Help me save this pretty face

[blue dog]

See what I have to start with? Here's how far I've gotten and I'm not too happy with it. Oh, sorry about the pretty face thing..

I layered up a couple layers of inverse illuminance copies to build density in the dark areas. Stacked a multiply layer (which makes it quite dark) and masked out the face area that I wanted to shine through. I touched up with cloning and minimized the double flares in the eyeglasses. I cloned some background from the left to the right and added some blur. Of course I added some pure black space at the bottom just to let me frame the face appropriately.

The face itself is ok, but I was at a loss on the background and bottom areas. Does it look like he's being engulfed by some black fog? I thought of duplicating the RH sofa on the left so I could balance the sides and include that space, but would have a big challenge getting the lighting to look right. Suggestions?

[Swampy]

BlueDog
I find the gentleman's eyes to be a bit flat in your final version.

I did some levels. curves, blur and sharpen on your original and used a warming filter for the overall tint.

I didn't do any restoration cloning or healing, because I like the aged look left in the photo.

[blue dog]

Swampy ,

As always, you make a great observation. Now I can see it and you are right, in mine his eyes look dead. I had to do some significant retouching of his eyes when I removed the lens glare. Maybe its a weakness in my technique?

When you compare mine to yours, I really did regain some detail from the shadows on his left side, making it a better photograph than the original. I also prefer the drama in mine.

I'm looking for suggestions: How to put some life in these eyes?

[Swampy]

BlueDog
Perhaps you can make a selection of the eyes before working on other areas then work the eyes last so they don't get "lost" in gross adjustments.

[duwayne]

I like the picture - I used a couple of the Neat Image filter to start with. Cropped to a 5x7 aspect ratio. Mostly healing with a small medium brush. Shadow/Highlight adjustment used on the eyes to reduce the bright spots. Radial gradient mask with level adjustment to darken edges. Hue/Saturation adjustment with colorize checked (Hue=50, Saturation=10). Two sharpening passes done in Lab mode. I wouldn't call it done but it's all I had time for.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I know most older photos have very little contrast and many people like them that way but this one I believe needs contrast to burn off the dreaded white fog.

I used a color burn layer and a soft low opacity brush to selectively increase contrast and burn off that gray fog.

Butch

[Cupcake]

I put a little more life back into the eyes.
Burn & Dodge tools.
A soft frame to blend the background in better.