An early 1860's photo

[MBChamberlain]

Hi all, this is a photo of our college's first president at a boy in 1860 somthing (1863 probably). We only have half of a copy negative (I beleive made from the original print in the 20's) in our archive, I was able to make a print in our darkroom and get it scanned and start restoring it. I'm not very good at the restoration bit, I'm more of a retoucher. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

[philbach]

I think you did a fine job of restoring this photo. Its faithfully reproduces the original. Yep there is a small white spot on the ring finger but who would notice it.

[ajcutler]

MB:

I also think you did a fine job restoring this picture. I took a crack at it, and I wanted the eyes, hair, and coat to stand out a little more, so I probably used more curves (with a gradient to open up the shadows on the right side of the face) and levels layers than you did. It's just a different interpretation.

Alan

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Michael, had a quick play with your picture. Duped layer, then extracted boy. Ran levels on boy. Patched and cloned background, blurred slightly.
Duped boy layer then sharpened using USM. Applied hide all mask, and painted in sharpness around mouth and eyes.

On 2nd image I just ran it through Neat Image. This gave it a more smoothed out look in case that is what you were looking for.

[MBChamberlain]

Still looking for constructive criticism, if anyone is interested in providing some...

[kiska]

Well, Michael, this is just a matter of taste. Changed image to grayscale before adding the grain, to avoid colored specks. Also a gradient to darken the lower part of pic. The restore is great but a bit too smooth??? That's why the addition of grain. Just an opinion.

[Gary Richardson]

Sorry for lack of criticism on my last post. First let me say that generally you did a fine job of restoration, however there were a few things that did not sit right to me.

Firstly, the restored image was a bit over smoothed, this resulted in loss of detail in the boys hair, loss of skin texture, and lack of texture to his coat.

Secondly you ramped up the contrast a bit, and this resulted in a bit of blow out on the boys shirt collar, causing lack of detail. Also the cushion was a bit blown out as well loosing the texture of the fabric in the highlit area.

When I posted earlier, the first image is as I would have preferred it, but I also added a smoothed out version in case that was the look you were wanting. The reason for posting images was to give you something to compare your own against. This is not to imply any superiority, but to give a different viewpoint and approach to the same subject.

[MBChamberlain]

Gary,

Sorry if I sounded like I was bashing the previous posts, but I had only gotten three replies and I was wondering if any of the other gurus out there had any comments. I see what you mean about the lack of detail...I'll take another shot at it, I might even reprint it with a different filter and scan it again to see if I can draw out more detail from the negative... who knows.

Thanks for your comments everybody (and in advance to anyone who posts after this...)

Michael

[Xaran]

If you have the negative you will get better results by scanning that or having it scanned if your scanner doesn't do negatives.

Christine

[Click]

Michael...

A very good attempt. I do think your restoration is
too smooth and prefer a rougher version that
emulates pictures taken at that time period.

Click

[MBChamberlain]

I've taken another shot at this.

[venivedi]

I agree with kiska on the matter of texture.
Michael, I like your latest shot very much.
Texture application(?) has worked.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Mike, great improvement on your first post. Perhaps the added noise is a little noticeable, but this may only be so on the posted version. If it is on your version, then to reduce it try this. Copy to a new layer, apply a very slight Gaussian Blur (0.4) then reduce the opacity of the new layer (60%), then apply a layer mask, and mask around eyes and mouth.

[MBChamberlain]

I see what you mean... I also brightened it a little.

[Gary Richardson]

Looks good to me, congratulations on a very well done job.