Image Help - - Maybe I Should Have Said NO

bcarll · #1 01-31-2008, 09:42 PM

Hello to all,

This photo was given to me to try and weave some magic with. It was sent to whoever WalMart uses to do restoration work and it was returned saying not enough information and that they could not do anything to it. Also sent to a local photo center and the same comments. I have to agree with them. However after speaking to the person who has the photo she thought she had some other photos that had the young woman and small child in it also. She gave that to me in as bad a shape as this photo was so not much help but I at least tried. I am not a professional let me make that clear and usually do these tasks for hardly no money. For now this is just a hobby and it sure is a great one that I enjoy.
The bulk of this picture I used cloning and smudging to get rid of lines and imperfections. Copying and pasting body parts to fill in missing limbs and whole people. When I thought I was finished I put a mild sepia tone to the photo. I have several hours on this picture and I am about to say enough is enough. I am not 100% satisfied with my results so that is why I am posting in hopes of learning from you all here what I could have done differently. It's hard to post your work for criticism but how else do you learn. We all are so fortunate to have this website as a learning tool. The best thing about it is even the icons of restorartion ask questions about others techniques in hopes of learning something new. We appreciate you all. So look this over and tell me what it needs to add some punch to my restored photo.

bcarll

klassylady25 · #2 01-31-2008, 11:18 PM

Perhaps you should have said yes, but...

This picture will never be pristine. There isn't a great deal of information left but you can do a few things to help bring it out more. The cracks are part of the character of the picture.

0lBaldy · #3 02-01-2008, 02:21 AM

Thought I would try neat image on this one
then filter>noise>dust&scratches with a hide all mask and painted out all the small cracks.. then clone and heal the big uns
General repair then brought the original back in with hide all mask and uncovered the boy and girl faces to bring back detail and using very small brush hid the cracks some
thats about all I did to this one

bcarll · #4 02-02-2008, 10:23 PM

Well thanks for all your help and especially the tip about NEAT IMAGE. Will download the DEMO and give it a try. I know this photo will never be "pristene" but with all we have done here at least we have saved some piece of history --thanks bcarll