I picked a tough one.....

[Seawrenity]

for my first attempt.

I'm new here and new at (attempted) restoration. A friend's mother died when she was ten - she's now in her fifties - and she just found a photo of her mother as a young girl when she was cleaning out the family home.

She is going to try and bring this to a professional restorer. It is badly damaged; fungus, water stains, tears. etc. In the meantime, I said I would scan it and see if I could do anything with it.

I found this site and read thru many of the posts and tutorials. I am trying to apply some of the suggestions and tips I have read here, but I still get lost in layers and masks sometimes and don't always understand what is, (or is not) happening in photoshop when I try the various techniques. Anyway, if any of you could take a look at what I've done and offer some suggestions on how to improve, I would really appreciate it. To me, my version seems kind of flat or dull and I think I may have "overprocessed" it in an attempt to get rid of the damage. Thanks for any input!
Kathy J

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Kathy, great attempt on what was a difficult restore. My only quibble was that the girl's face was a little blown out on my monitor (it may not be on yours). So, I copied your original untouched picture and pasted it as a new layer, then applied a hide all layer mask, and with a soft white brush, painted in the face. Then I adjusted levels and curves on this layer, finally I adjusted opacity of layer to see her face slightly darkened, and with a little of the original texture revealed. Had to compress quite a lot to reach 100k limit, hope this does'nt degrade things too much.

[Seawrenity]

Hi Gary,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I think your version has a lot more depth than mine. My question is: When you said you copied the original version in a new layer, was that a new layer in the version I worked on? I want to try what you did to see if I can bring out a little more character in mine and tone down the face.
I appreciate your help on this.
Kathy

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Kathy, Yes, thats what I did. I just opened both images, did a select all, copy on the untouched image, then clicked on touched up image and pasted. This puts the untouched version in a new layer above your touched up version. The rest is as my original post. If you have any questions, post here or send me a PM. Hope this helps.

[Flora]

Hi Kathy,

Welcome to RP!

I had a go at your picture .... and agree with what Gary said:

...great attempt on what was a difficult restore. My only quibble was that the girl's face was a little blown out on my monitor....

The original was dark and "kind of flat or dull" ... and adding 'dimension' was a bit tricky...

I worked only around her face and, after cleaning the worst scartches etc. I did the following:

• I corrected the individual Channels as shown here.
• To level out shadows, highlights and mid-tones, I used the Curves (method 1) as described in this Tutorial, tweaking the curve a bit as not to make it look even more 'muddy'.
• To add a bit of contrast and dimension, I followed the "ADDING DIMENSION...." part of this other Tutorial.
• I created new empty layers (blendings: Lighten, darken, overlay) on which I painted using a soft Black\White\ brush (Opacity 10-30%) to enhance different parts of her face and give a light 3D illusion.
• Removed the shadows from her teeth and fixed the hair at the lower sides of her face.

Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to contact me if you have any question.

[Seawrenity]

Hi Flora,

Thank you so much for your explanations. I can't believe how you "popped" that picture! Now I will try to work on this following your suggestions. As I said in my first post, I am just learning and the people on this forum are so generous with their time and examples. It makes learning and understanding so much easier.

Now, it may take me a while to try and replicate your work, but I'm looking forward to having a go at it. And don't be surprised if I have to come back with some more questions.

I will let you know how I make out.
Kathy