Exceptional new plugin to restore faded transparencies/photos

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http://www.gimpusers.de/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html 2 rating(s) with 5.0 of 5 stars in average

1. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Sat Feb 28 10:33:36 2009 François, 28 Feb 2009 10:33 AM

   Thank you.
   It works fine under Windows too.

2. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Sat Feb 28 10:51:19 2009 François, 28 Feb 2009 10:51 AM

   The plugin seems to work with images from negatives too. But it seems to be aimed mainly on restoring transparencies.

3. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Mon Mar 2 13:46:25 2009 ChrisM, 02 Mar 2009 01:46 PM

   this is really cool! thanks a lot to the author of the plugin. i have a lot of kodak transparencies in my archive which are quite old. the plugin works very good and produces nice results.
   
   under windows you need to install pygtk, pycairo and pygobject in order to run the script with GIMP.

4. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Fri Mar 20 21:22:07 2009 geoff, 20 Mar 2009 09:22 PM

   Thanks for the encouraging comments. I have put out a new version of the plug-in with some bugs fixed. None of the bugs found affects restored images using the default settings. The main bug was that the "Degree of Restoration" slider did not always work as intended.
   
   I have been asked how to make the plug-in work in windows. I do not use gimp with windows and although the messages above confirm that it can be made to work it does not appear to be very simple. I wonder if someone could take the trouble to post some careful step-by-step instructions to help users interested in the plug-in.

5. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Fri Mar 20 23:53:44 2009 devvv, 20 Mar 2009 11:53 PM

   hello geoff!
   
   thanks for posting - our german community is posting more actively -> http://www.gimpusers.de/news/2009-02-28/aussergewoehnliches-plugin-fuer-alte-fotos.html
   
   they've been trying alot to get this working. here is a step by step-instruction for windows users:
   
   uninstall GIMP first.
   
   download:
   *ttp://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.1/
   and install it. (don't use python 3)
   
   then download:
   *ttp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/pycairo/1.4/
   *ttp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/pygobject/2.14/
   *ttp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/pygtk/2.12/
   and install these packages.
   
   reinstall gimp - check "custom install" - then there will be a python-checkbox available. check it and install.
   
   IMPORTANT: you need python 2.6.1 - python 3 is not compatible as it seems... may people got it to work using this procedure!

6. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Thu May 14 23:58:19 2009 Waina Miranda, 14 May 2009 11:58 PM

   I would like to know how to install pygtk, pycairo and pygobject to run under windows. Where do I find this information?
   Thanks.

7. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Wed Feb 10 21:21:14 2010 Mark Rabideau, 10 Feb 2010 09:21 PM

   For some reason I am unable to get the Restore.py 2.7.1 of gimp. I have installed per the above instructions but for reason I do not see the restore option in GIMP any ideas???
   
   Thanks.
   ...mark

8. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Tue Apr 27 21:51:23 2010 Peter P, 27 Apr 2010 09:51 PM

   This is a wonderful improvement over trying to restore transparencies manually. I'm having an odd problem, though: the resulting images are very saturated and "edgy", as if the contrast was too high. This is with Gimp 2.6.8 on Windows. Anyone else experiencing this?

9. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Sat May 8 11:25:39 2010 geoff, 08 May 2010 11:25 AM

   Since non one else has replied I will comment on my recent experience using my own plug-in. I also find that I cannot usually do much better manually. I agree colours are sometimes too strong but this can usually be avoided by reducing the "degree of restoration" slider to 0.7 or 0.8 which takes a weighted average of the restored and original image. I find I can usually recognize a restored photo by the green sky and ginger-brown and purple-grey colours. The fact that these are recognizable is good because it means that the algorithm used could be improved. I will continue to think about the problem. The plug-in does badly if the original is wrongly exposed or has become very dark with age and obviously it cannot handle pictures that are intended to have one overall colour. Sunsets do not usually restore well! Please feel free to send me (geoff@lionhouse.plus.com) examples that you think might be useful in improving the program.

10. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Sun May 9 23:48:28 2010 Karen, 09 May 2010 11:48 PM

    I'm so frustrated! I'm running Gimp 2.6.8 for Mac OS X and have placed the restore.py in the /temp/skl/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins folder and... nothing. No menu change, no filter. What am I doing wrong or step am I missing? I'm dying to give this plug-in some good hard use but haven't found anyone or anyplace that is willing to help me figure this out.

11. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Wed May 19 15:53:50 2010 Ian, 19 May 2010 03:53 PM

    This is brilliant! I agree with Peter P that the results are somewhat saturated, but they sure look better than the yellowed originals! I will try it with Geoff's suggestion (Comment #9) and suspect that will improve things.
    
    @ Waina Miranda - if you go to the pages mentioned for those three files and download the last .exe file in each case (not the .exe.asc file) and then just run it to install it, you should have success.
    
    @ Mark Rabideau - if you follow t devvv's instructions I don't think you need the Restore.py plugin?? Geoff might like to comment on this...

12. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Wed Jun 2 10:15:57 2010 geoff, 02 Jun 2010 10:15 AM

    Several people have had problems getting my plug-in to work on a Mac, so here are some detailed instructions.
    
    HOW TO INSTALL THE GIMP PLUG-IN RESTORE.PY ON A MAC
    
    Download the plugin-in from
    
    www.lionhouse.plus.com/photosoftware/gimp_plug-ins/
    
    In the directory containing the downloaded file change the permissions to
    make it executable as follows:
    
    Check the permissions by typing ls -l in a terminal window
    The beginning of the line including Restore.py should read -rwxrwxrwx but
    the x's will probably be missing.
    Type chmod 0777 Restore.py
    Check that the permissions have been changed by typing ls -l again
    
    For those not familiar with using unix commands like ls or chmod on a Mac you
    can open a terminal window and type: man ls or man chmod to get the manual on
    these or other commands.
    
    Copy the file Restore.py to the directory where Gimp stores its plug-ins.
    This seems to depend on how Gimp was installed. On the system I have looked
    at it is:
    
    /Users/Your_User_Name/Library/Applications Support/Gimp/plug-ins
    
    Note this directory may be hidden and you need to use a terminal window and the
    ls and cd commands to see it and use the cp command to copy the file.
    
    Python is normally already installed, check by typing python in a terminal
    window. You need python 2.6.1 (or probably other python 2.x); python 3 is not
    compatible.
    
    The plug-in can easily be made to work on a Mac, the only difficulties are
    making the file executable and finding out where to put it.

13. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Wed Jun 2 14:47:54 2010 devvv, 02 Jun 2010 02:47 PM

    thanks alot for posting these instructions geoff!

14. http://www.gimpusers.com/news/2009-02-28/exceptional-plugin-photo-restore.html Fri Jun 11 08:23:53 2010 Karen, 11 Jun 2010 08:23 AM

    Wonderful! Thanks to this, I have a whole family history of pictures that look sooo much better!