Image Help - - A very FADED picture!

bkpoltis · #1 05-20-2006, 08:52 AM

Hi group,

I am trying to restore a picture of my friend's dad. It is very, very faded. He is an African American with very light skin. I tried using levels, but it still turns out very bad.

Any help is appreciated.

Attached is a scan of the original picture and one with levels applied to each channel.

bkpoltis · #2 05-20-2006, 09:02 AM

Here is another attempt that I made. I did a Hue/Saturation layer first, then used the black & white eyedroppers on an another layer. It seems to give me more detail.

Frank Lopes · #3 05-20-2006, 11:10 AM

Were you looking for a color or b&w image?
Here is a quick bw by adjusting the curves and levels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bkpoltis

I am trying to restore a picture of my friend's dad. It is very, very faded. He is an African American with very light skin. I tried using levels, but it still turns out very bad.

bkpoltis · #4 05-20-2006, 12:05 PM

Frank,

I would like a color picture, since it was originally a color picture. I did not see any attachment with your email.

Doug Nelson · #5 05-20-2006, 12:15 PM

The scan is very clipped. Did you turn off all auto-adjustments in the scanning software?

Frank Lopes · #6 05-20-2006, 12:56 PM

Bkpoltis,

I didn't email you. I only posted the image in the forum.
Doug asked regarding any scan adjustments... were there adjustments when the image was scanned?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bkpoltis

Frank,

I would like a color picture, since it was originally a color picture. I did not see any attachment with your email.

byRo · #7 05-20-2006, 01:01 PM

bkpoltis,

When dealing with faded photos like this your only hope of acheiving a good result is to look at each channel separately and choose which (or a mixture) can be used as a base for a greyscale image.
Colour is a separate, later, concern.

Have a look at the channels in the channel palette (see atachment 1). Only the Blue channel has anything worth saving.
Put in a channel mixer layer with "monochrome" ticked and use 100% blue.
Add a levels adjustment layer and you now have a passable greyscale.(see atachment 2)

Colours? Let's see what we've got.
Go back to the original image, duplicate the layer and run Image>Adjustments>Equalize - this gives a quick idea of what colours remain in the image. As you can see it's a mess (atachment 3) so, if you want colours, you'll have to add them yourself - using this mess only to give you some general idea.

Rô

bkpoltis · #8 05-20-2006, 01:08 PM

Frank,

I'm sorry. I meant your posting, not an email. I didn't see your attachment when I first looked, but did see it later. It's a good black & white adjustment.

Doug,

I'm pretty sure that I didn't use any auto-adjustments. I'm not sure what you mean by 'clipping'. I am trying to find the picture so that I can scan it again. My work area is a mess right now.

bkpoltis · #9 05-20-2006, 01:11 PM

byro,

I see what you mean with the colors. I did check the channels before and saw that the blue channel was the only really good one. Maybe I will have to be happy with a black and white photo, or try my painting skills.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Any more advice is also greatly appreciated.

Bernie

bkpoltis · #10 05-20-2006, 01:21 PM

I found the picture. I rescanned, with no auto-adjustments at 600 dpi, using an HP 3310. I kept the white framing on the 8x10 original.

Doug Nelson · #11 05-20-2006, 01:31 PM

Here's what I mean by clipping, but it could be caused by the JPG compression.

oltenius · #12 05-20-2006, 02:27 PM

I hope you like it. I used a tonal adjustment layer, levels and curves, smart blur...

byRo · #13 05-20-2006, 04:04 PM

Retouched in Painter, and colourized in PS.

Rô

Daviskw · #14 05-20-2006, 07:11 PM

Boy...here I thought I was doing good then byRol posts.....oh well may as well post anyway

Butch

CarolB · #15 05-20-2006, 08:47 PM

Here is my attempt. I thought there was too much clutter in the picture and wanted too bring more attentiion to the distinguished gentleman. So, I cropped the picture and increased the resolution to 300. Did curves, Channel mixer, unsharp in PS and then clarify in Paint Shop. At least that is what I remember.

Ro, by the way, did an excellent job!