Tutorial Isolating Cancels - Third Part Added

Here is a steel cancel 3-link chain (Odd Fellows)



1. Open the image in GIMP

2. Decompose the image into monochrome images [colors-components-decompose]

In the decompose box make sure that the color model is RGB and that the decompose to layers is not selected, click OK.

Save the red image as a working file and discard the others.

3. Open the brightness/contrast levels window [colors-levels]

Since we are trying to capture the cancel start off by moving the black to the right and the white to the left to get a good image. Move the contrast to balance the output. You will notice that the area of the cancel that is poorly struck tries to fade out. Fine adjust the 3 triangles to get the best image. Click OK



Now save the image as a JPG

This is a post Civil War cork strike of north-south shaking hands



1. Open the image in GIMP

2. Decompose the image into monochrome images [colors-components-decompose]

In the decompose box make sure that the color model is RGB and that the decompose to layers is not selected, click OK.

Save the red image as a working file and discard the others.

3. Open the brightness/contrast levels window [colors-levels]

Since we are trying to capture the cancel start off by moving the black to the right and the white to the left to get a good image. Move the contrast to balance the output. Fine adjust the 3 triangles to get the best image. Click OK



Now save the image as a JPG

This image can be color inverted [colors-invert] to produce a striking example

There have been several references to the New York Foreign Mail cancels in the forums so let's do one.



1. Open the image in GIMP

2. The brownish color will be a problem on isolating the cancel so we will adjust the hue/saturation to produce a more compatible color [colors-hue/saturation]
Select red and adjust the sliders



3. Decompose the image into monochrome images [colors-components-decompose]

In the decompose box make sure that the color model is RGB and that the decompose to layers is not selected, click OK.

Save the red image as a working file and discard the others.
Below are the red images with (left) and without (right) hue-saturation adjustment



4. Open the brightness/contrast levels window [colors-levels]

Since we are trying to capture the cancel start off by moving the black to the right and the white to the left to get a good image. Move the contrast to balance the output. Fine adjust the 3 triangles to get the best image. Click OK

4. Now I am going to crop the image [tools-selection tools-rectangle select] and set the selection frame with the mouse
Then crop [image-crop to selection]

5. Last thing I will do is to remove some of the shadowing on the top and the perf shadows on the right and the address manuscript on bottom left.

Select the color picker tool (eye dropper) from the toolbox to set the pallet color
Move it into the white background of the image and left click to pick the color to the color pallet.



Select the paintbrush from the tool box



Select the brush size



The brush will appear as a dashed line circle hold the left mouse button down and sweep the areas for clean-up. Release the mouse button to reposition the brush from area to area. You can use undo if you hit the image [edit-undo paintbrush]



When the areas are cleaned save the file as JPG

Here is a nice bluish purple diamond grid with pen cancel underneath. These techniques also work with color cancels.



1. Open the image in GIMP

2. Decompose the image into monochrome images [colors-components-decompose]

In the decompose box make sure that the color model is RGB and that the decompose to layers is not selected, click OK.

The red image isolates the cancel and the blue image show the detail of the stamp



Now lets get a good look at the pen cancel. From the original scan we will adjust the hue/saturation [colors-hue/saturation]

This is a marvelous thread.

Suggestion to Moderators: Is it possible to have this as a "sticky" ?

Poking bug with stick... why preferably bmp vs jpg? come on guys why? what possible difference?

Barb, JPG are great for finished images but they tend to degrade each time they are changed and save. Using BMP maintains quality through the editing process.
Edit: I will post some more on working with difficult colors and other more advanced techniques in a few days.

Thanks! So now, do I need a macro to edit all my jpg files to bmp?

JPG is my preferred format for image storage and transfer. I only use BMP format when I am manipulating the images. I simply open the JPG and save it as BMP before isolating the cancels.

Russ, I guess that would apply to all types of editing - it's better to work with a BMP file?

But once you change the file to a jpg, don't you lose some information? So the next time you work on the file and change it back to a BMP it will not be as good as the original BMP?

If that was confusing ...you should see it from my end!

Thanks, by the way, it's a great thread!

alex