Today’s post by Joe Farace
“I have lots of Kodak’s old Photo CD discs but can’t access any of my old image files since Kodak stopped supporting its Photoshop plug-in. Can you help?”—Bill, Rapid City, SD
After a few recent posts featuring images that I recovered from discs created by Kodak’s now defunct Photo CD system, I received several emails like this from readers wanting to know how I did it. Here’s how:
The key ingredient to the propcess is LemkeSoft’s GraphicConverter that’s only available for the Apple Macintosh. For Windows users, I think (?) that IrfanView will open these files as well but as I no longer have a Windows computer I can’t test the current version. (Older versions that I did test did covert Photo CD files.) GraphicConverter requires Mac OS 10.9 to Monterey (Mac OS 12.x.) and can display, edit and convert about 200 raster graphics files and export 80 different formats. The software supports most Adobe Photoshop plug-ins and features a batch processor, slideshow mode, image preview browser and access to metadata.
Step 1: Launching GraphicConverter displays an image browser style interface ala Adobe Bridge that lets you select the Images folder inside the Photo CD folder and then displays thumbnails of all of the images on your disc. (Above right.)
Step 2: To select an image, click on it and double click to open the file inside a window that lets you perform some rudimentary enhancements. You can then export the file in many different formats, including Photoshop’s PSD but this seemingly simple process is not without some issues. See the image below and the text box at the bottom of this post for details about some of the program’s quirks.
Step 3: The old computer rule of “Garage In, Garbage Out” applies here and the ultimate output depends upon who made the original Photo CD scans and how good your images were to begin with but it’s been my experience that some enhancement is going to have to be done post export to make an acceptable image. Or you might just get lucky,
I usually start with grain removal using the DFine plug-in then add Unsharp Masking to bring some semblance of sharpness to the image file. Sometimes I’ll apply Dfine again to tamp down the grain, unless you’re a fan of grain then you can ignore my suggestion on this subject.
Step 4: Retouching a portrait is always optional and can especially be a challenge for black and white image files. Some files may need more retouching than others because my experience is that Photo CD scans are seldom 100% clean and you will need to use the Clone and Healing brush at a minimum to clean up dust spots and specks.
After retouching some scans I like to use PixelGenius’ PhotoKit to do some rudimentary burning and dodging to the file. But that’s just me. That’s it; you’re done as you can see in the image of Kim at left.
PS:Because I am grain-phobic sometimes, as in this portrait, I will often use the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex to soften the images, especially the grain, a little more.
UPDATE: Yesterday LemkeSoft issued an update to GraphicConverter that may or may not fix some of the issues mentioned in the post or the below info box. I have only briefly tested version 11.6 but based on my experiences so far the company doesn’t seem to have addressed any of the issues that I’ve raised, so I will stand behind my initial thoughts and suggestions. In fact the new versions seems more unstable.
If you would like to send me a roll of film to review or any other stuff that could be used for these posts and my videos you can mail it to: Joe Farace, PO BOX 2081, PARKER, CO 80134