I'm working on some restoration methods

[Edaniel]

Hello everybody.
As a recent member, I inaugurate my presence with this first post of mine. I will do an introductory topic a litle bit later .
I am currently experimenting some restoration methods on old comic book scans. My goal is to get the original appearance of the colors, the more that I can.
I would like to have your opinion and your advices about my current tests. Here are some examples.
(excuse me in advance for any potential english mistakes, I'm not fluent)


example 1 :
Original page
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762652-1a.jpg
Restoration test
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762651-1b.jpg
black and white line
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762651-1c.jpg

Example 2:
Original page
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762652-2a.jpg
Restoration test
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762652-2b.jpg
Black and white line
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629762652-2c.jpg

Thanks a lot for your attention !
Edaniel

[Defiant1]

You started with some excellent scans, but I must say your results are amazing either way.
I wish your secrets were known so that other people could do the same.

[Edaniel]

Well thank you ! i'm glad you like the result.

Here I just did an attempt on a more common scan quality without any resolution improvement:
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629792009-cp3-05.jpg

It's basically some photoshop editings. But the process is not very easy though, so I compiled all the things that I experimented and found in several photoshop scripts in order to make it kinda "automatic". (or at least make it way more quick to do)
of course the quality of the final rendering will be good depending on a good quality and scan resolution. And there is of course always some handcraftings at the end because every scan is different.
Anyway my method aims to touch the original colors as little as possible because I want to keep the oldschool aspect. Of course, once the black line is extracted, a real restoration with crisp and clean (even modern) colors is possible with  this method, but it would have to be done completely by hand and it would take a very long time.

This attempt right here took me around 10 minutes to complete. Of course it could be better. it's just an example I did now.


I will explain my method more in details when it will be more effective.


[ EDIT ]
I searched for a better "old yellow removing" on another piece this afternoon. I get those results :
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629816520-pirates-03-14-test.jpg

[Yoc]

Hi Edaniel,
Congrats on your excellent work.  Some people like yourself want to have a pure white boarder for a background.  I suspect it's because of all the DC and Marvel reprints that do the same.

Personally I don't think that's the best way to represent these old books and the way they were created.  They were printed on newsprint which does have a colour that is close to the last sample you shared on the far left 'before' image.

Yes, over time more yellowing or tanning can appear.  Removing some yellow is good but when I do my editing I always leave some in there trying to match the original pulp paper.

You did do some excellent work though.  Each editor has their own goal for an ideal edit.  Your pages weren't overly garish like most modern reprints these days.  I'd enjoy seeing what you could do with the Target Comics v1 #7 which could use a lot of help.

Stay well,
-Yoc

[Edaniel]

Personally I don't think that's the best way to represent these old books and the way they were created.  They were printed on newsprint which does have a colour that is close to the last sample you shared on the far left 'before' image.

Yes, over time more yellowing or tanning can appear.  Removing some yellow is good but when I do my editing I always leave some in there trying to match the original pulp paper.

I'd enjoy seeing what you could do with the Target Comics v1 #7 which could use a lot of help.

-Yoc

Hello Yoc.

Thanks for your words.
Well, about what you said about the paper. I like both and I can do both.
The advantage of white boarders is that it can fit any kind of papers if it's printed but yes, I agree that the pulp paper feels very nice. While I was doing it, I was wondering if white boarders were good or not for a proper digital restoration.
It becomes a concept of "emulate old times with new aspect" I like that.

I did a little test follorwing your advice about the boarders. Tell me what you think about it
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629822505-test-paper.jpg

And I could definitively try to do some editing on Target Comics v1 #7

[Yoc]

Hi Daniel,
That's new one is better to my eye.  Maybe even a little more yellow would help (it looks grey/purple on my screen but that could be my monitor.)  Certainly better than the pure white in my opinion.

Good luck with the Target #7.  It's not a high resolution scan so I expect it would be a bigger job to edit though.

Thanks for all the work you're doing!
-Yoc

[Edaniel]

Alright then.
I couldn't resist, I tried my experiments on some other Target comics pages, like you suggested.
This time, no smoothed color at all , no white boarder here, only original material enhancement (hopefully not too much).
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629836516-target-7-02-b.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2021/34/2/1629836516-target-7-04-b.jpg

[Yoc]

Looks good!