best plugins for B&W

[revwarguy]

Hello,

I have a need to do the best I can getting old newspaper photos enhanced as much as possible for reprinting. I know, its not a good situation, but there it is. I am familiar with using a blur for descreening, and the usual PS tools (alas, I am stuck in CS2 for now) for getting rid of noise, etc., but I was hoping to talk with someone who has done a bit of this kind of work.

I already know about how to avoid this situation by going after newspaper morgues, etc. but in many cases the only images that exist are from a newsprint type source.

Are there any add-on plugins for PS that I should be aware of, free or not, good for this type of work?
Are there any particular techniques that are powerful in this case?

Any advice from someone who has done this kind of thing would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[peta62]

Hello,
concerning noise I would vote for Noiseware Professional by Imagenomic. I am not sure about others.
Best regards,
Peter

 

[revwarguy]

Thanks for the pointer to Noiseware. I do have a noise plugin, but I'm looking more for taking a halftone image at high res, using some kind of blur to get rid of it, and then reshaprening the outlines to restore clarity (if that makes sense.)

I know you can't expect much from a newsprint photo, but I want to make sure I am doing as much as possible. I have discovered that using the "descreening" algorithms in both Canon and Epson scanners to not be as good as what I can do in PS.