Image enhancement

[Ed]

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

I have two images that are of a makers mark on a sword. These things tend to be stamped in less than perfectly. That is to say that one stamp might be complete but light, another might be incomplete, and so on.

I know that there are ways of superimposing multiple images and adding or averaging or subtracting them to yield a better final image. Does anyone here know of such a program? I would prefer shareware since spending $100+ on a one off project violates my ethos of cheap.

Any thoughts?

[jimlintott]

You could try the Gimp (http://www.gimp.org) . It is a *nix app but there is Gimp for Windows (http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/) .

You can layer the images and blend them with a variety of filters. It also offers some enhancments like edge detect. It has good online documentation. (http://www.gimp.org/docs.html)

It's free (http://www.gnu.org) software (rather than Shareware) so give it a try.

[shanek]

The GIMP. (www.gimp.org)

You'll need to take the photos of the marks with the same camera at the same distance/angle. Once you do that, put each one on a separate layer lined up together. A simple Overlay on the layers should bring it out nicely. (When you Overlay a layer, the light parts become lighter and the dark parts darker.)

[Ed]

Thank you kindly. I will do it post-bird.

I will leave you with this thought

Gollum: <singing> The rock and pool is nice and cool, so nice for feet! I only wish <Whacks the fish on the rock> to catch a fish <whacks>, so juicy sweet! <The fish almost wriggles out of his grasp and he whacks it some more.>

My son was singing in the bath and reminded me of this:D

[Ed]

Pardon me for appearing dense.

What on the Gimp site needs to be downloaded for windows? It looks like there are 40+ files.

[davidhorman]

You could try Registax. It was written with astronomical photos in mind but it will work for what you want. It's easily Googled.

Do you just want to superimpose the two shots you have? Cos I'll have a go at that if you PM me. If you're talking about taking more shots in the future, you'd have to take them under identical conditions, and that might be difficult with something as shiny as a sword.

If you do try GIMP I wouldn't use overlay. I'd combine the images in pairs, making one 50% transparent. Then combine the results in pairs, and so on.

David

[jimlintott]

They don't make it really easy do they?

Try here. (http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/stable.html) Note that you have to install the GTK+ first. Gimp isn't a native Windows app. I have installed and run it under Windows and it does have some quirks (Win98SE).

[Paladin]

Irfanview is free.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Surprisingly good.

[shanek]

Originally posted by Ed
Pardon me for appearing dense.

What on the Gimp site needs to be downloaded for windows? It looks like there are 40+ files.

You really only need two:

http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/stable.html

The first one you need is the GTK+ libraries for Windows. Install that first, because GIMP requires them. Then install GIMP itself.

If you want to save files that use LZW compression (like GIF and compressed TIFF files) then swear on your honor that you've purchased a Unisys patent and download and install the third file after the first two are downloaded.

It's not that hard.