Ok working with what I have learned so far and would like to get your input on how I am doing. Cause with other graphics I have done this was the topic that always helped me the most.

I used photoshop 7 and paintshop pro X to restore this image.

These steps were done in Photoshop 7
I used the healing/crop brush to clean up the background
I roughly followed Cameraken's tutorial. The roughly is due to the fact that I got lost half way through it.
I used Neat Image to help clean up the photo.

These steps were done in paintshop pro X
I used color balance to but age back into the black and white photo.
(just because I know how to do it in paintshop and not photoshop)

What I have is tin photo (cir 1890s) of my husband's g-g-grandfather.
As you can see it has taken alot of damage over the years. I have placed all the tin photo's in acid free sleeves and in a nice dark, cool spot in my house when I first got them 5 years ago.

I did take them out the other day to scan so I could email them to my husbands mother. (this is her side of the family)

I have uploaded both images. The origional and my attempt at restoration.

Please be honest and what I can do better because I have about 20 more tin pictures that I need to restore. And some are in worse shape then this one is. :bawling:

joramelia, welcome to RP.

ok, you've missed quite a bit here. attached is an exaggeration in highlighting to show this. the picture has a background that is a backdrop. it's painted and there's quite a bit of detail there. restoring is all about getting back the lost detail.

try this:

in paint shop pro x, duplicate the original background layer. over that, add an adjustment layer of contrast/brightness. set this to 60 bright/20 contrast.

go back to the duplicated background layer and from the menus, pick: adjust/brightness and contrast/clarify. set this to 20 and you'll have exactly what i'm posting here.

you probably dont need that much clarify on this. i set it that high just to really show up the backdrop. so, use what you think is appropriate and the same with the adjustment layer.

this will show you what really needs to be done there.

also, this thread really belongs in the restoration forum.

craig

I don't have time to work on this image (but it's tempting) but here is a hint. I used the "Split Channels" command in the channels palette to create a separate file for each of the red/blue/green channels. I applied Image=>Adjustments=>Levels=>Auto to each file. It clearly shows that the best starting point is the red channel. The blue channel is very damaged! The green channel might have some usable parts. You can also use the Move tool to combine the three files into a single file with a layer for each. Then use a Layer Mask to select which portions of each color channel you want to use. Below are the 3 file (red/green/blue).