Historical photo: a gypsy band Questa pagina è disponibile soltanto in inglese. La traduzione
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Here is an archive photo of a gypsy band. The photo is badly
damaged and is covered with numerous scratches and folds; the edges are jagged.
We should note that the photo has a historical value as it reflects the culture of a nation. The gypsies lead a nomadic life and their photos are quite rare. Here we can see gypsy costumes and musical instruments. We should keep the photo for future generations.
However, with time, archive photos do not get any better. That's why they are being digitized. In this case one can apply up-to-date image processing technologies to enhance the old images.
First of all we should prepare the photo for retouching. We open the scanned
photo in Adobe Photoshop (or other photo editors). We rotate the image by calling the command Image => Rotate
Canvas => Arbitrary and entering the value of 2,1° CCW (counterclockwise).
Then we cut off the parts of the image that do not contain any useful information.
For this purpose we take the  Crop
Tool or press the key C on the keyboard. Select the part of the image that
should be kept and press Enter. The parts of the image outside the selection
will be removed.
Now, it's time to improve the photo's contrast. We'll do it in the following way.
We call the command Adjustments => Brightness/Contrast from
the menu Image and enter 7 in the Contrast
field.
We will use AKVIS Retoucher Plug-in to restore the damaged photo faster. First of all, we should select areas for retouching. You can use any selection tool. In Adobe Photoshop the easiest way is to use the Quick Mask mode. We switch to the Quick Mask mode by pressing
the button  Edit
in Quick Mask Mode in the Toolbar or the hot key Q.
Then we take the  Pencil
Tool from the Toolbar (hotkey - B) and use it to select the defects in the
Quick Mask mode.
We switch back to the Standard Mode by pressing the button  Edit
in Standard Mode in the Toolbar (or the hotkey - Q).
Then we invert the selection either by calling the command Inverse in
the menu item Select or by using the key combination Ctrl+Shift+I.
Now we can start the Retoucher Plugin. In the menu item Filters we select the line
AKVIS => Retoucher.
For the program to start retouching we should press the green button  .
Please note, that you can not apply the Retoucher plug-in if no area is selected.
The selected areas are highlighted in red. As Retoucher restores the damages areas,
the red mask disappears giving place to the restored texture.
When Retoucher is through with its job, we press the button  to
apply the restoration result.
The Retoucher window closes and we see the photo in the Photoshop workspace.
The areas to be retouched are still selected. We can remove selection
by calling the command Deselect from the menu item Select or by using the key
combination Ctrl+D.
The Plugin did a good job. However, we still see some imperfections,
for example, a slight difference of the background in the areas of the former
folds.
They can be retouched by Photoshop tools or by the plug-in AKVIS Stamp:
 -
Blur Tool (the hotkey R);
 -
Healing Brush Tool (the hotkey J);
 -
Smudge (the hotkey R).
 -
Clone Stamp (the hotkey S).
When the retouching process is over, we get the following photo:
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