I have been contacted by a lab asking me if I can fix this image. The man has passed away and there isn't another image of him with the baby. I have no idea where to start. Thanks in advance!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc27b3127cceb859847cdfbd0000001510

I have been contacted by a lab asking me if I can fix this image. The man has passed away and there isn't another image of him with the baby. I have no idea where to start. Thanks in advance!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc27b3127cceb859847cdfbd0000001510

First place I would start is with a gradient mask layer in multiply mode.

Make the gradient more black at the top, down to white on the bottom.

Using two of those I got the image to this in about 2 mins.

From there, I would remove the left side of the wall, it is too dark and trying to balance it with the brightness of the rest of the picture is going to be way harder than it is worth.

Then I would probably remove the grandfather to a seperate layer and deal with him there, the child is in good shape, and trying to lighten darken grandfather on the same layer is going to make things hard.

- Noel

As with anything you can do in Photoshop or your image editor, there's another alternative you may want to try.

In summary, I picked the color channel with the best contrast and used that as the basis for the image's luminosity, then adjusted for spot contrast and brightness. The steps were:

- in RGB mode, select the channel with the best contrast, in this case, the red channel.
- select the red channel, select all (ctrl-A), then copy. This will copy just the black and white tones of the red channel.
- convert the image to LAB mode and select the L channel.
- select all and paste (ctrl-V). This will replace the luminosity channel with the tones of the red channel
- convert back to RGB and you will see an improvement in contrast
- then run a few blend layers with masks to improve spot contrast and brightness. You may want to tweak the masks by hand to achieve the look you want.

I've attached a screenshot of the layers that I did, which balanced out the contrast but threw the color saturation out in places, so that needs to be adjusted as well...

best of luck,
Scott

Welcome to RP. Basically, I duplicated the layer two or three times, while using a gradient on a layer mask, with the blending mode set at multiply. I also used a contrast adjustment layer, which I almost never use. Painted with black or white to hide or show the adjustment, always using a soft brush at low opacity. At one point, I made a selection of the man's eyes, and using curves, I darkened the pupils a bit. Increased the saturation a little on the boy's shirt. Made a new layer, and painted with red, where I thought the man's lips were. Set that layer to color blending mode, and lowered the opacity until the red just showed a little. Also used a curves adjustment layer, and locally adjusted the tones. I also used a levels adjustment layer, and painted with white or black for local effect. Try different things, but not on the background layer. Then use a layer mask to fine tune whatever it is you tried. Layer masks allow you to do whatever you want, without destroying the image. Don't like the results? Discard the layer. Then you're back where you started.

Ed

I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not, but go into quick mask and run a gradient to transparency, then exit quick mask, a selection will be activated, then save this selection in an alpha channel. Then do whatever you can to match the two sides, inverting the selection, using curves, whatver, as you go back and forth.
The picture is still in bad shape though. And it's no surprise since indoor pictures taken with natural light in the background are almost always squirrely for the foreground. The subjects are fine, blame the guy who took the picture.
Anyway, this method works reasonably well and is worth exploring.

Mig

Have been doing photoshop for awhile now, all on my own and out of books. This site is a blessing. Have never tried sending anything before so please be patience with me. Anyways here is what i did with this picture.
Shadow/Highlight, shadow 32%, highlight 40%
Created a new layer, changed blend mode to overlay
New Brightness/Contract layer, 10,+11
New Hue/Saturation layer, 0,0,+6
Thank you for allowing me to share and to receive any and all comments.

Hi W. Rose

Would love to see your restoration effort. Do you know how to upload?

Cheers
Duv

Hi Wayne

It's really great having you on board! When you reply there is an area below the message box called MANAGE ATTACHMENTS. From there you can locate your file. When complete, close the box then click on Submit Reply. If you have done this already get back to me.

Cheers
Duv