multiple or screen
(the effect of multiply is to leave the brightest spots alone, but
darken the rest -- if you consider a color to run from 0.0 to 1.0, then
multiply is just that: 1.0x1.0 => 1.0; 0.5x0.5 => 0.25; 0.0x0.0 => 0.0).
Adjust saturation. Maybe use the channels mixer to see if one or two
channels result in a monochrome image with more details.
--
bieber.genealogy Dennis Lee Bieber
HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/
-
Lesley Robertson
Re: enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
<benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca> wrote in message
news:1162717678.954923.70630@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
section. Sometimes, removing one colour from the mix helps, or making the
picture b/w. Other times, using the 3-D effects makes things stand out a bit
more, or upping the contrast helps. There's no general rule, you just have
to play with it (and make sure that you keep copies of the original images
as what you produce may not be pretty).
If you visit another such place, I've found that with very badly weathered
stones, the best thing is to close my eyes and try and trace letters with my
fingertips. It's slow, but often does help.
Lesley Robertson
news:1162717678.954923.70630@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
I put images of stones into Photoshop and then play with the special effects
section. Sometimes, removing one colour from the mix helps, or making the
picture b/w. Other times, using the 3-D effects makes things stand out a bit
more, or upping the contrast helps. There's no general rule, you just have
to play with it (and make sure that you keep copies of the original images
as what you produce may not be pretty).
If you visit another such place, I've found that with very badly weathered
stones, the best thing is to close my eyes and try and trace letters with my
fingertips. It's slow, but often does help.
Lesley Robertson
-
singhals
Re: enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca wrote:
As others have suggested, make a COPY of your photo, and
tweak the copy by raising/lowering contrast and tweaking the
other buttons in your photoware, one at a time. Each photo
will be different, unforunately, and each tweak will take
time. Grey-Scale may be better all-round-- I had several
photos taken on the same day in color and the bottom line
was, I could have the vegetation something close to reality
or I could have the stones legible, but I couldn't have both
in the same picture. So I kept two copies -- one with
pretty grass & trees, one with a legible stone.
Next trip, stand about 30-degrees off-center of the stone on
at least one shot. Take the head-on shot for "proof", but
the off-center one will often show the carving better. A
sheet of white foam-board and a curved "foot" for it is also
a good idea. Even a piece of metallic fast-food wrapper
might help. (g)
Cheryl
I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
As others have suggested, make a COPY of your photo, and
tweak the copy by raising/lowering contrast and tweaking the
other buttons in your photoware, one at a time. Each photo
will be different, unforunately, and each tweak will take
time. Grey-Scale may be better all-round-- I had several
photos taken on the same day in color and the bottom line
was, I could have the vegetation something close to reality
or I could have the stones legible, but I couldn't have both
in the same picture. So I kept two copies -- one with
pretty grass & trees, one with a legible stone.
Next trip, stand about 30-degrees off-center of the stone on
at least one shot. Take the head-on shot for "proof", but
the off-center one will often show the carving better. A
sheet of white foam-board and a curved "foot" for it is also
a good idea. Even a piece of metallic fast-food wrapper
might help. (g)
Cheryl
-
Maloney Empire
Re: enhancing digital photographs of gravestones
Sometimes changing the photo to a negative helps.
--
Di Maloney
Please remove 1 from email address to reply direct.
<benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca> wrote in message
news:1162717678.954923.70630@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
| I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
| the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
| to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
| photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
|
--
Di Maloney
Please remove 1 from email address to reply direct.
<benzion.shapiro@utoronto.ca> wrote in message
news:1162717678.954923.70630@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
| I recently took a large number of digital photographs of gravestones in
| the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. Most of the stones were illegible due
| to weathering and I have been hoping to find a way to enhance the
| photographs sufficiently to render them more readable? Any suggestions?
|