Photo restoration: comment please

[Ying]

2 days ago I restored a photo for the first time. I've attached the before and after photos.

What do you think?

[Arandel]

I think it looks just great - excellent retouching job!

[Littlecoo]

Ying, excelent job! From what I see, all that needs a little more work is the woman's hair... it looks flat in tone and texture due to lack/ loss of the gloss and highlights that give the hair depth and dimension... other than that, she looks great to me. Well done

[Ying]

Thanks Arandel and Littlecoo!

The hair has some problems indeed, and her left shoulder needs a highlight. But after several hours of work I grew tired and desided to leave things as they are.

Anyways, it was a good learning experience and I've added a couple of new things to my "have in mind while working" list

[Kraellin]

ying, welcome to RP.

for a first time restoration you did remarkably well. i like the face and the background in particular.

the blouse still needs some work and there is a missing corner of hair on her left shoulder (camera right). the blouse edges are a bit rough here and there and the blouse itself still has a bit of a 'dirty' look to it. the neck seems to have a few clone marks in the shadows as well.

littlecoo mentioned highlights in the hair but since the original had none, this doesnt bother me that much. nonetheless, it wouldnt hurt

also, when all is cleaned up a bit more, you can add a bit more punch to the image with some highlighting, particularly on the cheeks. this isnt strictly restore work; it would just make a good addition.

i'm attaching an image of some of these things. dont worry, mine isnt perfect either. this is just to show how some of the things i mentioned might turn out. i also sharpened a bit.

craig

[NancyJ]

Excellent work, the hair is a little flat but its pretty flat in the original - adding highlights would be 'artistic' rather than restorative.

[Ying]

craig, thanks for all suggestions and the example!
The blouse really needs some work and the contrast is too low.

NancyJ, 10x

[cinderella]

Good work. What steps did you take to get such a good result???

[Kraellin]

ying, you're welcome. and again, you did a really nice job on handling all those tear/fold marks!

and not sure who the messages from nancyj and cinderella are directed towards, but if to me, then thank you.

and again, if the question of how is directed to me, it was a lot of the 'push' tool in psp 10 (heavy drag and smudge) set to a fairly light opacity of 18 to 24. there was also a 'digital camera noise removal' layer in there, which cleaned up a few things and added some sharpness (built into the tool). and for the highlighting i used the 'clarfiy' filter in psp 10. the work was done using ying's finished piece, not the original.

craig

[cinderella]

Thanks for the explanation Craig. I don't have PS10 so was surprised to read about the tools you used. OOps I see you have PSP not PS.

Ying, how did you restore the photo in your original post?????

A relative gave me a faded small photo in about the same condition as yours and asked me to restore it. So I'm interested in your approach to the problem.

I've been playing around with decrack action, but perhaps just lots of cloning or healing brush will be the best approach.
Thanks,
Cindy

[Kraellin]

you're welcome, cindy.

craig

[Ying]

Hi Cindy,

I used healing brush mostly, sometimes - the clone stamp tool. Where cloning or healingbrushing was not possible I drew with a soft brush. The wall behind the girl was deleted and then recreated with a light color fill and sand texture on it.

The whole thing took me about 5-6 hours :/

[cinderella]

Thanks for the details Ying. I'm not sure I'm going to have the patience to take out all the little lines on my photo .

you did a terrrific job.

[cinderella]

I posted my photo on the help requested portion of the forums.
Hope you'll take a look.
Cindy