Hi, this is my first post here... I have been reading these forums for a good amount of time now and I just recently stumbled across a photo I can not really restore

I want to take out the 4th man from right and make a potrait image....can this be made clearer and crisp image .... i scanned the picture in 600DPI...it will be great help if someone helped me to teach the technique in restore that type of image.....

find the picture in this link
http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shivf1qw0.jpg

not a single help in last six hours..........

I don't know how much someone can get out of this picture. It is very grainy, out of focus and dark. There are folks here better than me, but perhaps someone has the time and talent to work on it.

I have to agree. The picture is very grainy and out of focus. I doubt that anyone will be able to acheive any acceptable portrait image from it.

taking out the fourth man is easy enough, at least to start. just make a selection around him and turn the selection into a new image. then just work with the new image and erase the rest of the bits you dont want there.

but, the bigger problem is one of resolution of the original image. it is blurry and grainy. you seem to have done ok on scanning, so i dont think a new scan is going to help much. if you wanted to treat this restoration as a reconstruction, i think that would be about the only way to get your portrait, and that's not going to be very accurate, or at least proofed to accuracy. you can rebuild anything, if you're good enough, but faces can be quite tricky. you only have to be off by a tiny bit to really change the look of a face. so, you'd need to reconstruct the eyes and mouth and ears at the very least.

as you can see from the responses you've gotten so far, a lot of folks dont want to take on a job like this. the accuracy rating goes way down and the satisfaction rating goes way down as well due to the difficulty of really bringing the image back.

i gave it a basic attempt just to see what might be possible. this is far from a done, but might give you some idea of what might be do-able. this took a fair amount of work just to get to this point. there is a lot more that needs doing.

so, if you're willing to take 'something is better than nothing', you could possibly help this image out with a lot of work.

also, might be good if you defined what you mean by 'portrait'. i just took the whole body, so, specify a bit more about how much of his image you're trying to restore as a separate image.

I actually looked at this picture early this AM. and found the same thing. Tried the third party filter Focus Magic on the picture but no positive results. Tried levels, curves, and found that there was little information in the eye area. I think there was a little something in the red channel. Did not post my findings as I am not a professional and felt that there might be someone that could pull a rabbit out of the hat. However, I see my analysis was correct. Sorry, I should have posted anyway.

dc

Thanks for doing the retouch..Kraellin...at least you had given me a insight of how to reconstruct the rest of his face by doing that retouch...I need to reconstruct the head part...up to the chest only. I want to ask one question can the blue channel be make more clearer...if not...no problem..i can always reconstruct it...but it will definetly take time.....Thanks once angain Kraellin for your help....

It appears that the red channel is the best for facial detail. The blue and green seem about equal. Have you considered replaing the blue channel with a copy of the red and then adjusting the color, or simply get the best black and white version of the picture, do the retouching-reconstruction and then colorize the finished produc?

dc

nikooo, you're welcome :) and welcome to RP.

you may well have your best success by splitting the channels. in psp, blue was the worst, then green and then red. in the red channel you can actually make out pupils, so that might be a very good place to start.

in the image i posted earlier, i did no channels work. i did it all from the base image. tonight, because of what dc was saying, i looked at the channels and he's pretty much right. i tried a number of fixes on the split channels, things like 'clarify', contrast/brightness adjustment layers, fade control and some fine airbrush work on the eyes on the red channel. it gives you a much different look than what i had in the original where i built the eyes from nothing. i think the channels route may well be the more accurate. i also tried reconstructing the channels with different methods, red/green/blue, or red/green/red and red/red/red. on the ones where you dont use the 3 original channels, try a color balance adjustment layer when you've reassembled to get some decent color back.

this is actually looking more do-able now. it's still going to be difficult, but whenever you can locate the eyes you've got a decent start.

Hello everyone, I'm not new here on this forum because I was a "silent member". This is my first post. I took some courage and I worked a little on Nikooo's photo. I am not a professional, I am doing this out of passion. It relaxes me a lot.

Here are my results:

The family photo

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/family_shivf1qw0.jpg

The portrait (I supposed he wears a mustache):

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/portrait_shivf1qw0_01.png

Hello everyone, I'm not new here on this forum because I was a "silent member". This is my first post. I took some courage and I worked a little on Nikooo's photo. I am not a professional, I am doing this out of passion. It relaxes me a lot.

Here are my results:

The family photo

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/family_shivf1qw0.jpg

The portrait (I supposed he wears a mustache):

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/portrait_shivf1qw0_01.png

No...he doesn't have a moustache...
That is really a good restoration....very good i must say.......for a newbie...me also a newbie....but i must say you have done a terrific job.....Thanks...for trying my picture for the restorations..LauraLala

Hello everyone, I'm not new here on this forum because I was a "silent member". This is my first post. I took some courage and I worked a little on Nikooo's photo. I am not a professional, I am doing this out of passion. It relaxes me a lot.

Here are my results:

The family photo

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/family_shivf1qw0.jpg

The portrait (I supposed he wears a mustache):

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/LauraLala/Photo_Restauration/portrait_shivf1qw0_01.png

Excellent job, Laura!

Janice

No...he doesn't have a moustache...
That is really a good restoration....very good i must say.......for a newbie...me also a newbie....but i must say you have done a terrific job.....Thanks...for trying my picture for the restorations..LauraLala

I am glad you liked it. I must try and restore the portrait once again, without the mustache. :wink: Good luck with your works ! :)

Excellent job, Laura!
Janice

Thank you Janice for the compliment. :blush: