After scanning the 1.5x2.5 snapshot I could see all the cracks and alligatoring that was on the photo. I think it must have been shellacked at one time Probably part of a collage.
I've used polaroid dust and scratch removal,
painted over a black mask
some PS7 noise dust and scratch
and some healing brush
What I'd like to get is the facial expression of this daughter and her father.
What should I do next????? The young girl in this photo is in her 80's now and I'd like to present her with a nice version of this photo.
I'm trying to keep the background as it was taken in a park she remembers.

HI ... I would advice you to use those scratch removal filters, cause you'll probably lose some very nice detail....

I use just basic stamping and healing bush, adjusted the levels to get that white background and lighten or darken some areas to show more details...

Hi, cinderella,

I agree with i.ilievski (I'm quite sure he meant to put a "not" before "to use"), that often pre-packed filters can often do more damage than actually help out.

However, as you mention a "black mask" maybe you did already take the precaution of only letting the filtered image through at the right places.

One thing that you could do is to straighten the image. By my reckoning it's 3.2 degrees off. That makes quite a difference.

If your skills are up to it, another good idea would be to colourize - I think the young lady would really appreciate that.

Rô

i ONLY did the girl's face, a bit on the hair and on the neck. the overall image still needs a lot of work, especially if you take Ro's advice about colorizing. fix before coloring.

since i was only working on the girl's head, i made a selection around it and did a digital camera noise removal and then a mild clarify. after that it was all hand work with push and airbrush. the airbrush was mostly for enhancing the dark outlines, like the lips and eyebrows and the push to clean things a bit.

i used your after image, not the original.

craig

edit: oh, i forgot the most important step. before you do anything, double the image size! this is important. it will get rid of some of the current aliasing and prevent some additional when you're working. small image sizes are hard to get good edges on because when you're working with digital, you're working with squares or rectangles (depending on your monitor type). so, on small images a diagonal line will look like squared stairs. doubling, or even more, will increase the number of pixels in that line and hide that effect much better.

What good advice!
i.ilievski Not sure I totally agree with you about avoiding filters but am considering it for this photo.
You did a very good job quickly with cloning and healing brush. Many times when I use them I see where I use them , especially the healing brush which seems to leave streaks and dark spots.
I must be doing something wrong when I use them. Will look into it.

RO I have straightened the image and it does help the appearance.
I used a technique I found here on a tutorial at RP where I made a layer, dust and scratches filter, black mask and then paint with white brush on scratches etc.
But first I did use the polaroid scratch removal which removed the large scratches.

Colorizing would be a challenge for me but I will consider doing it.

Craig Your face looks terrific and what I hope to achieve.
You said you did
digital camera noise removal and then a mild clarifyand I wonder what that translates to in PS speak.
The same goes for the term push
I was going to use burn to emphasize eyebrows but airbrushing looks very good.

You advised me to double the image size to increase pixels. Did you mean to go from say a 2x2 to a 4x4. Or did you mean to work on a magnified version say at 200%?
It's early in the morning for me so its possible I'm not quite awake yet. Will reread that last bit about the image size and play with it in PS7.

Thanks ya'll for all the advice. Now I know the photo can look better.
Cindy

Hi Cindy,

Is this the original size of the scanned photo? It's almost impossible to retouch such small image...72dpi is too low, I suggest at least 400.

cindy,

digital camera noise removal is psp's noise remover. i'm sure ps has one. you can also try Neat Image, which a lot of folks here use and recommend.

clarify, i'm not sure what that translates into in ps. flora would probably tell you to use the shadows/midtones/highlights filter or adjustment layer. psp has that as well but clarify kind of does that all in one step with a single slider. it heightens the highs and sharpens the lows. so, it seems to be sort of a cross between brightness/contrast and shadows/midtones/highlights...sort of.

and push, i'm told, is sort of like a very heavy smudge in ps. smudge tends to smudge as you push it around, but the effect only carries the paint a short distance. push carries it continuously, especially at higher opacities.

one good way to get rid of clone marks is with a light 'push' or 'smudge'. just dont overdo it or you'll have more marks to deal with.

and for the doubling of image size, that's exactly what i do, i double the actual size of the image, not just a zoom. so, if an image is 400 x 400 pixels, i make it 800 x 800. sometimes, with really small pictures, i'll go even more. (actually, i'm doubling all the sides, which quadruples the number of pixels in the image. this is what reduces the aliasing)

restorations are normally quite different from other photo manipulations/alterations. they generally require more hand work and fewer filters. most of my hand work is done with clone, push, and airbrush all done on blank raster layers with 'use all layers' set on. and just recently i watched a video that was posted by a new user here on RP and learned a new technique for cloning, selecting the area to be cloned and the area you're cloning from and doing it all within the selection. so, i may give that a try also.

craig

Hi Cindy,

Had a play around with your picture.

Didn't think it appropriate to take out all the crazing as it "sterilised" the picture too much, so just tried to reduce it a touch.