faded black clothes

[unimatrix001]

was wondering if someone could give me a few pointers on how to make this look real. this is a scaled down image of a pic i am working on for a friend. finished the rest of the restoration. I am at a loss here working with these black clothes trying to get separation between the boy and his mother. the boy is in front (on the left side) from the full picture it looks as tho he is turned slightly to the left so his shoulder is angled across her body. I have tried darkening but then i loose the separation between them, and that part of the picture looks to flat. (Black is so hard to work with... ). I added a fabric texture to the clothes but it doesn't show up very well. Here is the original section i am working on, also a full before and after. still need to work on the faces some but that i will get to, the clothes are what i am having trouble with. thank you for your help.

[lurch]

If you study it closely even black clothing will contain shades of gray, some quite light, depending on the lighting. I suggest you try some dodging along the boy's shoulder line (and other places, to give the clothes something other than a flat cartoon shape).

[philbach]

I just lightened up her right shoulder slightly more separation can be done by adding a light texture.

[spotter]

Try using the patch tool to take sections from the smoother areas of mums black top and help define the shadow to the boys right.
It wont be perfectly flat and smooth because that would seem too artificial,it needs some variation in the blacks . After all,if there is no light and shadow variation,you cant possibly see a separation even in real life.

[Flora]

Very quick try

• Select and copy the boy's right shoulder then paste it on the left side.

• Play with Layer Style effects to give a 3D feeling (light shadow etc.)

• Draw a path for the collar

• Fill the path with colour

• Play with Layer Style effects to give a 3D feeling (light shadow etc.)

• Play with Blending Mode.

I placed the boy in front since, beside for protection, I can't think of any occasion when a mother would step in front of her child ....

[mistermonday]

Flora, you have to be a descendent of Leonardo Da Vinci or one of those other iconic Italian painters! Nice 2D > 3D!
Best regards, Murray

[unimatrix001]

been having computer problems here but i do appreciate all the help. I will look at all your suggestions and try to make them work on the original version. Flora i really like what you did to the photo didnt think of trying that. the file i have is around a 73 meg tiff file will give that a try before i desaturate it. Again thanks for all the input on this photo.

[Flora]

Originally Posted by unimatrix001

....the boy is in front (on the left side)...

oooppsss ... hadn't read that ...

Murray,

thank you so much for your kindness and humour !!!!

unimatrix001,

thank you for your kind feedback .... Huge image you are working on ...

[unimatrix001]

Yes it is ... A friend in arkansas has one picture that took two scans. she sent me the two photos, I put them together in photoshop. I started the restoration, got that far then my 14 year old motherboard starting giving me problems. then crashed and burned, right now i am on an old p4 with 512 meg of sdram so using photoshop right now is out of the question. just cant be with out a computer. I thank all for the insight and help you gave me my head was spinning and needed some fresh eyes. Just waiting for my new motherboard so i can build me another one.
Again thanks for all your help and insight.