What did I do wrong?

[John_D]

I use PS7. I am relatively familiar with it. I usually stick to doing just the basic repairs on old photos. From time to time I run into damage that is beyond my level (like the current photo). With a couple tips from saby, I attempted to repair this photo, but, it looks like I did something wrong. What did I do wrong?

I used mostly levels, brightness/contrast, and the clone tool to reach this point. I seperated the upper (damaged) portion of the photo to work on it, then I rejoined the peices, used a little brightness/contrast and leveling to blend both peices together. I used blue channel and deleted other channels.

[Guy Thomas]

John,

You did a good job, but I would say that you went to far with the contrast. Your shadows and highlights are too extreme. Quite a bit of detail was lost in the lower portion of the photo. Besides that, I think you did very well. The damage on the subject is best left where it is, becuase I think an attempt to repair it would end up leaving this photo looking more like a painting than an old photo.

Hope that helped!

-Guy Thomas

[byRo]

Like Guy said....

There are two parts to this image.
The bottom "half" has good contrast, but the top "half" needs some boosting.

If you don't use a mask, when you fix the top "half" you'll ruin the bottom. Which it seems, is what happened.

Attached is a masked levels adjustment which should demonstrate what I mean.

Rô

[kombizz]

indeed you tried your best shot.