Ok I got a photo of a couple inside a car on their wedding day. The problem is most of the photo I can only see a faint outline of their face and hands. Now how can I get a good skin covering of both the face and hands and still have their features show thru. Included is the image if you care to see what I mean.

ok, here's a fairly simple way to bring out some detail. that's almost always going to be your first task in this type of photo. (and boy, you picked a doozy here):

1. duplicate the original layer
2. run a curves adjustment layer and darken the lows or use the 'contrast' button in curves.
3. copy merge and paste as new layer
4. run a strong 'clarify' type filter
5. desaturate as needed (i used Fotomatic's Fast Fix plugin)

this, or similar type actions can go a long way to making these easier to fix. i also doubled the image size.

I have done that on my own but my problem is what do I do next. I've tried filling in the skin area with a skin like color then turning that layer to color mode but it turns out so light areas remain white. I've tried using the small amount of textured area in the ladys face to try fill in the face but it looks pretty bad the farther I get away from the original amount. Any suggestions? Any tutorials that will help?

Graphx, I've done a couple for OPR. This looks like it was originally a BW. If you grayscale it or deast it, you don't have to worry about colors.

I would start with individual channels, brightness & contrast

I have done that on my own but my problem is what do I do next. I've tried filling in the skin area with a skin like color generally speaking, restorations could be considered to be a two part process, subtractive and additive. you want to remove the bad and restore the good and generally, in that order. from your quoted statement it sounds as if you're trying to do the second part before the first. 'filling in the skin area' is a restorative action, which would be done in the second stage.

so, i'd work on getting rid of the bad first. you want to get rid of the dirt and smears and stains and that sort of thing first. get the basic image back first by removing what doesnt belong and when the image is somewhat 'clean' again, then worry about skin textures, shading, missing parts and that sort of thing.

you'll end up doing a bit of both as you work, but it's somewhat like the michangelo quote about working on a block of marble to make a statue. the statue is already in there; you just have to chip away the bits that arent the statue in order to find it. so in restorations, the image is there (usually); you just have to remove the bits that arent the image. and with what's left, you simply repair and improve.

'clone' (and it's derivatives) is going to be your biggest friend here. use it like the sculptor's chisel and just bit by bit remove what doesnt belong.

if you get stuck or just want to, post your progress. we can often help a lot more if we can see where you are.

Hi Graphx

I don’t know if this helps but I think this is a colour photo.
The flowers are yellow with green foliage. He has brown hair

The red in the background is probably damage.

The white areas round her tiara are probably damage as well.

I got this far with a lot of selective levels adjustments.

I’m posting this as I don’t know if I can spend any more time on it at the moment.

Hope this helps.

Ken.