Cleaning I need hepl! Really LQ scans

[MintRainbow]

Hey, guys!
I usualy edit HQ or at least MQ raws, but this time I was asked to clean LQ pages... Thats really funny but i dont really know how do deal with this nightmare!
Im trying leveling it to get rid of images that you can see on the back of the page, but Im loosing patterns and its getting too light, is there any suggestions what i should do?

 

[illiteracy]

Leveling doesn't get rid of bleed through. There aren't really many options open for you, you could try to clone over it but obviously that's not going to happen. About all you can do is what you would normally: rotate, crop, level black/white, and maybe dust hunt.

Either buy/scan better raws, edit as you would normally, or don't do it at all.

 

[Name-Undecided]

There's only so much you can do with ultra LQ raws, especially that small. Do the normal stuff (rotate, crop, etc) and then go in there manually with the white brush, dodge tool and burn tool and make it look as good as you can. I don't recommend using filters because of all the fine textures that would be lost.

 

[jamjamstyle]

Ehm, seems like a hard one (not experienced doing LQ pages), but instead of going through the trouble of using the brush, why not trying to get it in this state? (and then from here start leveling/experimenting as much as you want) I think it's better then dealing with the bleeding on those pages.

Spoiler

Of course, there's still detail loss as Name-Undecided mentioned when you use those ways =( but that's up to you to decide.

 

[tyresonance]

There's only so much you can do with ultra LQ raws, especially that small. Do the normal stuff (rotate, crop, etc) and then go in there manually with the white brush, dodge tool and burn tool and make it look as good as you can. I don't recommend using filters because of all the fine textures that would be lost.

Under normal circumstances, I agree that you shouldn't use filters; but given the fact that you have pretty bad raws, they are your best option. I tried the method I would use and I got a pretty decent result:

Spoiler

Excuse the quick clean. I didn't clean this thoroughly, so yours should turn out better than mine.

For these circumstances, I use a method used/created by Maximum7. This is what you do:

1) Crop, rotate, duplicate layer (do not level)

2) With the mode on Grayscale, go to Image>Adjustments>Replace color. set the settings to
-----> fuzziness on 80.
-----> Below this there are two options, selection and image. click on image.
-----> Lightness should be set to 100

Notice that the cursor turns into a dropper when you hover over the page? Use this dropper cursor to click on a spot that should be white. Now go back to the replace color box and click Ok.

3) Duplicate this layer twice (which i will call duplicate 1 and duplicate 2)

4) with the layer Duplicate 1 active, change the layer type from normal to multiply. Set the transparency to 50%.

5) keeping the same layer active, go to filters> stylize>diffuse. in this box select anisotropic. Then click OK.

6) Click on the layer duplicate 2, set layer from normal to soft light.

7) on the same layer we will apply two filters:
-----> go to filter>other>High pass. Set radius to 15 px.
-----> go to filter>blur>gaussian blur. Set radius to 2.7
Note: Usually these are good settings but sometimes you might need to adjust it slightly depending on how it looks on the raw.

8) now we can Level. Go to layer> new adjustment layer> levels. Level accordingly. Make sure this layer is above all the background layers we've worked on.

9) Now you can burn, hunt dust, etc.

Hope that answers your question and helps you on future lq raws.