Professional Opinion Needed

[arcadhia]

I have this picture of my Grandmother which I would like your opinion on how to Retouch it in the best possible way…
I know how to go about retouching it in a normal fashion [Levels, Curves, Color Balance, Hue & Saturation, Healing Brush, Stamp Tool, etc…], But I feel that what I’m doing is not sufficient. Therefore I would like your Professional opinion on which there is a better procedure to improve the quality of this picture; for instance which procedure would be go first and so on.

Thank You!

[Ed_L]

Hello arcadhia,

Welcome to RP. I'm a long, long way from being a pro, so I'll let you know that right now. I used the channel mixer set to monochrome, and used green=100%, and added red=4% for a slight boost in contrast. Then I used a curves adjustment layer to bring a little more detail out in the hair and the face. Finally, I changed it to grayscale, as I didn't think it needed color. It seems as though you know how to take care of the cracks, etc., so I won't bother with that.

Ed

[MBChamberlain]

That's a really good portrait, and it is in really good shape for its age. You might want to try colorizing it. I did a ten minute quickie to see how it looks and I think it would look really nice if you invested a couple hours into the colorizing.

Michael