Photo Restoration - - Hopeless Cause; My neighbor's mother

Jamie · #1 09-26-2005, 07:03 AM

My next door neighbor gave me the only picture of his mother that he has, and it's in horrible condition. The size of the original is 1.5 x 1.5 inches, has been drawn on and stapled. I've been trying to restore it, but it is beyond my capability.

Can anyone here help me and my neighbor? Thank you so much!

Dreamypix · #2 09-26-2005, 08:54 AM

(Not sure what program you are using, but I use Photoshop 7)

Try using the blue channel, it seemed to sustain the least damage. After that try using Dust and scratches filter to get out most of the scratches and dust. Hope that gets you started-

~Amber~

Jamie · #3 09-26-2005, 09:22 AM

What do I do? How I get it back into a color photograph? I use Paint Shop Pro 8, but I think I can translate most Photoshop instructions into Paint Shop Pro steps.

Thanks!!!

Jamie · #4 09-26-2005, 11:21 AM

and recombining them. It seems that channel editing offers more control and cuts down on sloppy retouching etc.

jenjen · #5 09-26-2005, 01:46 PM

I just started this and wanted to point you in the direction i went. I didn't have time to finish it. I only have PS 6 so i don't have all those fancy and easy options.

1. Copied layer
2. Did a Thershold layer to find white and black points (then deleted)
3. Did Selective color ADj layer to take out the reds
4.Color balance to get back the normal color (which i'm not happy with)
5.Applied a median filter (2) and mask out the facial features
6. then Cloned (which i didn't finish)

I hope I helped a little!

Dreamypix · #6 09-26-2005, 01:48 PM

Yes, you can edit each channel individually, or you can simply choose the best of all of them (ie the blue), in Photoshop you can click on that channel, go under Select>Select All then copy- after that create a new layer and paste the channel into the new layer in the layer menu, not the channels. It will be a black and white though, but if you want to , you can alway recolor it. The work I did was only using the blue channel on a new layer. Sorry I didn't respond earlier, I am working on a really hard project that has tiny cracks all over the photo, even after some dust and scratches I am still battling cracks! So I am learning some new techniques today- If you have any questions, don't hestitate to ask. I'm not familiar with Paint Shop Pro 8 though, but you might try talking to Kraellin- I think he works with version 7? It would be worth a shot. He might know a better technique for that program.

~Amber~

jenjen · #7 09-26-2005, 01:49 PM

Oopps sorry I forgot to attach.

Jamie · #8 09-26-2005, 01:59 PM

Dreamypix and jenjen! You've really helped out! I'm going to try all of your suggestions to see what I can do.

Glad I joined the forum!

Kraellin · #9 09-26-2005, 02:42 PM

gave it a shot.

Craig

edit: sorry, it looked horrible when i posted it, so i took it down.

edit: ok, this is just with 'color balance' as an adjustment layer and contrast/brightness as an adjustment layer, and a little bit of clone here and there.

still needs a lot of cleanup.

Jamie · #10 09-26-2005, 06:16 PM

really mottled. I still have alot of work ahead.

Klaatu Baradda · #11 09-26-2005, 07:32 PM

Very challenging photo.

Kraellin · #12 09-27-2005, 01:33 PM

very nice, klaatu; you (plural of course) got rid of most of the mottled colors. a bit of noise reduction and sharpening now and it shld be good. might also reduce the catchlights a bit.

Craig

Cameraken · #13 09-27-2005, 02:27 PM

Hi Jamie.

I started with the green channel as it contained the most detail. But used the blue channel to remove the marks.
Cleaned the skin with a Gaussian Blur Layer.
Touched up.
Colorized and sharpened.

It sounds easy but it took 24 Layers.

Ken

Kraellin · #14 09-27-2005, 02:49 PM

i took klaatu's last rendition and did some more to it. still not totally happy with it.

Craig

Klaatu Baradda · #15 09-27-2005, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kraellin

i took klaatu's last rendition and did some more to it. still not totally happy with it.

Great skin color Craig! Although, overall now it may look a little like it's becoming a painting instead of a photo.

We worked our version in LAB and repaired each channel separately. We used almost every tool at our disposal, using the Patch Tool most since there was a lot of dust, scratches and ink. This photo was more work that we thought it would be. Each channel had it's own separate problems with various noise and irregularities. The L channel needed lots of help as well. We did a lot of guessing where the splotchiness ended and the actual photo-transitions began. This channel took more work than the others since this is where the actual image structure resides. We used the Dodge/Burn Tools to even out much of the worst splotchy areas.

Your version's skin color looks so good right now, perhaps putting it over a really good L channel (set to Color mode) would bring back some of the image's original structures.

As we said, very challenging photo but wonderful as a learning experience.