How does one reveal a section of a photo that was painted over?

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, Doryan said:

Sorry for being a "Newbie", I can't hide my profile status, so I might as well embrace it with honor.

 

No, you can't hide it, but you can change it! Go to your profile page, click on the 'Edit Profile' link at the top of the header area, type your preferred Member Title in the panel that pops up, and then press the 'Save' button at the bottom of that panel.

 

[myclay]

hm this is the best I can do with the lowquality photo, it seemed like the face was faintly hidden in the blue channel and a tiny bit in the red one.

Channel Mixer Adjustment (cmyk): changed the cyan sliders  (mistakenly also edited the yellow one which results in a darker color for the circle)

Levels Adjustment (cmyk ): clipping the white level - need to cut uout a lot to reveal the face,

copied the image to overlay it and used 'color' as a blendmode for the layer

Denoise to get rid of the noise,
Clarity to bring in some more contrast.

[dutchshader]

14 minutes ago, Doryan said:

dutchshader - It would be awesome if you could share with us the method you used. Thanks in advance.

Only a trashhold adjustment

[firstdefence]

Easy peasy lemon squeezy: 

 

[Alfred]

20 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Easy peasy lemon squeezy:

 

{snip}

 

 

For what it's worth, that looks like the method I used.

 

[carl123]

9 hours ago, Alfred said:

 

If you don't know what technique @Sima used, how are you in a position to say that your way is "another way", rather than just a variant of the same method?

Because @Sima's screenshot of the AP program does not contain what is in mine. Plus his reveal of the image is vastly different to what I have seen before. There is definitely a different technique at work there.

I'll reveal our way at about 11am UK time, because I am actually quite interested in how many people can decode the image for another reason, which I'll explain later as well.

PS From the solutions posted so far Madame's solution would appear to be the one that looks like it is using the same technique we use but any solution is viable if it can reveal the image.

[myclay]

I wonder what method you used, here are a couple other methods single step ones;

 

results with the Tone Mapping Persona;

 

neural networks can also help a lot when you want to regain information from blurred or lost/pixelated images;

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.00783.pdf

[carl123]

The attached screenshot shows how we reveal the image which is surprisingly simple, just using a levels adjustment with a very high Black Level setting and increasing the Gamma a bit for more clarity.  ( The Black and White adjustment is not really needed, it is just there to show the image in Black and White)

But how to reveal the hidden image is only half the mystery, part of the wizardry is how to create such an image in the first place and that relies on the fact that the hidden image is still there but something the human eye cannot see but your PC/Mac can.

Try it.

We use a similar (but different) technique to add invisible watermarks to our clients' images which is why I was interested in how many of you could decode the image and how you did it.

Humans may be top of the animal kingdom but include the machine world and we are now in second place and the machines will continue to outpace us at a rate we will never catch up to.

So be nice to your kettle this morning because in a few years time it could be instructing your laptop to upload naked pictures of you to the Internet if you abuse it.

 

[Medical Officer Bones]

I blame CSI.

[IanSG]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

We use a similar (but different) technique to add invisible watermarks to our clients' images

Without going into too much detail, I'm curious as to how sophisticated your steganographic techniques need to be for this sort of thing - are clients actively looking for hidden watermarks or do you just need something they're unlikely to stumble upon by accident?

[Medical Officer Bones]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

The attached screenshot shows how we reveal the image which is surprisingly simple, just using a levels adjustment with a very high Black Level setting and increasing the Gamma a bit for more clarity.  ( The Black and White adjustment is not really needed, it is just there to show the image in Black and White)

But how to reveal the hidden image is only half the mystery, part of the wizardry is how to create such an image in the first place and that relies on the fact that the hidden image is still there but something the human eye cannot see but your PC/Mac can.

Try it.

We use a similar (but different) technique to add invisible watermarks to our clients' images which is why I was interested in how many of you could decode the image and how you did it.

Humans may be top of the animal kingdom but include the machine world and we are now in second place and the machines will continue to outpace us at a rate we will never catch up to.

So be nice to your kettle this morning because in a few years time it could be instructing your laptop to upload naked pictures of you to the Internet if you abuse it.

 

 

I am able to make out a face in the circle on my screen, however. A simple circular selection and auto levels reveals it.

If anyone is able to figure out the hidden message in this image, I'll buy them a free beer.

 

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

I am able to make out a face in the circle on my screen, however. A simple circular selection and auto levels reveals it.

That's interesting, as doing that on the original image doesn't do anything for me.

[carl123]

35 minutes ago, IanSG said:

Without going into too much detail, I'm curious as to how sophisticated your steganographic techniques need to be for this sort of thing - are clients actively looking for hidden watermarks or do you just need something they're unlikely to stumble upon by accident?

Sometimes clients pay to have specific photographs done to enhance their business

Consider a restaurant that has a specialist food photographer come in and photograph their plates of food.  The last thing the restaurant wants is a copyright notice on all the images of their food distracting the viewer from the food itself.  But they also don't want other restaurants copying their images and using them to promote their own business.

In these cases we would recommend to the client to use a hidden watermark which is enough to be able to get the other business to stop using your photographs or to sue them if you wanted to.

[dutchshader]

38 minutes ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

If anyone is able to figure out the hidden message in this image, I'll buy them a free beer.

is it sting?

[Medical Officer Bones]

No, it's not sting. Hint: the message consists of 5 words by John Lennon.

Second hint: messages hidden in other messages

Final hint: https://futureboy.us/stegano/decinput.html

[carl123]

"Love is all you need"

Is the answer

But was this solvable using just Affinity Photo?

I found the answer another way

[toltec]

On 4/30/2018 at 10:57 AM, carl123 said:

So be nice to your kettle this morning because in a few years time it could be instructing your laptop to upload naked pictures of you to the Internet if you abuse it.

 

 

Too late.

 

And all I did was say I wanted a second cup of coffee.

 

[Cart]

On 4/29/2018 at 7:58 PM, dutchshader said:

it took me a while, the result:

Hey @dutchshader was kindly asking what application you used

I need it for an assignment ps