I have just found a copy of a family photo of my Great Grandmother. It is a copy of a tin type. I don't know if there is any hope in making it better or not. I have done some photo editing on Photo Studio 2000 but this is above and beyond my experience. Someone told me I might be able to find help on this forum. If anyone can help me or point me in the direction to find help I would really appreciate it. This is the only know picture of the great grandmother. I do have a couple of him. Again thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Lana

i would start with levels.
then a lot of cloning

Lana,
There is good potential with this photo. Just examining the low resolution jpg you posted indicates it should restore nicely.

You may have to define what you mean by a "copy". Hopefully, you mean an original copy that was made professionally. If not, maybe a very good hi resolution scan in color mode ? Anyway, consider reposting your request with a link to a high resolution scan in color mode (even if your copy is b&w). You must link to the scan due to the maximum file size for posts here, which is 100KB for non-paying members. That simply is not high enough for anyone to achieve good results that can be printed later at 5x7 or larger.

You will likely get numerous posts that correct much of the lost contrast. They can post low res images for you to view. Once you chose one you like, ask them to post a high res image externally for you. You may have to take over with some of the minor dusting and blemishes. For a free site to post the higher res image, try imagevenue.com, pixentral.com or photobucket.com.

Good luck !

Thnaks for the help Tommy. I have uploaded the photo to Photobucket. Here is the link: http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/LPoole/th_albertandlouisawrightthompson1.jpg (http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/LPoole/albertandlouisawrightthompson1.jpg)
I am in the process of putting together a photo book with Blurb to share with my family members so that everyone can share in the Family Research I have done and everyone can have an opportunity to share the family photos. It would mean a lot if I could include this photo as it is the only know photo of my Great Grandmother. Again thanks for your help.

i tried a bit of this. pretty difficult. i make no claims to accuracy :)

Desaturated and did levels first.. then all I used was the Imagenomic "Noiseware" plugin in Photoshop 7.
Ran it through at the default settings three times.

It might be a good starting place for a good restoration.

I know nothing about the capabilities of Photo Studio 2000--but-- there is a standalone "free" version of "Noiseware" here: http://www.imagenomic.com/nwsa.aspx

Thanks for your input. I may try with my larger file here at home and see how far I can get. Thanks for all of the ideas.

Did this pretty quick...a photo of a victorian dress I found on the net over her old dress.

This is a very lovely photo, and an exciting challenge to repair. I tend to prioritise items in photographs. Usually faces, then hands, then clothing, props, backgrounds. In this one I concentrated on the faces. I chose the green channel (from memory) into greyscale and selected the faces and hands on a separate layer which I then turned off. The standard filters for dust scratches/noise were run making sure no detail in the faces were compromised. That's why I save them in a separate layer, sometime I lay them over the working photo again in regain detail if any is lost. I did use Neat Image for noise. The effects can be very harsh, so in 'Edit' I reduced the effects to maybe only 10 %. These restorations are like an archeological site, chipping away at damage while ensuring original parts of the image stay in tact. Gentle healing/cloning/smudging. I've only done a small amount, just enough to start uncovering the lovely lady and her man's faces. Was she/they originally from Eastern Europe? I got the feeling this is a wedding photo, but the lady wears a ring on her right hand?

I hope the .jpg loads this time or I look more daft than usual

I've played a little more simply because of the appeal of the photograph. I believe it to be very restorable especially with a large image to start with. I've worked on one of her hands and slipped in a backdrop. The classical style backdrops were very popular in studio photos of the era so it should not be too out of place. The opacity is dropped to around 30% which allows original background damage to come through, the purpose being to integrate it into the photo further. There is still a great deal of patient work to be done cleaning up areas. I added a slight sepia overlay just to give you another aspect of what could be done for your photo. A pleasure to work on, but for this purpose, I can't afford much more time on it. I do hope it does give you hope that great grandmother can be restored to a very reasonable standard.

I've played a little more simply because of the appeal of the photograph. I believe it to be very restorable especially with a large image to start with. I've worked on one of her hands and slipped in a backdrop. The classical style backdrops were very popular in studio photos of the era so it should not be too out of place. The opacity is dropped to around 30% which allows original background damage to come through, the purpose being to integrate it into the photo further. There is still a great deal of patient work to be done cleaning up areas. I added a slight sepia overlay just to give you another aspect of what could be done for your photo. A pleasure to work on, but for this purpose, I can't afford much more time on it. I do hope it does give you hope that great grandmother can be restored to a very reasonable standard.

Thanks so much for showing me what could be done. I have a friend at work that is trying to help me. This is a wedding photo. My great grandmother and great grandfather. They both were of English Irish ancestry. Do you restore photos professionally. Just curious if my friend can't restore it as well as I would like. Thanks.