What is the best way to remove texture from a scanned textured photo paper?

Question

I have a bunch of scanned old family photos where the photo paper has a texture. Unfortunately, the texture of the photo scans quite well. What is the best way to remove the texture? (Photoshop CS5)

Asked by Jakub

Answer

So... I'm by no means an expert at this, but... Here's what I did with your image:

1. Duplicate image layer

2. Apply gaussian blur to new layer (mine was 2.9 pixels, adjust as you desire)

3. Set new layer blending mode to luminosity and adjust opacity to suit

4. Flatten the image

5. Unsharp mask to taste. I used 72% with a radius of 5 and threshold of 4, but play with these to taste.

6. Expect to lose a little detail, it's inevitable.

The result:

Not too bad, I think, given a JPEG start. You can play with a lot of these steps to get close. Anyways, my source for this idea was: http://www.advancingwomen.com/photography/40944.php and I'd say it works... :)

Answered by John Cavan

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