Hi Everybody,

I'm not only new to restoring and retouching, I'm sort of a novice at Photoshop too, so I don't know where to even begin with this one.

While preparing my home for some major demolition work (thank you Hurricane Wilma), I came across some really old family photos. They're so old that I don't even know who the people are (I suspect the young couple in back are my grandparents). As you can see, this photo was severely damaged and broken, and someone tried to fix it with tape. When I scanned the photo to send it to a cousin, I found I could see faces very faintly under the tape. The problem is that I don't even begin to have a clue as to how to "remove" the tape lines so that I might be able to practice restoring the entire photo and especially those faces that were obscured by the tape.

I know I'm asking alot, but I truly appreciate any assistance you can offer me as to how and where to begin to save this precious family photo.

Thank you,
Anne

Wowee & sheesh

This pic will test the experts on here..

i will ask the obvious question to save the experts time..
is the selotape still on the image (dont remove it unless one of the experts tells you to. im no expert)

it looks like the image wasnt put together properly so it look like theres a gap where the tear is.

this one is going to be fun

Hi, and thanks for replying.

Yes, the tape is still on the original, and I wouldn't dare try to remove it for fear of losing what little is left of the original faces and clothing.

I have nowhere near the expertise to even attempt this yet, and at 63 years of age myself, I'm not sure there's even enough time left for me to learn. :dizzy: It would be nice to at least try though, or get some help from people who know what they're doing.

Is there any chance you can do a more detailed scan of the little girl in the middle with her face blanked by the tape. This will give us an idea of what detail is hidden under the tape. The rest of the image looks quite good, so that shouldn't be any problem at all :bigthmb:

Hi Chris,

I will do my best to isolate that area if it will help. Is there anything in particular I need to know or do (such as resolution, size, etc) that will help you?

We know practically nothing about our relatives, and my cousin and I are thrilled to have a photo. She will now show it to her dad (he's in his mid 90s) and hopefully he'll have some ideas as to who is who.

:) Anne

If you can scan the area i've shown in the image below at about 200-300dpi resolution, that should give enough detail to work with and remember keep the file below 100kb limit for uploading :D
Just looking at the image you have given, the blue channel seems to hold the detail where the tape is. I've done a curves adjustment and deleted red and green channels from the one below and you can see more details already. :D

ok heres my first attempt..

this only took about half hour as i have to go out but i should be able to do better with a bt more time.. Im also sure the others will do a much better job...

dne this with mainly contrast, cloning, copying and filtering

more soon

OMG.. You are all amazing, and I'm dumbfounded that you can even work as fast as you do.

ozonew4m, Thank you so much. What a beautiful job in such a short time. I don't know that I'll ever be that good, but I sure would like to try.

Chris, if you still want to give it a go, I'm attaching what I hope will be correct settings. You too amazed me at the detail you were able to pull out so fast.

I guess it's not so hard when you know what you're doing, and I hope that some day I will be able to help others, the way you are helping me and my family.

:) Anne

looking at that scan, the details in the blank parts are only really slight outlines of features. But some detail will have been lost in compressing the file for uploading. As it may be the only picture you have like this, you can use a reconstruction method to rebuild the face using other parts of the image (like ozonew4m has done). You can use the intact female faces to build a good likeness, and use the feature outlines in the taped areas as a guide. This is never 100% successful, but does give a likeness and a cleaner looking image :cool:.

chrishoggy is correct, that is exactly the way ive tried to get my results.. I really do have to go out now (oops im late :o: ) oh well.. this is what ive done while i was waiting.. its by no means perfect but i hope you like it :wink:

Again, I am totally amazed at what can be done, and I am beyond grateful for the help I am recieving here.

Thanks again!!

:) Anne

eaglssong,

welcome to RP :)

i've looked at your picture and found one thing that pretty much MUST be done before anything else! whomever taped the parts of the image back together did something fairly common when doing so... they goofed. it's not a big goof, but happens a LOT with these images. the two halves were NOT put back together correctly. the lower half is a tiny bit too low and slightly offset to the right.

now, you can do color corrections and contrast corrections and all those types of actions beforehand if you wish. you could even do cmyk or lab conversions. but, no one shld do any time of cloning, healing, smudging, pushing, noise filtering, heal, clone stamp or any of those types of actions UNTIL the two halves are lined back up correctly! to do otherwise will throw things off quite a bit. i wouldnt even do channel separation until the halves were lined up correctly again, UNLESS that was ALL you were going to use, one or more of the channels and ONLY if the channels being used were rejoined first!

as for the smaller image of the little girl, i actually found more detail in the original image and even able to get enough of her eyes to at least know where they are in the image. but, more detail than that is going to be difficult without a higher resolution scan or a very high resolution picture of the original (with VERY good lighting).

normally, i'd probably work on and do an image like this when posted in the forums, but i'm currently tied up with another image that is driving me nuts. so, i just did a cursory look at this and a tiny bit of correction work, mainly with splitting the image and putting it back together correctly and with the image of the little girl. so, i'm only posting hints and tips on this one currently.

so, again, welcome to RP and i'm sure others will be along to help out here :)

craig

Though it can a bit scary I always remove tape from my old images before scanning them. Usually it is gummy or oily and can be removed with no damage to the photo. It is aways a risk. but I have never had any problems at all. It the photo tears a bit, is it really worse off then it was before? I always retape the photos on the back. In any case, remove at your own discretion... ;)

Thanks Robin, but I think trying to remove the tape will be a very last resort. It's been on there for so long that I'd be terrified to even attempt to remove it.

:) Anne

Hi Anne.
Welcome to Retouch Pro.

I had a go. Everything in my picture is from the original except the face of the girl in the centre. Still not perfect but a lot better.

If this were my picture then I would make a really good scan and then I would also have a go at removing the tape. When tape yellows like this it usually gets very brittle and comes off very easy. Sometimes the glue is left on the print but even if that happened you are still no worse off. I do not think you will spoil the print by trying.

Notice the backdrop. These were usually 9ft wide and were difficult when there was a large group. The camera had to be moved back to accommodate the group and then the top of the background would be on the photo. It is very unusual for a pro photographer to send a print out like this. Usually it would have been trimmed off.

Ken

just had a quick look at the damaged strip itself after lining it up, and there is quite a lot hidden within in it. I've duplicated the strip several times on multiplying layers, and the details and outlines do start to come out :cool:
You can then start to cut these details in as I have done with some of the image below. I haven't cloned or guessed any details in this one. Just used burn on shadows to pull them out after flattening image and multiplying layers

The only thing I can say at this point is WOW!!!

While all these efforts are just wonderful, Chris, you have allowed me to see a glimpse of what my ancestors really looked like. I didn't think it was possible. I have no words to thank all of you for what you are doing.

:) Anne

Hi,

Anne,

Welcome to RP! :pleased:

Quite 'the' challenge your picture!!!

Great job everybody!!! :bigthmb: :bigthmb:

Like Chris, I concentrated on trying to 'see' what was under the tape since, ever so faint, I could still make out some details ....

After rearranging the image so that "the two halves were put back together correctly." as Craig has pointed out, I selected the tape only, used Apply Image, and Levels, Hue/Saturation and Selective Colors Adjustment Layers .... and was surprised at the amount of details that were uncovered ....

* In Attachment 1 my result after working on the 'tape' only ....

* In Attachment 2 my restoration of the little girl with what I saw as a ribbon on the top left side of her head ....

Top job as always flora :bow: . I was undecided about the ribbon/flower in the hair, as it clashed with the crease of the arm of the gentleman behind. I think there should be enough detail within the taped area to make a good restoration, on a high res scan. It surprised me how much detail could still be found under the tape :eek:

It surprised me how much detail could still be found under the tape :eek:

Good morning All,

Hey, nobody is more surprised than I am. When I posted this photo, I wasn't even sure that it could be rescued. Flora, I'm in complete shock at what you've managed to do. In fact, I'm in complete shock at what ALL of you have done.

Thank you so much. I'm not sure which I'm enjoying more.... actually seeing my ancestors, or seeing what can be done when you know what you're doing.

:) Anne

Did this by using as much of the original details as possible, and no cloning of face features etc. The centre girls face would need a high res scan to pull a bit more out, but it gives you an idea of what can be done. :D
This took about 30 mins to do ;) , and a larger scan of the image will give a whole load more fine details to work with ;)

Nice job Chris.
In my picture which I posted the only bit I cloned was the girls face in the centre. So I thought I would try the other scan.

There is an area under her left (our right) ear which I can’t make out. It may be a collar or it may be part of the tape But whatever it is I don’t think it is hair.

Ken

Thanks ken :D
I do like these images where there seems to be nothing there, or VERY bad damage. That little girl is going to be the tricky part of the image as it has lost the whole face. The only clues that are clear are the center parting of the hair, and main location of the features. Will take quite a bit of looking at to work out what is what in the areas of the little girl :bow:

You know, I'm starting to think that y'all are having even more fun than I am. All I know now is that I really, REALLY need to learn Photoshop and how to do this type of stuff. Right now it's mainly heiroglyphics, but my photoshop class (VERY basic beginners class) starts on the 17th and I can't wait. I wanna be as smart as you all are!!! :bow:

But I don't give up. This was a challenge for me. I'm not a professional but I am working towards those means. This project helped me utilize tools in Photoshop 7.0 that I've not used. That is valuable as you all know.

This is the results.

:rainbow:

Candice,

Thank you so much. What a beautiful job you have done in bringing my family to life.

I hope that someday I will be even half as proficient and that I will be able to help others the same way so many people here have been helping me.