Help Maybe Impossible

[Don Majoros]

A friend of mine asked if I could repair this ohoto of her dad.The super imposed face is not wanted,only the main character.A photographer charged her to reproduce this photo from the originals,which were destroyed by a fire.I've tried all types of experiments: different channels,layer adjustments,layer masks etc., with no results.If I get rid of the face on the left,do you think I could copy,flip and blend to get a decent result? I'm trying to get this done for Christmas for her to give to her father. I may be asking too much?

[Blacknight]

Try just a hat flip - I attached a Q&D here. A more detailed selection (better following the hat outline) would probably work better. Some clone stamp work around the ear and maybe a watercolor effect - the face is pretty blurred, so I doubt if you would ever get a photo-quality version. Just a thought...

[Don Majoros]

Thanks Blacknight.It looks good.How did you get the face out.I tried a layer mask and painted it out some,but not guite enough.I may have to raise the opacity of the paint brush? had it set at 10 px.

[Blacknight]

Another Q&D with watercolor.

[Blacknight]

Originally posted by Don Majoros
Thanks Blacknight.It looks good.How did you get the face out...

I used the healing brush, but clone stamp would probably work as well. By the time you flip the hat, there isn't much of the other face left. I just concentrated on getting rid of the harsh "edge" of the other face overlap. By the way, if you reduce my watercolor pic down to wallet size, it looks almost good...

[phili1]

OK Don. I redid it and came up with this.

Rebuild the hat with clone tool, sample color and brush smooth med oil brush.
Recolored eyes and teeth and faded with opacity.

clone background and smooth out.

Put new Marine insignier on.

use blur tool to smooth skin. and around outline to blend.

Do unsharp mask amount 27 - pixels 73.8 - theshold 0

The picture is sharper & smoother on my screen so if you have the original it will come out sharper.

[roger_ele]

Here is my try at it ... I am not totally happy with the top of the hat, I think the color might be a little contrasty - things I would normally sleep on...

What I did was basically flip the hat and everthing else on the right side onto a new layer, I pushed and pulled at free transform until the shapes matched the left side, layer mask to blend. Same with the top of the hat.

The rest was clean-up, lightening and darkening and sharpening. I then duplicated the final image onto it's own layer a couple of times - to each layer I did one of the following with varied opacity and layer masks; soft light blending mode, curves adjustment, multiply, and screen for an area I wanted to lighten. I think that was everything ...

Roger

[Vikki]

Taking Roger's nice job a step further.....
(I think the hat should be replaced, but didn't have time)

[pjb]

copy part of hat and paste also with the ear

[Don Majoros]

Thanks guys & gals. I'll try these steps and see what I come up with.People in RP are as good as Emergency Medical Techs.

[phili1]

Hey guys nice submission by all.

Vikkie how did you do the eyes. Did you do a copy and paste from another Photo, or by hand. I agree with the hat, it should be replaced, but I tried to keep it as is to see what would happen. I ruched the eyes.

[Vikki]

Firstly, I adjusted the photo to remove some of redness. I didn't cut or paste anything, but rather enhanced what was already there. I whitened the eyes, darkened the pupils and rims, and intensified the faint catchlight in the eyes.