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[Yoc]

Very cool!
Thanks for yet another great tutorial Jim!

[JVJ]

Yeah, Yoc,
I'm full of 'em (or, full of it - I seem to hear both phrases applied). If we're ever going to get all these comics scanned, we're gonna have to streamline the process. If I can be of assistance in making it easier, I'll do what I can.

If people want to post their methods (PS or PS Elements only, as that's really all I know) like Cimm did, I'll be more than happy to offer alternatives or suggestions - if I know of any.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Yoc]

Hi Jim,
Please check your JVJ folder on the FTP for a PL pages folder.
In it are a finished page from PL19 and the raw original from OtherEric (before he started to share TIFF files) as well as another page I was saving for a later day when I was more brave but had colour corrected a touch.  I called it -partial.
Finally I've uploaded IFC splash (which I swear looks more like it was printed on normal interior pages from the yellowing...) for PL14.  And chance you could take a look at is and see if it can be tweaked?  If you can only pick one please try this one as it's for OtherEric as well as myself.  He found it on eBay and it would bring us much closer to the Fox book than the current IW reprint on GAC shows.  (My own version of this page can be found inside OtherEric's folder if you wanted to see the sad job I did on it.)

Thanks again for all these tips, I'm really loving this thread guys! 
-Yoc

[JVJ]

Hi, Yoc,
I checked your corrected interior page and it looked fine to me. I guess the only question I'd have is "how long did it take you?" I played around with the PL19 page and couldn't come up with any magic shortcuts. It seems to take about 30-50 minutes a panel for me (I only did TWO panels). Here's my results, starting with the layer showing the UNTOUCHED original scan, which still sits pristine under all of my corrections, as you can see by the layers palette to the right:



Then I added a layer above the Background and used the Clone Stamp tool and paintbrush tool to cover up the misregistrations. Here's that layer:



To that I added an overlay layer (mislabeled "difference" in the screen capture) to darken the spotty black areas and lighten some of the word balloons, and a Levels Adjustment Layer to tone down the browning and bring back some of the colors:



Again, I only did the top two panels...

I don't know whether it would be worth it to you, but Photoshop CS4 has a wonderful addition to the clone stamp tool. When you select a source and then move your brush into the area you want to cover up, the source image is previewed in the brush tip.

So when you alt click on a red tint, you see the position of the pattern previewed against the tint you're trying to extend. PLUS in both CS3 and CS4, you can now set up to FOUR clone sources. This means that if you are working with tints of different colors and/or screens, you can set one source to line up with all of the red tints, another for the blues and another for the yellows, etc. I use the preview more than the clone sources, but both are handy.

As for the ifc of PL 14, you're faced with three very serious limitations:

1. It's not a scan, it's a digital photo - and not a very good one.

2. It started life as a jpeg and has tons of compression artifacts in it - which makes it very blotchy.

3. The second color is blue, which is the noisiest and dirtiest of the RGB channels and also happens to be the complement of yellow. That makes correcting for the yellowed paper more difficult because every change in yellow also causes a change in blue. Yikes.

Having said all that, I tried to improve things a bit. You be the judge of whether or not I succeeded. As I said, it was NOT a simple fix:



I've got my first proof of ImageS 11 out for review, but I still have some writing to do, so I best get back to it.

If you'd like to talk about any of the things I've done here, you have my phone number, Yoc.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Yoc]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your time and comments on these.
The PL19 register pages are taking me about the same amount of time as you.  Thankfully some pages aren't as badly registered as others but 3-4hrs a page isn't hard to do.
That's very interesting about the multiple clone points in C4 too.

What I noticed about the PL14 ifc was the camera flash glare in the lower right quarter of the scan.  It meant colour correction would blast out the text box.  I used a circle marquee with 50px feathering and a colour balance overlay layer to darken up only the flash area.  Then I applied a sharpen filter only on the text box and title circle to increase readability. 
To avoid the colour balance problems you mentioned I gave up on shooting for a white background and stuck with a heavy yellow but brighter blue.  I think we both produced improved pages in the end.

If anyone cares to see my version click on the thumbnail and be patient for the image to appear...


Take care,
-Yoc

[OtherEric]

We got the Phantom Lady IFC from eBay, I asked somebody I had bought another book from if they could get me a photograph or scan of the cover since we were missing the page.  So it's far from ideal, but it beats the heck out of the missing page the story has had for years since we got our scan of that book from the IW reprint.

I'm playing with this one myself a little; I converted the text box from Yoc's version to grayscale and pasted it into JVJ's.  Which looks slightly off kilter but may be the best balance between image clarity and legible text.  It's in my folder on the FTP if anybody wants to comment.

More generally, I want to thank everybody for this thread; and Yoc and JVJ in specific for their work on the IFC.  I'm learning a lot from it; even if my own skills are still limited.

[JVJ]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your time and comments on these.
The PL19 register pages are taking me about the same amount of time as you.  Thankfully some pages aren't as badly registered as others but 3-4hrs a page isn't hard to do.
That's very interesting about the multiple clone points in C4 too.

What I noticed about the PL14 ifc was the camera flash glare in the lower right quarter of the scan.  It meant colour correction would blast out the text box.  I used a circle marquee with 50px feathering and a colour balance overlay layer to darken up only the flash area.  Then I applied a sharpen filter only on the text box and title circle to increase readability. 
To avoid the colour balance problems you mentioned I gave up on shooting for a white background and stuck with a heavy yellow but brighter blue.  I think we both produced improved pages in the end.

If anyone cares to see my version click on the thumbnail and be patient for the image to appear...


Take care,
-Yoc

I think you might find the clone preview to be of immense help, Yoc,
This is the first time I used it and I was REALLY happy to be able to line up the tint patterns so easily.

That was a good idea about fixing the glare. I should have thought about doing something like that, but was too challenged by the complexities of the color corrections. I'm not especially happy with my version, but there are two things I would critique about yours:

1. The paper is just too red. It doesn't look like any comic page I've ever seen in real life. Believe me, I understand the trade-offs you made, but that color isn't right. NEITHER is mine! It's totally too blue/gray, which isn't a real comic cover paper color either - there MUST be a happy medium somewhere (Maybe Zatanna is in a good mood today?).

2. Your adjustments eliminated some of the blue tint on PL's legs and on the "swoosh" of her flight path. Consequently, one of the neat effects used by the colorist of the flashlight beam washing out the color is lost. You heightened the solid blues but somehow lost some of the subtle shades/tints including some nice little blueish highlights on her cape. While I kept some of them, the jpeg nature of the initial file defeated us both when it came to balancing the subtleties of the blue/black of the image with the yellow/red of the paper. You're right, each is an improvement, but neither is where I'd like it to be.

Still, you did good in many ways. And, by the way, when I cropped the image, I turned on the [perspective] box on the crop tool which allows you to move each corner of the cropping box independently of the others. You can use it to correct minor perspective distortions like the one in the original photo. FYI.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Yoc]

Hi Jim,
All good points and I completely forgot about the perspective options while worrying about the glare and text boxes.

Eric, I find your text box easier to read than mine so well done!

[OtherEric]

Answering your question from Narfstar's thread, Jim:

Generally uploads are 150 PPI Jpegs.  But that's FAR from universal.  I think most comic reader programs can handle several other file types- but not TIFFs, for example- and page size ranges all over the board.  I will vary somewhat depending on the book; normally I'll go for 150 but for higher profile books or books with denser art I'll go for 200.

[JVJ]

Then the answer to Narf's question is that sending 150 ppi tiffs is probably just fine, Eric,
The conversion to jpeg should be the FINAL step in the process and done after all cleaning and other adjustments. Keeping the 300 ppi tiffs is an archival step, and transfers need only be at whatever the final jpeg resolution will be.

Hope that helps.

Jim (|:{>

[OtherEric]

Useful to know; I'll stop sending 300 PPI tiff's to people to edit, then. 

Thank you again for your advice, Jim.  I can't speak for everybody but you have been an ENORMOUS help to a lot of us here on all manner of topics.

[JVJ]

You're welcome, Eric,
It's my pleasure. With great powers come great responsibilities.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

ps. I spent all day today in South San Francisco at a Photoshop seminar to learn MORE. Now if I could ever work my way through that darn color correction book...

[Drusilla lives!]

Love the comics I've downloaded, but sometimes the scans are a bit washed out with regard to color.  I've been playing around with adjusting the colors on some of them myself.  If anyones interested, I could do this for a couple of other comics as well... I don't have many golden age books to scan and upload, but perhaps I can help in this capacity. 

I'd attach some samples but for some reason I keep getting a "Cannot access attachments upload path!" error.   

[Yoc]

Yeah, sorry DL, that function is fubar.
You can use a site like Imageshack to post a scan here if you want to share something.
I recommend posting the thumbnail as opposed to the actual full size scan.  Once a person clicks on the thumbnail a new page will open with the full size image.

-Yoc

[Drusilla lives!]

Yeah, sorry DL, that function is fubar.
You can use a site like Imageshack to post a scan here if you want to share something.
I recommend posting the thumbnail as opposed to the actual full size scan.  Once a person clicks on the thumbnail a new page will open with the full size image.

-Yoc

Thanks for the heads up Yoc. 

Hopefully this works.

[Yoc]

Works fine DL