Just another photo needing help

[crys]

Hi everyone,

I just found this forum, and its very informative.

I know ( or think I do) alot about fixing photos but... this one is way beyond my knowledge.

My mother thinks I can fix any terrible photo to look new but this one is getting worse as I work on it. And she is counting on me as it her and her father.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Crys

Hope I uploaded the photo right.

[Kraellin]

crys,

first thing, tell your mom it cant be done. this will put in the consideration that anything you do will be a miracle and frankly, you're going to need a bit of a one on this one. it's not impossible, but you've got multiple issues going on here.

there are multiple fade areas; a color balance problem, noise problem, focus problem, some over exposure and a damaged blue channel (giving that black area on his shirt).

i'd start in one of two places, either fix that one retangular faded area in the central portion of the image by selecting it out and changing the contrast/brightness to match the other, or, split the channels into r*g*b and correct each channel first for overall contrast/brightness.

i did give this one a shot, but am still not happy with it, so i'm not posting anything yet. i tried both of the suggested methods above. both will improve things and i dont think the order here will matter much. either can be done after the other. i did have to convert the blue channel to 8 bit first just because of some of the things i tried with it, curves, levels, 32 band gray plugin, and then converted it back to grayscale before re-combining the channels.

so, i'd start there. at some point you're also going to have to clean up the noise. neat image, digital camera noise removal, polaroid dust and scratch removal, shld all help, but not completely. a combo of those might work, but i still think you're going to have to clone out a bit of it.

also, give some of this stuff a shot and post your progress images. these can help us help you and perhaps help us as well.

it's going to be a rough one to do and do well.

craig

edit: oh, and welcome to RP

[SteveB2005]

Hi crys. There is hope for this image and you can improve it. Is this the org or your work image? Here are a few ideas. If using Photoshop, apply a grid pattern to analyze each box of the image, then you won't be overwhelmed as to where to start. In layer mode, drag to new layers and select screen until it gets really faint and then work backwards looking at the contrast. In the really dark areas the screen mode might zone in on some detail that you can tweak. Then apply multiply mode and see what's in the lighter areas. Experiment with curves in layers. Be careful on any sharpening and leave that to last. Start doing layer buildups to get the basic lights and darks, then look for the midrange. Look at the image in each RGB channels which might help. There is so much more, and this is just a possible starting point, but now maybe some other restorer will offer some insight and options. If I have time, I may take a crack at it. You may also have to makeup some things to bring the image out too. steveb