Well bad news here, this picture was given to me to try to remove some of the spots and it was left where my two year old son was able to get a hold of it. Now a tear needs to be fixed. I felt comfortable removing the spots but now I am having a tough time piecing it back together.

Also if you could help bring some detail out in the picture I am hoping it looks so good that my wife’s mother forgets that the original was torn. Any help and or prayers would be appreciated!


Here is a link to the picture....

picture to be restored (http://www.thediskdoctor.com/restore.html)

Also if you need to be able to email me fixed picture and your provider dosn't allow large attachments I have some gmail invites. Or if you just want an invite let me know.

David Bazzelle
bazzelle@gmail.com

Are you looking for help and guidance or for someone to do the restoration for you? For some reason I can't open any of the files to have a look, or I could possibly give you some guidance on where to start the repairs. Unfortunately, if you are looking for someone to restore the picture I am not in a position to take on nonpaying projects at this time.

If I misunderstood your post, I apologize. You mention having the "fixed picture" e-mailed to you, which sounds as if you want the entire photo restored. I'll try to look at the photo when I get home and see if I can maybe give you a pointer or two! Good luck!

Hi Bazelle, Not prepared to do the whole restoration for you, how will you learn if someone else does it for you. However, if you want to know how to fix the tear, try the following.

Copy image to a new layer. (You should now have 2 layers, bacground & Background copy.)

Activate background copy and select filter/extract. Outline lower torn portion and extract.

Now move extracted lower part with move tool and align with upper segment.

Crop to show full image.


I attach an image to show this done. Have also increased picture density by copying to another layer, and setting blend mode to multiply.

Good luck with your restore.

Hi David,

Welcome to RP! :pleased:

... Maybe it's our willingness to help that gives the impression that, here, we restore/retouch pictures on commision ... We don't!

What we do here is helping people find their own way to work on pictures by means of examples, advice, step-by step descriptions, tips, tutorials etc....

Here is a sample of what can be done with your picture. If you like the result and would like to try, just let me know and I'll post a detailed description on how I got there .... If you'd rather have your picture restored by a professional, you colud try our Work/Jobs Forum.

Flora I would be interested in seeing your step by step procedure
Thanks Chuck

Sorry for making it sound like I wanted some one to do it for me.. Well, that would have been nice :happy: After posting message last night I was able to fix the tear and remove most of the blemishes. Now I am working on getting the color corrected. Flora, what you did looks great, if you could help with the color I would be greatful. I am using Photoshop.

David Bazzelle

Here is a link to a slice of the picture I have been working on. Can anyone help me fix the color/contrast??

http://www.thediskdoctor.com/restore.html

Hi Chuck, David,

thank you for your feedback! :pleased:

I'll write and post the step-by-step description ....

David,

...I' still dowloading your 'progress' picture .... (where I'm staying at the moment (until next March) I have only an incredibly slow dial-up connection ... sooo it takes me ages to download/upload anything .... :o: )

I think you did an outstanding job in 'stiching' the two parts of the picture together!!!! :bigthmb: :bigthmb:

As for the tone/colour correction, I'll post my description tomorrow the latest ... (In my corner of the world it's 21:10 )....

Hi Bazelle, was a bit brusque in my earlier post, so decided to have a play with your image. Hope you like the results.

Flora, can you please direct me to a tutorial on restoring old photographs.

Thank you
Barbara

Hi Barbara,

alas, there isn't 'one' Tutorial including everything needed for restoring old pictures which come with many different problems.... :o:

Tutorials, usually, deal with one single problem and may be expanded to related topics ... but that's their limit....

So, my advice is to get a good book (keeping in mind your experience/level in using Photoshop or the software you have), read, save, print the tutorials you need ... (have you 'visited' our excellent Tutorials section?) ... stick around RP .... and just ask if you get stuck with a problem ... That's what I did and still do.... :wink:

Flora and Gary. Excellent work! I thought I'd just add one where I tried to use the "minimilist" approach. After all, it is an old picture.

Adjusted the individual RGB levels, cloned, healed and patched some of the obvious spots and creases, did some selective levels, dodge and burn and a bit of noise on background and left a bit of a halo around head and shoulders to bring her out a bit.

Cheers
Dave

Hi Dave, Nice work, the halo round the head really makes it pop. Was tempted by the minimalist look myself, it's usually the way I go. However, I've recently downloaded Neat Image, and I was aching to have a play with it.

Hi everybody,

Gary, Dave,

great jobs!!!! :bigthmb: ... Not sure which I like best .... Gary's is 'cleaner, Dave's 'halo' is eye-catching!!!!

Here is the description of the steps I took for the restoration:

After stiching the two parts of the image together, Gary explained perfectly how to do it, I proceeded as follows:

Duplicated the background Layer.
Run Levels on each Channel to correct the colour and contrast. (See this post (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=75230&postcount=10)).
Used the Patch Tool to fix scratches and spots.
Duplicated the corrected Layer.
Run Polaroid Dust & Scratch Removal Filter, Dark Dust first. The Filter can be downloaded free here (http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html).
Added a Layer Mask (Black=Hide All) to the D&S Layer and with a soft white brush I painted on the Mask to show the corrections.
Merged Visible. (here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=67894&postcount=18) is how to do it without losing the underlying Layers)
Repeated the Polaroid Dust & Scratch Removal + Layer Mask, for Light Dust on the newly merged Layer.
Merged Visible.
Used Neat Image (medium settings) to minimize the noise on the last merged Layer. (Neat Image can be downloaded free here (http://www.neatimage.com/download.html) ).
To add dimension, I created a 'Luminosity Mask' (Ctrl+Alt+~), copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J) set its Blending to Screen, added a black Layer mask (Hide All) and, with a soft white brush, I painted over the mask to reveal the brighter underlying features (lady's face and parts of the dress) ... Adjusted the Layer's Opacity.
I used Curves Adjustment Layer, (a couple of them using their Layer mask to reveal/hide selected features), to further balance Shadow/Highlights.
Created a Shadow Mask, (Ctrl+Alt+~= Luminosity Mask > Ctrl+I = Invert = Shadow Mask), copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J).
Used USM to sharpen the shadow Layer only ...


Don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions about my description....

Hi Flora, excellent work, as we all expect from you. I was interested to read your work flow. It was remarkably similar to my own, with the exception of the shadow layer, and shadow sharpening. It really made a difference, and I shall certainly be using that technique in future. Thanks for yet another lesson.

Thanks Flora your work flow was very helpful.

Thank you Flora and evryone else that has replied with advice. Flora, I will be able to walk through the steps you provided this weekend and will hopefully post a finished version Sunday. Thank you once again for all the help.

David Bazzelle
bazzelle@gmail.com

Wow finaly finished this picture. Please let me know what you think..
Added the before picture.

David Bazzelle

Hi David, really nice job. Just one question, there appears to be a series of vertical lines on the wooden framework behind the woman, these do not appear on the original. Are they there on your restore, or is it due to trying to accomodate the 100K file size limit.

They are on the restore, it is my attempt at a wood grain. After bring the details out in the lady it started to look like she was pasted on the background so I was tring to add more details to it also.

Thank you for taking a look..

David Bazzelle

David, I was wondering about that myself. Could I make a recommendation that you take a look at Mayang's Free Textures. I played a bit with one of his wood textures by dragging it into the selected railing, adjusted the bevel and emboss settings, then adjusted the Blend If sliders to let some of your effort show thru.
Just an idea.

Cheers
Dave

David, if you look at Duv's attempt, you will see the grain on the cross piece is horizontal as it should be, on yours its vertical, and not along the length of the frame as it should be. However, I think it looks better without the grain. This is of course just a personal opinion. Duv, thanks for the info for texture source, I'll be giving that a visit.

ok, here is what I was able to do.. Toned the grain way down, corrected it so the cross bar looks correct.

Hi everybody,

bazzelle,

You did a really good job in restoring this picture... :bigthmb: .... but I agree with Gary about the wooden framework ...

In my opinion, indipendently of the texture, the framework results 'too' well defined and sharp in comparison with the rest of the picture making it really "look like the lady was pasted on the background" .... Blending the contour of her dress with the background/framework might help a bit....