Help needed on a bent and moldy baby pic

[ladyred]

Hi everyone,

First off I would like to say ..nice place...Just found it yesterday ..

I have this picture of me when I was a baby and was wondering if you could help me and point me in the right direction for mending the picture.

Thanks

Ladyred

[AndrewR]

Hi Ladyred and welcome to the forum. I had a go at the picture what I did was first I cropped it to just get the image in then I straightened it up using the ruler tool in PS.
I then adjusted the levels to get a better tone on it. I also erased the creases in the pic by using the healing tool. I also added a bit more tone around the face by using some burning. I then added a slight blur to the overall pic. So hopefully this will help.

[Kraellin]

rotated image left 3 degrees.

selected out image to new image

rough clone of background to clean out major damage

resized image to double original (did this here to avoid extra work when rough cleaning)

new adjustment level of curves for contrast and correction

duplicated original image to clean with clone/push/smudge

added new adjustment layer of contrast/brightness

final cleaning with clone/push/smudge

adjusted curves layer

Craig

[Dreamypix]

Would have been better with a higher resolution image, but here's what I got. I masked out the baby and just created a new background using the colors from the original background. I tried making a pattern but it didn't work like I had planned....So I just added some grain to make the background look more like the original background. There are alot of details, but I don't have time to go into it now. If you have any Q's, don't hesitate to ask.

~Amber~

[ladyred]

Wow .... You guys are amazing .... You are inspiring me in what direction I need to go into to clean up the picture ...

I wish I had a higher resolution of the picture but it is all I have ... I don't even have the picture. I scanned it when I was down home this summer ... The scanned pictures wont open in photoshop for me so I was doing a print screen on them ...maybe if I took it into photoshop with a print screen I could get a better resolution .. I will try that and see how it goes..

What would happen if I were to enlarge the pciture using the 10 % method in the image resize in ps ..a step at a time ... should this be done before cleanup or after??

[ladyred]

Here is the picture brought through photoshop as a printscreen ..

[ladyred]

Hi guys,

Here is one of my efforts at fixing the photo.

1. straightened the photo
2. cloned and used the healing brush
3.applied dust and scratches filter
4. applied unsharp mask

Comments welcomed ...

[Flora]

Hi ladyred,

Welcome to RP!

I think you did a very nice job restoring your picture! It looks very clean .. unfortunately, it's very small in size so I couldn't see the details ...

I had a quick go at it as well .... I used Curves and Levels to balance tone and contrast and the Heal Brush to remove the scratches ...

Usm To slightly sharpen.

Added a light Sepia Tone to the shadows only.

Lightly darkened the edges.

(I work with PS)

Nice job everyone .... Just a few small things ... Too strong a contrast makes you lose details in shadows and highlights ... too much blurring makes it look more like a painting ... (which can be very nice if done on purpose) ... unless the original background is very damaged, I'd rather fix it instead of completely change it ... a superb new background not really matching lighting and noise is a dead giveaway for 'manipulation' and it can too easily get the 'pasted' look

[Caitlin]

Originally Posted by ladyred

I wish I had a higher resolution of the picture but it is all I have ... I don't even have the picture. I scanned it when I was down home this summer ... The scanned pictures wont open in photoshop for me so I was doing a print screen on them ...

I have read that sometimes you can open problematic files that Photoshop can't read in Irfanview, resave them, then Photoshop will recognise them. If you don't have Irfanview, it's a very handy freeware image viewer and can be downloaded here: www.irfanview.com

[ladyred]

Originally Posted by Caitlin

I have read that sometimes you can open problematic files that Photoshop can't read in Irfanview, resave them, then Photoshop will recognise them. If you don't have Irfanview, it's a very handy freeware image viewer and can be downloaded here: www.irfanview.com

Thank you Caitlin .... You are a lifesaver! The program works like a charm. I can now get those scans opened at the higher resolution. The baby picture went from 14.1 kb in size to 597 kb. A much better size to work with. When I was home this summer I had scanned a lot of pictures and was disappointed when I got home and ps would not open them.

Now to get them all converted over to a jpeg format and then start restoring them.

Thanks again,

Ladyred

[Steve Railey]

Flora,

Your sepia tone is exactly the touch I am looking for in several of my b/w projects. Can you please describe generally how you did this?

Thanks, Steve

[Caitlin]

Originally Posted by ladyred

Thank you Caitlin .... You are a lifesaver! The program works like a charm. I can now get those scans opened at the higher resolution. The baby picture went from 14.1 kb in size to 597 kb. A much better size to work with. When I was home this summer I had scanned a lot of pictures and was disappointed when I got home and ps would not open them.

Now to get them all converted over to a jpeg format and then start restoring them.

Thanks again,

Ladyred

I'm really glad it worked! It's great when a little bit of information that you read somewhere filters through, and actually helps someone.

[Dreamypix]

Alright Flora- Details, Details! How did you get it so clear? You have some wonderful skills! I wish I was half the restorer that you are. Your an inspiration! No, really. How did you do it? Did you use the original background?

~Amber~

[Flora]

Hi Steve,

working with PS, to achieve that effect, I did the following:

1. Created a Levels Adjustment Layer and strongly increased the contrast to create a mask...
   
   
2. With the Levels AL still visible, I pressed Ctrl+Alt+~ to select the luminosity and then Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection .... now my shadows were selected ...
   
   
3. With the selection active, I deleted the Levels AL and created a Hue&Saturation Adjustment Layer ... I checked the 'Colorize' box ...
   
   
4. ...and the values are in Attachment 1

Hi Amber,

thank you so much for your great feedback!

...and I wish I was half the retoucher you are !!!

Yes I used the original background and here ...'Ze Details' ...

1. I used the Curves to add consistency and tone to the image. (Attachment 2). (please... don't ask me for numbers ... all I do is 'eyeballing' and moving sliders...)
   
   
2. I used the Healing brush, alternating between Replace and Normal Modes, to remove the scratches...
   
   
3. I used Noise>Dust&Scratches on the background ... when working with D&S, I increase the Radius until all blemishes have disappeared, then I increase the Threshold until I get nearly all the texture back but stopping before the reapparence of the blemishes (Attachment 3).
   
   
4. When the image was nice and clean, I used a Brightness/Contrast AL to increase the contrast a bit. (Attachment 4)
   
   
5. Used USM to lightly sharpen (can't remember the values for it ... but it should be 'soft')
   
   
6. Colorized the shadows as explained for Steve.
   
   
7. Created a rectangular dark grey vignette (feather 30-40pixels Radius) around the borders to make the baby 'pop' out more ...

.... and that's it ....

[Dreamypix]

Wow Flora! Thanks for the info! I will def have to give it another shot now! Thanks for the compliment too.. especially from you!

~Amber~