How would you start this restoration?

Sleveen · #1 11-23-2007, 11:22 AM

This is a photo of my parents before they were married. My mom is deceased, and I'd like to get this done for my father's 80th birthday in January. The original was destroyed in a fire so I can't scan it again. I don't think I even have the original scan because it was scanned onto a floppy. I have a BMP file that's 4.24mb so I think it was already enlarged. I need to know the answers to basic questions. Can I make a better copy to work on with something like Genuine Fractals, how would I bring out more detail, etc? Any help to get me started would really be appreciated. Thanks!

rrustic · #2 11-23-2007, 02:08 PM

First of all, I rotated the image a bit and then cropped keeping it 5x7.
If you look at the RED channel, most of the tape and grunge coloring is gone so I just used this channel.
I lassoed the sky and added a cloud filter and adjusted levels.
Clone, clone , clone and more...............I would keep going but you should get the idea.

Sleveen · #3 11-23-2007, 02:42 PM

Thanks rrustic for the effort. I want to get more detail, especially in the faces. That's why I was wondering if enlarging, while working on it, was an option then shrink it back to 4 x 6 or whatever to make it look the best?

homerjk85 · #4 11-24-2007, 05:51 PM

all i can say is try enlarging it, if it doesn't work it will look the same as if you didn't try it.

I was playing around with the image and this is what I would do
1.change the image to grayscale that will eliminate the brown tint around the edges.
2.crop(will save alot of time with the clone stamper)
3.make a copy of the layer and put mask on the copy
4.click on the copy and go to FILTER>NOISE>MEDIAN and set it to 6 or 7
5.click on the mask and then use the brush tool (black) to revel all the detail (eyes, mouth, around the jackets, ect.)
6.use the clone stamp to take care of the rest of the cracks

hope this helps
Jon

Nan · #5 11-24-2007, 07:48 PM

I took a little time with it. I used noise remover, levels and a little bit of cloning. Then with a tiny brush I lightly smudged the edges of the facial features. It made it appear a little cleaner. I couldn't bring back much detail though.
Nan

Sleveen · #6 11-24-2007, 08:51 PM

Thank you very much homerjk85 and Nan. Right now I'm just using the clone tool on a really large version that I blew up with Genuine Fractals. It seems to be going okay to get rid of the blemishes. I'm going to try your suggestions on another copy and see how they turn out. Thanks again, I really appreciate the help. It keeps me plugging away.