My friend gave me this small picture, only about 2 inches high, a wanted to know if I could improve it enough for her to put it in the paper for her son's birthday. It is in terrible condition. I scanned it and my scan is 3.39mb.
I did some cloning, but I can't seem to do anything good with the faces.
Could any of you folks help me with the faces?
I have been visiting this site for about a year now and can't believe how good you folks are. I have the larger file if anyone would want me to e-mail it.
As you can see, there is not much left to work with on the faces.

Thank you,
Duane

welcome to RP, ezryder.

a larger image would help here. something in the neighborhood of 600 x 800 pixels would be good. just resize the image and use the 'save for web' option in photoshop.

If you have any difficulty resizing and posting your image.

Flora has written some instructions on posting Images to the forums Here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/image-help/7933-attaching-files-images-threads-posts.html)

Thanks Craig and Gary,
I am leaving town today and will be back on Tuesday. I'll see if I can post a bigger size. Do I post it here or in the Gallery. I did post both in the Gallery at just under 200kb
If I get a chance here at work, I'll try to post it larger.

Thanks again,
Duane

Post it back in this thread please.

OK, I'm a PSP user but I do have Photoshop 7 on this work computer.
I resized the picture to 800 x 555. It is 105KB. Do I need to get it under 100KB?

Here is a link to a larger picture.
http://www.solisstyle.com/ims/pic.php?u=3548qwEyy&i=74233

Here is a link as to what I have attempted. I'm really not happy with the faces. I do relize that there is not much left of this photo. http://www.solisstyle.com/ims/pic.php?u=3548qwEyy&i=74235

ezryder,

There is more here than you think. Start by duplicating the layer, (Press Ctrl J) and set the top layer to overlay. Add a channel mixer layer, click the monochrome box, and play with the sliders. Try starting with red=+128%, green= -110%, and blue = +74%. Clone and heal from there.

OK, I'm a Paint Shop Pro user but I do have Photoshop 7 on this work computer.
I resized the picture to 800 x 555. It is 105KB. Do I need to get it under 100KB?


Yes, you do need to get it under 100K to post here. There is however, no quick fix to this photo. It can be done and done well but you'll have to take time. That's what restoration is about. Time, patience, and more time.

There is however, no quick fix to this photo. It can be done and done well but you'll have to take time. That's what restoration is about. Time, patience, and more time.

Couldn't agree more.

This photo can definitely be restored if you put the right time into it.

The clone stamp is a great tool. However, in a photo like this, it can only help you so much before you start getting the "painted over" look.

Experiment a little with the burn tool. Give the shades where they are due and it will start looking a lot better.

i started on the tile. this was a bit easier than jumping right into the woman and child. it cleans things up a bit and makes working on the rest a bit less kludgy. it's fairly fast and lets you think you've done something in a fairly quick amount of time.

that was all clone and 'push' (a type of smudge tool in Paint Shop Pro).

i only worked on the areas i was sure of. therefore, i didnt do the parts circled in red or blue. the red area i'm pretty sure is tile also, but i just wanted to do easy first. the blue i'm less sure of. there might be a frame or something in there and i didnt want to bother with any of that to start.

the area circled in green is just showing you where the 'push' tool is in psp xi.

and the area in yellow is my layers. notice that i first duplicated the background and then added a blank layer above that. that's where i clone and push onto by using the 'use all layers' button. so, effectively, you are clone painting and this clone painting is above your other layers so that's the part that shows over the other areas, covering those areas with your new clone painting. this has several advantages over just painting onto a duplicate layer. you can erase or reduce mistakes with the eraser tool. you can use blend modes (if needed) on that layer. you can paint over them again and so on and so forth and never hurt your original image and layers.

the push tool was used mostly to straighten the tile grout lines and to get into very small areas and along some edges. you can left click a spot with this tool and then hold down the shift key and hit another point with the tool and it will 'draw' a line from the first point to the last point using the color/texture of the first point. this is very handy for cleaning up edges.

and that's what i've done so far.

I've been gone for several days and just wanted to thank everyone for your time and effort with this picture.
Craig, the background looks great.
Dave, I haven't done any restoration using channel mixing.
I know I need to do a lot more reading and try using some kind of a work-flow.
My friend wants to put this picture in the paper for her boys 50th birthday in Sept.
I'm not so particular about the background, but I could use suggestions and help with the faces.
I agree with you ePR, the clone tool can only go so far.
Thanks again everyone.

you're welcome.

for faces, especially on small images, i use 'push', which is a type of smudge tool in psp. i also use clone, except for the very tiny and airbrush. all of these are done on a blank layer.

Craig,
Thanks for the 'push' tool suggestion.
I have never used the 'push' tool but started using it last night a little.
It does work very well. This picture is in really bad condition, but with a lot of time and patience, I think I can get it back to where we can at least do a small picture for the newspaper.

the push tool is one of those tools where i prefer psp over ps. it's a very handy brush. i mostly use it between 24 and 60% opacity, depending. it's very good for getting into very small, tight places where a clone just wont work very well, like in the 1 to 6 pixel range. i also set the 'hardness' to anywhere from 60 to 80%. this lets you smooth into edges quite nicely.

i also use it sometimes with a larger brush size when i just want to blur a background or something of that nature.

i do find that it does have drawbacks, though. if you've already airbrushed paint onto a blank layer and you're using push over that airbrushed area, it tends to goof up a bit. and, below about 24% opacity, it doesnt seem to blend quite right. other than that, it's great tool.

show your progress on your pic. i'll help if i can.