hi,
i am new to the forum, and would like to get some help.
friends husband is very sick and she would like to restore one of his photos.
since she knows that i am working with computers/photo she asked me if i could improve this old photo. unfortunatelly photos is not my strong skill (i am software prog.) but i do play with photoshp a little.
If anyone would try to improve this photo and let me know how he did it - i would greatly apreciate and hope also learn something new.
Thank you very much for help.

forgot to ask: is it possible to convert this photo to color ?

You certainly can colorize the photo.
I am new at this also and need the practice.
All I did was convert to grayscale, clone a bit of spots and stuff away, and then added some color. My colors are all made up in my head.
Someone with more experience than me should be able to do an excellent job of it. Anyway, what do you think of my "quick" try at it?

Rich

Rustic..

Very good job.

had a quick go with your picture. Didn't try to colour it as that's not something I'm any good at, I just tried to even out the tone a little.

Duplicated picture to new layer. De-saturated new layer.

New levels adjustment layer, and adjusted to darken image and increase contrast. Now did a black/white gradient on layer mask from bottom left to top right.

New layer set to colour blend and filled with colour taken from original to give sepia look. Adjusted layer opacity to get colour I liked.

New layer, and cloned out any minor blemishes and scratches.

Sorry, had to compress this quite a lot to get within 100k file size limit, hope it hasn't too many jpeg artifacts.

Practice, practice, practice.

Rich

I kind of prefer it black and white...

hi all,
thanks a lot for all the replies. I am amazed by the results - especially with the color version (would never imagine that it could be done).
I guess I have a lot to learn here.... thanks again.

I colorized as well....tried to stick to natural shades...

-Kate :classic:

Hi Kate,

Looks like you used my picture to colour. Its usual to credit if you do.

i guess we all colorizing..... :)

Gary Richardson,
I did use your image to color, and I forgot to say so. No offense intended- Just a mind lapse :dizzy: I chose it because I thought you did a nice job evening out the tones. My apologies.

-Kate

Hi Kate,

I'm not offended in any way, quite the contrary. I'm glad you liked my work.

I only mentioned it, because using someone else's picture brings with it a whole lot of copyright issues, and some sites can be sensitive about such things (don't think its an issue here with posted work).

It's always best to mention if you have, and that usually covers you.

I like your colour job, looks very much like one of the old hand tinted works.

Hi,

hotaruzoku, welcome to RP! :pleased:

I had a go at this picture correcting the faded part, balancing lights and shadows, cleaning it up a bit and partially colorizing it ...