Digital Restoration From Start to Finish - Review

Review by Mario Georgiou
Digital Restoration From Start to Finish - Photo-Repair.com
Author: Ctein - Ctein.com
Publisher: Focal Press - Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier
480 pages
ISBN: 0-240-80814-2
US $39.95 UK £24.99

Having recovered and restored many photos over the years, it was with great interest that I requested "Digital Restoration From Start to Finish" for review. It like several other titles I have recently reviewed from Focal Press are hefty and well presented reference books.

Ctein is a photographer and imageer who has served the online imaging and photo community for many years, offering both his valuable expertise and keen insights. His work in photography and computers has established him as an expert in photographic arts and technologies. He is recognised by Kodak as one of the foremost colour print makers in the world.

The book itself is an insightful and well presented work which reflects both the skill and passion Ctein has placed into his field of expertise. It begins by covering many of the tools, technologies and issues which have to be considered before beginning to repair and restore any photos. The software covered is largely cross-platform in nature; however several of the tools featured are only available for Windows.

Ctein has arranged the book to work in a kind of project centric structure so that readers can pick and chose the information they want to use. The book covers how to prepare and clean images for scanning and also provides some excellent tips on how to scan different materials for the best results.

The book continues with coverage on how to restore colour, improve skin tones, repair scratches, tears, stains and other issues. The information available is quite in depth and to be honest it might lose the less proficient imageer. As Photoshop is used throughout the book I recommend that you at least develop a decent level of familiarity with this tool.

The last sections of the book are devoted to how to profile your printer, black and white toning, display and storage of prints for longevity and digital archiving. Although pretty good these sections are a little thin on the ground and could have done with some expansion, especially in light of how detailed the rest of the reference is.

Overall I enjoyed this excellent book as I work with a lot of analogue media. However I would like to see this book rewritten in part to include media which has digital origination. That would in my mind complete this otherwise excellent volume.

Cons - Little Coverage of the process of recovering badly degraded Digital Images. No CD with images and materials for the tutorials.

Pros - Professional and extensive coverage of the issues surrounding handling old and damages materials and photos. Comprehensive. Highly Technical.

Ctein has produced an excellent reference which will teach even the most experienced of us a trick or two. It is a highly technical and comprehensive look at the issues which will affect the restoration of old and damaged images and also one which offers much in the way of effective solutions for the imageer to use in solving these problems. Highly recommended.

Filter Forge Release Photoshop Filter Suite

Filter Forge have released a suite of Photoshop Filters for creating artistic and graphical effects. The Suite comes in 3 flavours and are aimed at Graphic artists, Illustrators and Photographers. Filter Forge also allows computer artists to build their own filters through the powerful visual node based filter editor. Using this powerful tool you can easily create seamless textures, visual effects, distortions, patterns, backgrounds, frames and more. The Basic, Standard and Professional editions, priced at $99, $199 and $299 respectively, offer different features-sets for entry-level, mainstream and professional graphic artists. For more info visit Filter Forge. Some of the filters look very good and there are also many presets available in their online filter library.

Uwe Steinmueller Video on Digital Imaging Tech

Google invited Uwe Steinmueller to present a talk on non-destructive and selective editng of photos. The video is and excellent source of information and well worth watching or downloading. The video is about 60 minutes long and Google.

Public Beta of Fluid Mask 3

Vertus, announced the Public Beta of Fluid Mask 3. Fluid Mask 3 is a powerful and intuitive masking and high-quality image blending tool. Fluid Mask 3 is available as a stand-alone and Photoshop Plug-in. With Version 3 there have been enhancements with the edge detection and performance along with added improvements with blending and a new "Save Settings" option; a "Color Work Space" palette which now includes a "Color Sampler", and which enables users to select specific colors from an image and to see where else the same color appears. Also available is the "Color Work Space", a new 2-D color map enables more accurate color selection.

There are several new brush tools and an improved "Localized Edge Detection System" which enables users to perform more detailed edge finding and more refined blending. The new "Patch" system allows users to make localized changes. For more information and to download the public beta, visit Vertus Tech

Kata Release Visible Dust Sensor Loupe

Kata have announced the availability of the Visible Dust Sensor Loupe. This new, high quality magnifier is designed for inspecting DSLR sensors and allowing users to effectively clean their DSLR Sensors. For more information about this excellent unit visit http://www.visibledust.com/.

Lightzone 3.0 Released

Lightcrafts have released Lightzone 3.o. Sporting a new user interface and several new capabilities. New features include:
Working with Styles (aka templates)
History palette
New Relight tool (aka ToneMapper)
Editing of some key metadata fields
New Lift Tool

I'm very keen to give 3.0 a try but you can read more about it's new capabilities over at DOP

Akvis Enhancer 6.0 Released

Akvis have released V6 of their Enhancer plug-in for improving detail in underexposed and overexposed photos. AKVIS Enhancer draws out details by enhancing the differences between adjacent pixels that have different color and tonal values and bringing out details in the shadows, mid-tones and overexposed areas. Many of these capabilities are available in applications that support HDR based processing but Enhancer can produce excellent results using just one image.

To try out Akvis Enhancer and find out more information visit Akvis.com

Amazon Acquires DPReview

Amazon announced in this Press Release that they have acquired DPReview. As a long time reader of Phil Askeys site I can only be happy for him and pleased that his hard work has paid off... Good work, I look forward to seeing what's next...

Nik Software Announce Dfine 2.0

Nik Software have announce the availability of Version 2 of Dfine. This Noise reduction plug-in solution for Photoshop allows a great deal of selective control and features a revamped image processing core. The noise reduction capabilities are excellent and do a good job of maintaining exisiting detail and sharpness in the processed image. Other key Features and enhancements include:

The creation and sharing of your own profiles, with the use of a precise auto profiling system or through the manual creation of a noise reduction profile.

Profiles can be automatically loaded based on image EXIF data, saving time and ensuring an efficient workflow. This feature, however, requires a profile to have been created with Dfine 2.0 for a specific camera and ISO combination

Enhanced selective capabilities, include:

Control Points powered by U Point™ technology – This works via a single mouse click, where you place Control Points on an image and selectively adjust the amount of contrast (luminance) and color (chrominance) noise reduction.

Colors Ranges – by using an eyedropper tool to select colors, you can also reduce noise based on a range of colors. This method is ideal for batch processing a series of images.

Selective Tool – this works by using brushes allowing noise reduction to be applied selectively. For added control and fine detail adjustments, Dfine also supports pressure sensitive features optimized for Wacom® Pen Tablets.

Dfine 2.0 also has a newly redesigned user interface, which enables you to resize it (the interface) to match your workflow needs. The UI also features a new, unique Navigator Loupe which either shows details under the mouse or provides a bird's eye view of the current image. For more info read theDfine Press Release or the Product Page.