not sure where to begin

[adelman3]

anybody have an idea on where to begin with this image restoration? (I'm using Photoshop CS4). Thanks.

[Tony W]

Hi adelman3 and welcome.

Unfortunately this does not look to be a good scan and therefore IMO will be difficult to get a good image as there is very little detail seen particularly on the left side of the image. If this is all you have to work with then you will probably need to select areas and apply curves to try and balance density over the image.
EDIT: A very quick try with your original mask curve layer for each figure and a little D&B - not good by any means but a starting point perhaps (plenty of clean up work to do), although I think that there are better ways to do this....

If you have the original you could try scanning again in 48bit colour with a high dpi. In fact I would be tempted to try a couple of scans. The first for the left side of the image to maximise detail and information using the scanner histogram controls and then the same for the right hand side. Then combine both images in PS layers masked as required.

[adelman3]

Thanks so much Tony. I originally scanned at 24bit color, but I will rescan at 48bit. The suggestion of 2 different scans for each side of the image is great. I'll try that. I had already started to mask each person and work on them separately but it's slow-going. When I get to clean up work, if I could find a way to minimized the scratches across the image then I think that will help a lot.

[Chain]

Yes; Scan in 48-bit (16bit per channel), and make sure it isn't saved as JPEG. Doing two scans was also a good idea.

Those two large smears across the image is the main problem here. Personally I would use a darkening curves adjustment layer and try to match that area with the rest of the image, then use the healing brush to try to even it out a bit. Don't know how it would work out, but that's the first thing I would have tried (on the full resolution image).

[adelman3]

I've been working with the Burn tool on the scratches - making the width of the tool match the scratch. Do you think that's a good approach? It's time consuming, but I think it's helping. You can see in these posted images. Now I'd like to try and smooth out the graininess, especially on the right hand side. Thanks for all the helpful info!

[adelman3]

oops - here are the before/after I'm working on

[Chain]

Your technique seems to be working, and it would be time-consuming to remove that no matter the technique. Just keep it up!

My initial suggestion using a curves-adjustment would have yielded the same (or very similar) results - but you would have been brushing in the mask of the adjustment instead of directly on a layer.

[Tony W]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. Curves adjustment layer would have worked well in this case also and I think would possibly give more control over density, contrast etc.

Did you actually rescan at high dpi and 48 bit colour for this one? If you did, did you try two scans as suggested?

Graininess does not appear particularly worse on the right on the images posted here (perhaps due to size restrictions?) but I would also suggest that you highlght the right hand lady (head to waist) and apply a curve to get a better match. You may also want to dodge a little on the face to match the lighting of the others

[adelman3]

I tried a curves adjust but was afraid of overdoing it. I did rescan at hires 48 and did the 2 scans. That helped out quite a bit. I have tried isolating the lady on the right and doing a curves for contrast but again didn't want to go too far. If you think it needs more I will go ahead and try that. Thanks for the suggestion.

[jeremy1986]

here's what i got so far with a couple of layers where i mutiplied certain parts of the picture trying to counteract the fading and fine tuning levels and contrast

[Tony W]

Originally Posted by adelman3

... I have tried isolating the lady on the right and doing a curves for contrast but again didn't want to go too far. If you think it needs more I will go ahead and try that. Thanks for the suggestion.

The original image I suspect was not that great with lighting coming from the left hand side maybe a large window or door the light falloff then causing the far right person to be too dark in relation to the others. I would imagine that this image likely to have been printed without any attempt to balance the lighting over the entire image. You have the opportunity to correct this if appropriate

So the question I guess is do you want to attempt to return it as close as possible to how you (or at least I) imagine the original looked or would you prefer to try and improve the overall image balance to get a more pleasing look?

Not sure why you are afraid of 'going too far' with curves let your eyes and 'gut feeling' guide you - you will know when it is either too light or dark!. You also mention curves for contrast when I think it is more appropriate to be thinking in terms of overall density i.e. the contrast probably does not need to either increase or decrease but the overall lightness of this part of the image could be improved.

The attached image shows this I hope a little more clearly. Using a curves (or levels) layer mask the ladies face, arms and dress down to her lap only. Pull the centre of the RGB curve upwards to lighten overall to get an acceptable result. Also for this a small amount of dodge on the lower part of the face helps.

All this of course is just my opinion and the way I may have applied 'improvements' should I have undertaken this work

[adelman3]

Wow. Thanks for the great advice and for spending time to help. I think I've done what you suggested. Take a look at the latest revision and let me know if it looks improved. Thanks so much for helping.

[Tony W]

Well done, really starting to look a lot more balanced now. It should be possible to mask the flare now on the left and use curves to darken/balance the image. Then how far to go with general clean up is up to you.

[adelman3]

I'll do that. Thanks again for all your help. This picture means a lot to a friend of mine.