[Caitlin]

Hi Everyone,

I just recently became interested in photo restoration, having unearthed all my parents photos and slides that were mouldy and in very poor condition. My mother let an elderly friend in her 80's know I had just bought a new scanner and printer, and she asked if I could improve on the job done for her by a 'professional' photo restorer on the attached image.

In my opinion the professional job was very poor and I was sure I could do better. It was very grainy, blurry, and printed badly so it had a newsprint look.

The biggest challenge though was that the original photo cut off the top of her forehead, and she wanted it recreated. This was the most challenging part of this project, and I know I haven't been totally successful. Part of the problem I had is there was no really useful hair in the photo to sample from.

I've attached 4 photos - The original image, the professional restoration job that I was aiming to beat, the sepia restoration I did, as well as a quick colourising job for fun.

This is my first real attempt at restoring so I'd be really interested to get any feedback. I'm pretty confident that I did better than the original restoration, but I know there is still a lot to learn.

[philbach]

Well you are doing well. And welcome to Retouch Pro. Its one thing to read about it in a book and another to actually get going and produce something. Your colorized restoration was a good attempt. It did have a yellow cast to it in general and her hair looked a tad flat. The contrast was a little low too. I took your picture your restoration and using a levels adjustment layer increased the contrast (I also blew out the highlights in the background). I adjusted the color by adding magenta to it. I searched the web via Google Images and scrounged up some hair that I added to make her hair look more "real."

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Caitlin,

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Firstly, congratulations on a fine restore. It is much superior to the so called "professional job".

I've adjusted a couple of things on your restored image.
Firstly the woman's right eye (left as you look at it) looked a little odd, and did'nt flatter her. So I copied her left iris, and pasted it over the right.

I also added a little texture to her hair, using a textured brush. I sampled the hair colour, then painted on highlights and shadows, using tones slightly lighter and darker than the sampled colour.

Hope this helps.

[Duv]

Tasty job Caitlin! Well done! Maybe nothing more than personal taste but I thought darkening the eyebrows and eyes a bit would add a little more mystery.

Roughly selected eyes, eyebrows. Contro J to put it on its own layer. Layers adjustment to darken slightly. Used low opacity eraser to bring back skin but left the area below the eyebrows a little darker.
Also applied a slight S curve adjustment for contrast.

Cheers
Dave

[barry_uk]

I agree with Phil you did a great job, just the hair bit lets it down I have had a dabble hope you didn't mind, All I did was recoloured and added hair look alike, Just a quicky to show you example what it's possablitys are looking like adding hair..

Regards Barry

[Caitlin]

Gary & Duv - your comments about the eyes are spot on! I hadn't thought to fixup the right eye, but it's obviously an improvement.

The paleness of the eyes was the only negative feedback I got from the old lady herself (you may have noticed that eyeliner and eyebrows have been sketched in roughly in PENCIL on the original - so she obviously always wanted more eye makeup *lol*) I had removed these to get closer to the original - a bad call.

The colour cast is because I hadn't really planned out my aim - so I made it all vaguelly sepia early on, THEN had the idea to colourise. I'll go back and try to fix that up. Using Levels & curves isn't something I've tried to learn yet so I've been doing all my colour and contrast modification by eye. It's top of my list though - obviously I'm struggling a bit without it.

I should reveal a guilty secret now and admit I actually used the 'pro' restoration hair to start my head reconstruction - which is why it is so lacking in detail! I actually had to do a bit of work to remove all the grain. I had a search through google without finding anything else suitable (most is too low resolution of course) She has a distinct widow's peak, and her hair was long and pulled back.

[Flora]

Hi Caitlin,

Welcome to RetouchPRO!

Great job in both your restorations!! ... I agree that 'your' hair is a bit on the 'solid block' side, but your restoration is ways better than the "professional job" !!!!

As you said,

...there was no really useful hair in the photo to sample from.

... so, in my quick try, I made it anew using a hair brush ....

Following Dave's pointer (.. he has an incredible eye for these details!!!), I also applied a light digital eye-shadow to minimize the eyes' paleness .... I didn't replace her right eye but I think that Gary is absolutely right!!!

[Caitlin]

Flora that hair is superb! Can you give me some more detailed tips on how you achieved it? Or is it just painstaking hand drawn lines?

[limaze]

yes i agree, that manually created hair by flora looks very good and id love to know more about that technique too

[Flora]

Caitlin, limaze,

thank you so much for your kind comments!!!

I'ts past 2 AM in my 'corner' of the world ....

Tomorrow I'll write the details on how I 'made' the hair ... in the mean time, you could download Dave Nagel's free Hair brushes from here .. (the one I used is in his Photoshop Brushes, Series 23 ... but while you are there, you could check the others as well ... It's really worth it!!!)

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks for the link Flora. Unfortunately the brushes only work for CS, and I'm on PS7. Oh well, back to creating my brushes by hand.

[Flora]

Hi,

Gary,

So sorry about that , .... I attached a sample of the Brush and maybe you can duplicate it for usage in other Photoshop version ....

Caitlin, limaze,

After 'reconstructing' the missing part, I was also left with a rather 'solid hair block' ... (Starting Point in Attachment 2) ... here is what I did to 'make ' the hair ...

The brush I used for 'making' the hair is number 13 of the NagelSerie 23.
In Attachment 1 you can see what it looks like and how it works using different colours ...

Restoring the picture, I also used two colours sampled from dark and light areas of the image, and painted the hair trying to achieve a 3D 'feeling' ...

I had to change the 'direction' of the brush a few times .... In Photoshop CS this can be achieved by opening the 'Brush Presets>Brush Tip Shape' and moving the point of the arrow of the cross-hair shape inside the circle .... (actually, while in the 'Brush Presets', you could experiment changing just about everything in a brush and see the results you get!!! .. ).

For each pass, I created a new blank Layer and worked on it ... all the Layers' Opacity is 100% ; the Blending > Normal for all but one which I changed to Overlay. (This can be seen from my attachments).

I kept the Brush Opacity between 20 and 50% .... I painted in several steps since I rather build the intensity gradually.

That said, it was very easy and quick as I painted in smooth, longish strokes along her face first, and on the rest of the hair later. (see Attachments 2-4 for the steps..)

You can play with Brush and Layer Opacity and Blendings until you are satisfied with the result .... Finally, you can use a very light Gaussian Blur for smoother blending ...

Hope this helps ....

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks for the brush detail Flora, I'm sure I can have a go at creating something similar.

Nice job on the hair, but then I'd have expected nothing less from you. (Hope you can live under the strain of anticipated perfection we all put on you.)

[limaze]

hello flora, thanks for your little tutorial. i really like how your posts always look so structured and sedulous (i hope this is the right word .

[byRo]

Originally Posted by limaze

......so structured and sedulous (i hope this is the right word .

sed·u·lous : Persevering and constant in effort or application; assiduous.

Didn't know that one. Think you've found a nice word there.

Rô