Hi all,

I would like to restore this photo of my Dad..... but ahhhhhhhhh!! I am hoping I enlarged it enough so you can see all the cracks... they are everywhere.

I tried smoothing... but to get rid of all the cracks, he looks plastic. Cloning works to a certain extent. Does anyone have a suggestion for a crack filler other than a visit to Home Depot?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
Sherry

There are a number of ways to get rid of the cracks. However, if you want the final image to look restored to it's original state, your best bet is the clone tool and/or the healing brush. If the clone tool isn't working for you, it's most likely that you are not using it correctly. There is no magic bullet if you want quality results.

Sherry ,
Vikki is right about the tools needed,this is a very quick fix and not the best that could be done but all the time I had.
A visit to Home Depot won't help with the cracks I tried that BUT they have mouse traps and you should get one of thoes you can't draw with a brick even if it is called a mouse.Get yourself a tablet if you have not done so... makes all the
difference in the world.
Don

Gave this a try.

-cloning
-patch tool
-healing brush
-surface blur on background
-spot healing brush
-degrunge on skin (tutorial at RetouchPro)

I agree with the others that a tablet is helpful. I use a Wacom tablet and their airbrush tool. However, I do this as a hobby so probably don't get the full benefits that a tablet would provide a retoucher.
dc

Excellent job both of you! That was a lot of cracks to contend with. That's gotta take some patience.

This is really a pretty typical sort of repair, and requires that you are adapt at cloning. A tablet isn't required, nor the latest software, filters, etc. Practice using the clone tool, and you will be able to repair this. My advice is to steer clear of any sort of smudging or blurring techniques. They are not appropriate, and will most likely create a bigger mess.
Indeed, you have your work cut out for you, but that's what it's all about.

She is right again and this really is a very simple restoration but a tablet makes things so much easier.

Good practice for me.
I cloned alot to remove the cracks.
I added color for practice.
Please do no take offense for my choice in colors as I do not know what the hair and eye colors should be.
What do you all think?
Practice, practice, practice.

Thank you for your replies. I do have a tablet... wacom 9 x 12. Don is right, a tablet does make all the difference in the world. Makes you wonder how you ever got along without one. But no, does not help at all if you have no clue what you are doing. So ok.. sometimes I am clued and other times not. LOL!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yep alright. I was painfully cloning. But hoped that one of the gurus here had a neat action for digital 'putty'. And painful is the word, perhaps I am not doing something right.

Beauty job Don. :-) Would you share your methodology... pretty please... with sugar on top.... and a cherry..... with a stem for easy picking.

Hopefully I will finish restoring my Dad before I kick off from this planet. I'll post it for critique. (gulp)

Rustic.. you were right! He does have blue eyes. But he's not orange. ;-)

Thanks again all for your suggestions and restoration posts, truly appreciated.

Cheers,
Sherry

Ok Sherry here are my secret techniques ...for what they are worth.
First clone the areas and get the image cleaned as much as possible,
then use the healing brush to smooth out the ugly areas left by the cloning.
Use the healing brush in sort of squiggly motion or fig 8 so there is no pattern density issues left. Then if need be use a very light airbrush 10-30% to smooth what is left the healing brush did not heal.Better yet if you have Painter open the file in Painter make a clone grab the "just add water" brush reduce the opacity to about 10% and with a large enough brush smooth out the offending rough areas.
If you go too far just undo a few steps(there are 32 undos) or you can save the file as the clone,import
it back into Photoshop ,then open it and the file you had fixed in Photoshop.
Select and copy the Painter clone and paste over the Photoshop file and reduce the
opacity so one file helps the other.Then add a smidgen of noise and you are done.
Piece of cake right? I gotta tell you if you have never tried Painter or if you have
worked with it and not tried the blender "just add water" give it a try
it will help make those ruff places just melt away.You can download a trial version at Corel.
Have fun
Don

Hi Don,

Thank you, so very much, for sharing and for taking the time to post your techniques. I have saved it to file and will definitely try it out. I have Painter IX, but in all honesty, have only opened it up a very few times... I have focused into CS2. Or... I am becoming too darn crusty to learn something new... eeks! Never thought it would happen to me. LOL

The reason I asked about your methodology is because the result you achieved in a 'very quick fix' was a hundred times nicer than all my hours of cloning and healing brush activity.

Thank you again! :-)

Cheers,
Sherry

hi sherry,

vikki has the right of it. there is no shortcut, quick fix for something like what you've got. automatic software can just do so much. there are some techniques for softening cracks like this, but they arent really worth it in a case like this.

cloning is an art and like art, everyone tends to have their own way of doing it with varying results. it's also something that requires practice and often MORE practice and then more practice :) but it's well worth the time in mastering.

have a look around in this and other forums for helps and techniques on cloning. i know i've written a number of things on it, as have others.

and, be brave; post some of your work here and i'm sure folks can help you master this essential restoration/retouching tool.

Hi Craig,

Thank you kindly. In response to your three suggestions... I will... I will... and I will. (smaller gulp) ;-)

Cheers,
Sherry