Well, I learned alot about what works and what doesn't on this one. A lot of experimentation went into solving its problems. I am intentionally not going to tell you everything that I did. The first tumb is my original scan. The second is a cross-polarized copy ($75!!!) - big disappointment. The third is my 'final' pending your suggestions.

The silverizing (see its lower-left corner) is only part of its problem. There are also light streaks that may have been due to the camera or something else. I spent hours trying to decipher what was real vs defects when I realized that there is a second photo that is paritially imposed over this one - I assume they were stacked and deteriorization caused one to bleed into the other.

OK. I dodged and burned alot! I tried to find a technique to short-cut that but never found anything useful. Doing that did lead me to discover more 'real' features. Somethings had to be reconstructed using partials of a feature that I could not completely bring out.

The face. This is uh - "handsome" woman. Maybe a little is due to defects in the photo, its hard to tell, but not much. I did restore her eye, dodge some dark shadows, and applied a tiny bit of degrunging. I am concerned about cleaning her up to much because most of those are really hers.

Question: Did I do too much? Not enough?

I am anxious to hear your opinions.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachments/photo-restoration/41388-stymied-how-can-i-bring-back-web-000001-sm.jpg

Excellent job, Blue Dog! Better than I could have done. I just don't have the patience for that kind of work.

I don't know how a customer could expect much more, but I'm sure there are some experts here in RTP who might have deeper thoughts than my limited ability. :-)

Suffice it to say, I'd be pleased as punch if I were a paying customer.