Faded Image: Can it be improved?

[Olive]

This picture is too faded, I know, but any improvement, so that we can see the faces would be of help. Hope someone can come up with a solution. I have Elements 2 and am trying to learn photoshop CS, but no excperience as of yet. I am willing to try.
Olive

[Kraellin]

the image has a number of problems. first, there is a rip mark. i didnt try to repair this, but a clone/heal would do it.

second is the fading. this was an interesting fade because it seemed to be in two parts, upper and lower with the rip, and left to right from whatever. i first masked the lower section and darkened it with contrast/lightness. it didnt take much; just darkened it a bit. and then i masked the right section and ran contrast/lighten on that. with that area still selected i ran a high pass sharpen on it to try to bring out more of the detail on that more faded area.

from there i cropped the image to get rid of all that tarmac that had no value to the picture. i also then doubled the size adding more pixels to work with.

i then ran another high pass sharpen on the entire image followed by Stroker's 'Lum Frequecies'. this was to try to bring out some of the detail by altering the various relational contrasts of the luminosity ranges. this also got rid of some of the fading and gave more contrast to the picture.

and finally, i added another adjustment layer of contrast/lighten to even out the shades a bit more.

sadly, this is such a low detailed scan that you still cant really make out the faces very well. if you could re-scan the image at a higher resolution you might get more. you might also do a very high resolution scan off the negative if you have it. negatives can generally be scanned at much higher resolutions and therefore can get better results at times.

Craig

in looking at this after i've posted it here, i can see that maybe i shld have adjusted one or more of those lum frequency passes to get the eyes lighter.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Olive,

Had a very quick go with your picture. As Craig says, there are a number of issues with it. The posted image was a little small, so you should be able to get better results with the full size image.

I did a levels adj layer first, and adjusted to darken the image till the rhs was as I wanted it, then applied a graduated mask so that the lhs was more masked than rhs, this evened out the tone.

Made a selection in the central blown out area, then copied and pasted to new layer. Applied levels adj to darken this layer.

Finally cloned out the crack a little. This was a rush job, just to show what can be done, with a bit of time you should be able to get a better result.

[jenjen]

Here is my version. I didn't fix the crack either and i did it really fast.

1. Duplicate layer
2.add a levels adjustment layer (click ok)
3.Blend mode to Multiply
4.duplicate that layer
5.click on the new layers level and adjust it as you want.
6. to bring out the detail i used the JB Smart Sharpen action that i downloaded on this site. (last step i lowered it a bunch).

It probaly has too much detail but there you go.

[nebgranny]

Hi Gary:
I am trying to follow your post on working with this photo. I am getting better with levels now , but have a few questions. You mentioned first pass with levels to make rhs better , second pass to make lhs to your likeing. What do they refer to ?
Also it seems like you make another layer and make an adjustment, did not know you could do this and it would make a difference. Please keep in mind my being new to PS and I know some questions might seem like a DA...to some people but I am going to ask anyway! Thanks Neb

[nebgranny]

Hi again...What is a graduate mask? Neb

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Neb,

First of all no question is DA if you don't know the answer, and we all had to learn, so you're only asking questions that we've all asked at some time.

OK, firstly I always like to work on new layers, as I have more control that way.
Sometimes its an adjustment layer, sometimes its a normal layer that I run an adjustment on, depends on what I'm working on.

A graduated mask is a mask that goes gradually from Black (totally masked) to white (totally unmasked), and is usually created using the graduation tool situated under the paint bucket (Alt+click on the paint bucket) to select it. There are a number of different types of gradient you can make, I used the linear gradient (the symbols are on the toolbar at the top). Make sure your foreground and background colours on your colour selector are set to black and white.

Right, so first I used a levels adjustment layer to darken all of the picture. This meant that now the LHS of the image was too dark, but the RHS looked more or less as I wanted it to. So I clicked on the mask symbol that comes with an adjustment layer, then created a mask that went from Black on the LHS to White on the RHS. This masked the effect of the levels adjustment more on the LHS than on the RHS, therefore evening out the tone across the whole image.

Once I'd done this, I flattened the image. Some like to do this at the end, I often do it as I finish a particular stage of a retouch. The disadvantage is you can't come back to tweak things, the advantage is it keeps things simple in your mind, and reduces the size of your layer stack and file size. With a simple job like this I didn't think I'd have to tweak too much.

I then duplicated parts of the image and copied to a new layer, then applied levels. Again this could have been done by just applying a levels adj layer and masking, but I like to do it this way, because I can fine tune things by adjusting the opacity of the copied layer.

Lastly I cloned out any bits I didn't want. I always do this on a new layer, because any mistakes I may make will be easier to remedy.

Hope this clarifies what I did, if anything I've said isn't clear, just ask and I'll try to explain it better.

[NancyJ]

rhs = right hand side
lhs = left hand side

a graduated mask means to use a gradient on the layer mask. I'm sure you noticed in this example that the picture is not faded equally. Using a black to white gradient to mimic the fading will balance out the 2 sides.

[nebgranny]

Gary and Nancy:
Thank you both for the explaination. Both are helping me to learn the process. Now one more question to either, when making the selection to then do an adjustment level, which tool did you use make the selection, did you use the lasso, magnetic, or a marquee tool? Thanks as always Earline

[nebgranny]

So I clicked on the mask symbol that comes with an adjustment layer, then created a mask that went from Black on the LHS to White on the RHS. This masked the effect of the levels adjustment more on the LHS than on the RHS, therefore evening out the tone across the whole image.

Gary, I did the first adjustment layer, but do not see where a mask icon came with it showing on the layer palette ..am I missing something? Neb

[nebgranny]

ok..made the adjustment level, see the mask icon now what??
Need help with the mask part please...

[Legacy~Art]

Not good at this but i do try LOL!

[deadants]

Hi Neb,
If you look at my little diagram you can see that after you have done an initial levels adjustment you will need to bring up the darkness values on the right so you need a gradient mask. First select the gradient tool under the paint bucket. Next select the quick mask button at the bottom of the tools. Then drag a line from the top right area down toward the bottom left. You'll have to experiment a bit to get the correct area selected. Next, turn the mask off then depending on which side of the screen is selected; you can now adjust your levels in the faded area.

You could also just paint the mask over the areas that are faded and do the same selection process without the gradient mask.

I hope this makes sense.

Ants

[deadants]

I had a crack at this as well seeing I was half way there. I also added a gradient sky. If you find that after you adjust your levels, part of the picture is too dark, use your dodge tool with a reduced opacity to lighten the over dark area. I didn't bother with the crease, as that's basic clone stamping.

[nebgranny]

Here is my try but it is not right I know. see if you can see what I might have done wrong. Thanks Neb