I am very happy I found this Forum, believe me I will be spending lots of time here. I love phtography and have been playing around with Photo7 for about a year now. Just the basic tools I am beginning to master and hope this forum will teach me some advanced methods. I was recently asked by a local company to help them out. They need someone to to do retouch and restore work on the photo's customers bring in to them. I have done 3 jobs for them already and they were more than pleased. I am semi-retired and have the time and patience for this type of work and actually enjoy it.

Getting back to my first question, when scanning a photo to work with, should I save it at the highest rating?. Some end up 5 mg and are slow in Photoshop. Is there a happy medium you can work with and still get a decent print?

My fourth project, I really don't know where to start. I uploaded the image, I think. Thanks for all your input.

4th project, I will try again.

Welcome to RP. I quickly checked the individual channels, and it looks like the green channel might be the best to work with. It's a good idea to check the individual channels when you first take a look at the job. In many instances, it can make things go much easier.

Most people who are advanced users will suggest that you scan the image at the highest optical resolution. This will not likely be the highest resolution your scanner is rated at, but the lower number mentioned. Higher resolutions do not add anything, but they make the files much larger. Never work on the original scan, but make a duplicate copy to work on. If needed, you can lower the resolution of the duplicate. But leave the original untouched in case you need to revert back to it.

Last, but not least, pick up a copy of "Restoration & Retouching" by Katrin Eisman. Most people on this site swear by the book. It's easy to understand, and makes things a lot easier. Good luck.

Ed P.S. I almost forgot, five meg files are not considered large files for most work. When you begin to add layers, that number can easily add up to *much* more than five megs.

Hi Tubeamp,

Welcome to RP! :pleased:

I agree with Ed about scanning ... It's important to have as many details as possible to work on ... but a huge file would only slow you down...

I had a go at your picture...what I did is the following:

Cropped the image to minimize the 'empty corners'
Duplicated the Background Layer.
To bring out the faded details, I used 'Method1' as described in my tutorial (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=65)
To further enhance the details and brighten up the picture, I used 'Method2' of the same Tutorial...with these small changes: completely desaturated (Ctrl+Shift+U) the 'Luminosity Mask' Layer, duplicated it and set the blending of the duplicate to Overlay.
I added a Levels Adjustment Layer to increase the contrast a bit.
I used the Dust&Scratches Tool to minimize spots, scratches etc.
I used the Clone Tool to fill in the missing parts.
Using soft Black and/or White Brushes (adjusting the Opacity), I created several Layers (Blendings: Soft Light, Overlay, Multiply, Darken or Lighten) to clean up, correct and emphasize separate parts of the picture individually.
Finally, I slightly sharpened the image with USM.

Hope this helps ....

:wavey:

Thank you "Ed L" for the scanning advice. Thank you Flora for showing me what can be done with this photo. I love the way you cleaned up the coats they are wearing and slicked up those Levi's. The detail you brought out in the Lady's eyes and the left eye on the person sitting on the right is truely amazing. There is where my problem lies, I am still practicing your method on that one. Thanks again....