Enhancing letters/numbers in photograph. Please Help!

[njunderground]

Hello,
I am a train buff and I caught several pictures of a piece of maintenance equipment (vacuum car) using both continuous mode and in other modes on my Nikon S8100. The thing is, the number's last digit is unreadable as it is white on silver. The number is very important to know for my purposes. I have tried several methods on a few of the shots using both Windows Live Photo Gallery and GIMP adjusting the sharpen and unsharpen filters. Are there any methods that can be done short of redoing the shot? I don't have Adobe photoshop because it is way to expensive, imo. I can post the photo if needed to show the number in question.

Thanks for any help!

Mike McGuire, New Jersey

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[480sparky]

How about posting the shot?

[njunderground]

This one is cropped to show just the affected area. The number is on the top of the cab over the windshield and says SE 048_. It looks like either a 7 or 9 but maybe some has another idea? If necessary, I can post the originals (pre-cropped) if that is needed.

I don't know why, but the photos will not upload. I keep getting "undefined"

[480sparky]

Try this first........

[njunderground]

This one is cropped to show just the affected area. The number is on the top of the cab over the windshield and says SE 048_. It looks like either a 7 or 9 but maybe some has another idea? If necessary, I can post the originals (pre-cropped) if that is needed.<br>

[ img ] 034 - Copy | Flickr - Photo Sharing! [ /img ]

[ img ] http://www.flickr.com/photos/subwayr...n/photostream/ [ /img ]

[480sparky]

We can't download from Flickr accounts.

[480sparky]

You're trying to post web pages as images. You need the URL for the image itself.

it will look like this:

[IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc172/480sparky/Personal/8magssmall.jpg[/IMG]

[njunderground]

Alright, I'll try to figure something out

[njunderground]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/...033_-_Copy.JPG

http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/...034_-_Copy.JPG

[Bossy]

Is that the largest that file is?

[480sparky]

I'm guessing 9, but I can't even say for sure what the other characters are just by looking at them.

[njunderground]

Oops, yeah, I didn't realize they files shrunk so much with the cropping. I will upload the originals and go from there. The unit is the first orange & silver in the front on the track next to the white building on the far right side. It is a Cusco Vacuum Train.

Here are the originals: If they are still coming up small I can try something else.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/...14707/0337.JPG

http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/...14707/0346.JPG

[480sparky]

I read "3237 x 2367 pixels scaled 38%". That's only 7.6 mp for a 12.1 mp camera. Was the original image shot at "Medium" size?

[480sparky]

I'm leaning towards 5 now, possibly 3.

[Judobreaker]

I'd say SC-0489.
I'm not sure about that last one though, first I thought it was a 5 but it's a bit too weirdly shaped for a 5. :P