Iam in need of a Photo shop guru. I have a picture of my dad buy the F-4 phantom he worked on in cahm ran bay the problem is i cant figure out the tail numbers, and figured somebody here has to know how to bring out the numbers. any and all help needed i dont know anythin g about photo software.
Heres the picture i need the numbers.
Do you have a higher res pic? 72 dpi is making it really pixelated. Same size just a higher dpi
What you need is a medium, not a photoshop guru! It will be very difficult, I can’t see a thing.
Ive got the origanel its 4x5 picture. But dont know what DPI is.
Hi,
you need to scan it again and select a resolution higher than 75dpi. In fact the higher the better. You will end up with a larger file, but you (or someone else) will be able to zoom into it and still have a clear image - hopefully clear enough to read the tail number.
Paul
Ok i scaned it in at 200dpi so anyone that can get the tail number off it i would apreciate and what ever else is on the tail.
Hi,
the resolution still seems too low. What is the highest that your scanner will go? Also, you need to crop the scan before you finally scan it - notice that in your second scan there is a lot of white space in the image. Scanning programs usually give you a preview first, where you can select the area you want to scan before you do the final higher resolution scan. Make sense?
Paul
The actul scan is alot bigger maybe i can E-mail to somebody.
Makes perfect sense to me Paul [:)] Hey Scott, why not email it to me & I’ll see what I can do with it.
Scott, Email inbound. That’s the best I can do with what I got here. (I cropped the pic but, couldn’t resize it.)
I gave him a rundown on what he can do on his end while scanning & what to look for.
The last numbers are 300 something. It’s so hard to make out with this res
Sorry I could not help more Rob, Ed emailed me the pic and I was going to give it to a friend to see what he could do, BUT Noooooooooooo you had to do it your self LOL
Bud
Thanks guys for givin it a shot. I downloaded print shop proXI and messed around with it and printed out a full page pic and still havent figured out how to use the program guess i should read or find the print shop pro bible. So this what i figured out
the tail number looks like this
A F
37457
with this picture on the tail. 
Anybody try inverting the colors, weird stuff like that? Sometimes I’ve had success pulling out detail in stuff that wasn’t clear.
Probably be a long shot though, as there is not a whole lot of contrast there.
LoL Rob, looks like yer gonna git that Phantom done now[:P] Yer welcome bro. Wish I coulda done more
Found this thread after looking in the other one…
‘37457’ indicates the serial number 63-7457, which is a valid serial for an F-4C. (An F-4C-17-MC to be exact)
So you’d be okay going with that I think…
Fade to Black…
But what sucks is its a F-4D that my dad is standing by.
Here is my [2c] …
Find out the squadron your dad was in and the year he was there. Post that information and maybe someone has a book that lists aircraft serial numbers/squadrons assigned to Viet Nam. Its a long shot but I know that there are books with this type of information published in the UK. There may even be a web site showing USAF squadrons/aircraft types/ sometimes serial #s/ and year assignments. The more information you can get from your dad the better.
Tom [8-]
If you are absolutely sure that the first digit on the tail is a ‘3’, then it is an F-4C, not an F-4D.
Other details point to this being an F-4C… the pylon holding the bomb he’s sitting on is an early type used on the F-4C but not the F-4D. This is not to say that no F-4D ever carried this type of pylon, but none of the thousands of photos I’ve seen of Vietnam-era F-4Ds show it.
Also, the F-4D did not enter service in Vietnam until early 1967. (Some say late 1966, but I believe it to be the former.) By this time the presentation of the serial number on the tail was much different from what’s shown in your photo.
Here’s a shot that you may have already seen showing 558th TFS Phantoms with the type of tail markings in use when the F-4D entered service in Vietnam…
I’d say it’s highly doubtful that the jet in your photo is an F-4D…
Fade to Black…
Yea my dad donated alot of the pictures on that site i myself figured it was a C because of the lettering on the tail, And My pops is 71yrs old and sometimes i wonder.
Tom this unit was onily around 5 or 6 years it was decomissioned in 1970 there is no info on this Sq except what my dad tells me and what on the 12th TFW web site that my dad donated pics to. Ive searched high and low, the only other thing a person could do is contact aeronatics meuseam in DC.
Ok i blew the pic up to 200% and 600 resalution and st it on the deask my dad came in yesterday and he looked at it.
now he says the tail number is 63-7437 heres the blown up one
