Hello everyone,
I just found this forum and thought you all might be able to help me.
I am trying to restore a faded picture of my family using Paint Shop Pro 8. (Trial version) I can get it a little darker and sharper but, it's still not quite enough if you know what I mean. I'm not familiar with layers or anything too advanced so, go slowly.
Anyway, here is the picture and thank you all very much in advance. If you walk away from this after you see how faded it is, I will understand.

dc57

Welcome aboard! You've got a tough one, that's for sure. Is it possible for you to crop just part of the boy on the left, and post it at as high an optical resolution as you can? It's really difficult to work on something like that at low resolution. It's quite possible that there's not enough in the original, or in in the scanned image to begin with. If there's something that can be pulled out of it, we have the experts to do it!

Ed

Hi Ed,
I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind but, here goes.
Thanks
dc

Ed,
Can I email you the picture? Will that help?

dc

Maybe this one will be betterfor you to work with.

dc

Hello everyone,
Well, I tried to play around with this picture as much as I could. I need to work on it alot more but, I thought I would get some opinions on it so far. I hope to be able to bring the Father back in to the picture completely. I have been going between PaintShop Pro 8 and Photo Impact XL. I am not using layers, I don't understand that process at all. Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Don

Sorry Don, but I didn't see your post until just now. What I meant in my original post was to re-scan the image, or use the original scan if it was scanned at the highest optical resolution the scanner would allow. Then, in order to keep the file size small enough to allow posting on this forum, you could crop off everything except the part you are having the most trouble with. This would allow that part of the image to be blown up quite large in Photoshop, without becoming pixelated. Then, it's a little easier to see if there's anything to work with. From what I've seen, I really don't think I could do much more than you did on your latest attempt, which was pretty good! But there are people on this site who are far better than yours truly. One of them might be able to do some magic on it. But they'll need good resolution to work with.

If your not familiar with layers, here's (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=31) a basic tutorial which is posted on this site. There are many others, and you should learn how to use layer masks. It's not hard at all, and in no time at all, you'll wonder how you got by without them!! Run your mouse cursor over to the far left upper corner of this screen, where you'll see "menu". This will bring the sliding menu out, and you can click on any of the categories. There are quite a few really good tutorials, and you'll do yourself a favor if you check some of them out. If you have any other questions, be sure to post. We have a lot of people willing to help.

Here's (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=63) a tutorial on layer masks. Keep in mind that layer masks can be used for many other things that what they are used for in this tutorial, and like the tutorial states, it is a tutorial about layer masks, and nothing else.

Ed

Thanks Ed,

I'll have a look at the tutorials. Maybe then I can figure out what to do with the background too.
Thanks for all your help.
Don

I downloaded the picture and used a levels adjustment layer to bring up some contrast. I copied the levels adjustment layer to another levels adjustment layer and used my black paint brush on the mask to paint out the effect on the ladies faces. I've attached the file

Thanks Phil, that looks great.

That's closer than I was getting with layers. I just don't have the hang of it yet. I was considering trying to draw the Father and son back into the picture but, I'm not sure if that's the way to go. What do you think? I don't know if the Father's arm is behind his back or not, but that's where I was going to try to put it.

Take care
Don

It would take a lot of work and some imagination to draw them back in. I guess I would do it only if it was really important to me. Also other pictures for "clues" would be nice wouldn't it? Good Luck. :sad: