Mother in law wanted me to copy this old damaged picture, I'm lost how to even try to recover any semblence of picture . Please help!

Have you got a link to a larger image ?

hope this is better!

I actually like that image as is. There's something about the old worn quality that I love.

I think that there is plenty in that picture to work a good repair, but you need to post a link to a much larger image.

OK Read the tut and saved as greyscale

Looks like this pic is behind broken glass; or is it badly warped and cracked?

I don't know if you can do much without removing the glass, if any, though if it's stuck it might not be possible. It's refracting different parts of the image in different ways. It might be possible to fit all the pieces of the image back together so they line up correctly.

One thing to try, perhaps: scanning at 90, 180 and 270 degrees. That will make the light hit from different directions and you just might get something usable that way ...

I used the Healing Brush tool in Replace and Normal modes also used Clone Stamp. I did some of the sky and gentelman on the right. I did it a little quickly, you just have to get small with the brushes and take your time looking out for repeating patterns and zooming in and out to make sure everything matches; light, shadows, textures. Well that's the only way I know of so good luck to you and Happy Holiday's. Shay.

Thanks to all, I was hoping for an esier way but what a great way to learn

It's mostly the cracks that needs fixing which shouldn't be too hard. Then you might want to even out the lighting, like that dress that's much lighter than anything else in the picture. Finish it off with some overall levels or curves adjustment and a nice sepia tone!

zooming in and out to make sure everything matches; light, shadows, textures.

About the zooming in and out thing... I was reading a forum member's blog recently and I remembered a trick I had completely forgotten about for some reason. You can open a new window of the picture you're working on and set the zoom further away so you can keep a general view of what you're doing without constantly zooming in and out.

This is probably even better when you have two monitors..

Hi atomicdog,

Used a levels adjustment layer, individual channels, bring the sliders into the majority of the information.
Use curves adj layer, grab the midpoint and take it up - do not look at the babies dress at this point, keep your eye on the other white clothes - when happy add mask to layer and paint over the baby's dress, and grandmas arms which I forgot to do, she looks like she's elbow deep in flour.
Merge down, dup layer, set opacity to multiply, add mask, now paint over everything except the faces - I would have left the b/ground/building darker if I had thought about it more - but do what suits you.
Next, fix the creases.
I ran the image through neat image, took the opacity down, added layer mask, inverted mask and painted over their faces.
Sharpen if you want - I used the high pass filter with layer set to overlay, added mask, inverted mask and painted over their faces - took opacity down to suit.

You can get a really nice image out of this if you take some time with it.

I like your version alison, looks it just got out of the dry cleaner!

I like your version alison, looks it just got out of the dry cleaner!

:grin: Probably a little too white Enkay.

I think that there is plenty in that picture to work a good repair, but you need to post a link to a much larger image.

+1

If you post a link to a larger file, I'll give it a roll.