tinlok

iTrader: (4)

I'm not sure what to search for or what the name of the technique is called...

Does anyone know how to undo photoshop edits from just the jpeg file

i.e. a photo with the license plate blocked out, i've seen some sites undo the blocking out effect to get back the original image before the edit. I've seen it done on a few of those epic- scumbag-owned-by-online-forum threads.

Does anyone know what the process is called / what software does it?

Thanks

moforeynolds

iTrader: (5)

Think about it: that's like taking a picture of a house, and asking if there is a way to see the furniture inside of it. Unless you have the working file, no, there is no technique to "undo" photoshop edits on a flattened image to see exactly what was originally there. There is no magic software or button that does what you are asking.

If an image has been swirled, I could possibly pull out enough to make it legible; I can also identify photoshop edits. But both are largely dependent on how much the image was edited. If a flattened image has something "blocked out", then no, that cannot be "undone".


Why don't you post up the picture in question and I can give you a better idea.

Spork

iTrader: (6)

IMO, it's impossible.

If the jpeg image itself has been modified and saved, the only way is to modify it back in the opposite way.

Greg06

Most times its impossible... PS Swirls or blurs etc..

But... If its mosaic. Back in the day you could sorta undo mosaic censoring... With a couple of progs Gmask (free)and Flmask (pay) (hint bt or mule )
http://homepage3.nifty.com/furumizo/gmaskd_e.htm
http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000002086

From some old cliffnotes...
Actually, the mosaic effect is normally achieved through one of several methods.

1) Pixel mosaic effect.
This is un-reversable, and destructive. It takes an average of say 10x10 or 20x20 pixels, and makes one large pixel from it. You can “interpolate” a rough image from it, but the data is lost forever.

2) Flip or Spin
This is where groups of pixels have been rotated or flipped to give the appearance of a jumbled mess.
This jumble can be un-done if you know the sequence. The sequence is normally defined by a phrase typed into the “mosaic” program.

3) Colour alteration
As with 2, the colours are altered based on a phrase. This too can be reversed.

4) A combination of 2 and 3.
Again requires the key phrase to reverse.


BUT... The one problem with all these methods is that they are designed for stills, not motion pics. MPG, DivX and other destructive compression algorythms destroy the encoded data to the point that even if you know how it was encoded, and have the phrase, theres very little left to recover anyway. With JPG images, its less of a problem, as JPG retains the detail quite well, and the images are generally much higer res.



Next time back up your files dude!

Ichigo

iTrader: (6)

Do you mean looking at the EXIF data of a picture? example: a file has information blocked out but YOU want to see what was covered....

You need a program that will display the EXIF data from the picture.

Details are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchang...ge_file_format

But Undoing edits made to the actual image.... never heard of doing that.

tinlok

iTrader: (4)

cool thanks for the info... what greg mentioned. i.e. swirls and mosaics is exactly what i was after. that's where i've seen the license plates unswirled etc.

thanks!