multi problem photo

[DARCgull]

First time I have ventured in to participate in Retouch Pro
but I would like to put foward a 120 year old photo to see what could be done to bring it back near original. hopethat 100k is enough to work with, but here are the main points.--- a very faded back ground that will show the ravages of clear felling and a very dark background, making a believable meld of the two a bit difficult, a developers finger print in the pine tree, a fog haze in the area as well and a colour cast.
Anyone like to have a go? I have taken a liking to old photo restorations, but have a lot to learn. (plus around 200 old photos to restore)

[Legacy~Art]

Goodmorning

Its very late here but i thought i would mention a program called ColorcastFX

its free to download from here

http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/castfx.htm

This is what i did, i opened this program and then i went through the camera choices and the below picture is the result, plus the finger print as i have no idea how to remove that.

Here is one without the thumbnail, i just in photoshop IMAGINE adjust color and got rid of the thumbprint that way, but hey i am no good at restoring.

Waiting for the likes of Gary and Flora, and anyone else that does retouching photos/

Ella

[Kraellin]

i love old pics like this... had to take a shot at it.

and welcome to RP

Craig

[Robt]

DARCgull, would you forward me the name of the real estate sales agent and phone number? I'll be moving next week. What a wonderful place. What has happened in 120 yrs? Oh yeah, a cable internet connection is available, right?

[DARCgull]

as it,s late afternoon here, and thank you folk for the welcome, the colour fix and the photo restores. One day I will be as good as those if I persist.
And as for the real estate Rob, you may find it a little chilly at the present due to a late spring snowfall of a couple of feet or so. Looks good, but plays hell with the lives of new born lambs. The location is in the lower half of the South Island of New Zealand, and there's heaps more beautiful scenic places in this country. If anyone is interested I have put a few of the North Island ones here, BUT please don't take too much notice of the Quality, I have learnt a lot since putting this up and intend to revamp the whole site.
http://darcgull.smugmug.com/Travel.
meantime I'm off to try and match an attempt at your images, but will be back

[Robt]

WOW ! Actually, if I do have internet at more or slightly less than cable speeds and I can get my goods with-in a couple days from anywhere in the world, vould there be a problem?

[DARCgull]

Pleased to have you anytime, anyhow. Just bring your checkbook and camera.
PS. no terrorist worries over here.

[Nanls]

I didn't have a lot of luck with the fingerprint

[edgework]

The fingerprint was least intrusive in the blue channel so I used that. Soft selections with various curves smoothed out the density variations in the trees to the right. Targeted curves with blending options brought out detail in the background mountains and the foliage.

[philbach]

I liked this picture, especially the background. To increase the contrast of the background, I copied the background layer and increased the contrast by using a levels adjustment layer.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi DARCgull,

had a quick play with your image.

Copied to new layer, (I always do this so I'm not working on original).

Desaturate layer.
Made loose selection round fingerprint, copied and pasted into new layer, adjust levels to get tone match.
New layer and clone out blemishes.
Merged Layers.
Applied levels to merged layer to improve contrast
New layer set to colour blend, sepia tint added, and adj opacity to taste.

[Cameraken]

Hi DARCgull. Welcome to RP.

If this picture is 120 years old. Then it MUST be Black and White or Sepia. Right?

But there is a lot of colour info in this picture?

Even the developer stain is red and this would normally be black (or white) in a B&W photo.

Can you give us some more info on this picture?

Ken

[DARCgull]

Hey !! you folk are magic, I get a good nights sleep, and when I get up this morning, you people have been working all night to solve my problems. Now--that's dedication.
Seriously though, those alterations are really terrific and I guess your help sort of hooks me to this site now.
Legacy~art-- I down loaded and tried cast fx and it works a treat.
To Cameraken, this is a photo that a friend asked if I would have a try at restoring. She was happy with my result, but I wasn't.
It is a black and white image, scanned from print original, at 300dpi, in colour mode,(to give me more working options and re convert later).all other assistance off.
The "sepia tint was severe on the print, but not as much as what you see here.
What I have put up has only been reduced to 98k as required and I could only hope that it gave enough res. to work with.
To everyone else "(that worked through the night)" I love your attempts and I am going to have another go at emulating them as I page back ad forth to see what else is new here.

[Ken Fournelle]

This is my methodology:

1. Duplicate the Background Layer
2. I looked at the channels and selected the Blue Channel which had the
least stain damage. Control+A, then Control+C
3. I returned to the Layers Palette and pasted the Blue Channel copy into
the Duplicated Background Layer, Control+V
4. This gave me a B&W copy at the top of the Layer stack
5. Levels Adjustment Layer
6. With the Magic Wand Tool, I selected the mountains in the background.
7. Curves Adjustment layer on the background mountains
8. Made an Empty Layer, Control+N, Softlight Blending Mode
9. Selected a soft Black or White Brush and painted over the picture
enhancing parts of the image at 10-20% opacity
10. Merge Visible, Shift+Alt+Control+E
11. Ran byRo's Brightness and Contrast Action
12. Flattened and Smart Sharpened.

K

[byRo]

Great work everybody, I was going to have a go a this but you guys already got it nailed!

Originally Posted by Cameraken

But there is a lot of colour info in this picture?

I thought so too. For me the field mid-left did come out yellow, just like you got here.
Though I do think that you overdid the greens a bit. Seems that it ended up more like a colour cast than the actual leaf/grass green. I also would have put a bit of Red in the house, just to get a bit more interesting.

Originally Posted by Ken Fournelle

11. Ran byRo's Brightness and Contrast Action

Thanks for the plug - the fiver's in the post.

Rô

[Ken Fournelle]

A fiver? You won't get off that easy! :-)

k