My first photo

[RamonaMarie]

I'm taking the plunge. Just going to put myself out there. What did Eleanor Roosevelt say? Something about facing your fear? Well, here goes. It's my first attempt after watching the VTC.com Photoshop Restoration tutorial. I only used the healing and patch tools really. I think there was some adjusting with curves, but I don't really understand that yet. As you can see, it's really damaged. Most of my family photos are in this condition or worse. One thing I did notice is that when I printed a test page on plain old paper it got considerably brighter than the original. I'd like to keep the "oldness" to the picture. BTW, my father (passed away when I was six) ran a little photography shop in Georgia and took this pic. There are several really good ones that he took, but are now in desparate need of restoration. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm not sure if the "v" on the wall in the middle of the picture is part of the wallpaper pattern or if it was damage to the wall. Mom and Dad didn't have much money back then. I guess if it was part of the wall I'd like to keep it that way.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by RamonaMarie

I'm taking the plunge. Just going to put myself out there. What did Eleanor Roosevelt say? Something about facing your fear? Well, here goes. It's my first attempt after watching the VTC.com Photoshop Restoration tutorial. I only used the healing and patch tools really. I think there was some adjusting with curves, but I don't really understand that yet. As you can see, it's really damaged. Most of my family photos are in this condition or worse. One thing I did notice is that when I printed a test page on plain old paper it got considerably brighter than the original. I'd like to keep the "oldness" to the picture. BTW, my father (passed away when I was six) ran a little photography shop in Georgia and took this pic. There are several really good ones that he took, but are now in desparate need of restoration. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm not sure if the "v" on the wall in the middle of the picture is part of the wallpaper pattern or if it was damage to the wall. Mom and Dad didn't have much money back then. I guess if it was part of the wall I'd like to keep it that way.

For your first time at bat, I'd say you hit a home run.

Looks like there are still a couple specks of dirt on the PJ's, but given how far you've come, that will be a one minute fix.

re: "v" on the wall
Looks like part of the original pattern to me.

re: looks brighter/newer on today's paper
Ya can't win. Perhaps matte paper vs. glossy and/or add a touch of a sepia tone would help. (One way: Hue/Sat adjustment layer, "colorize", 25,25,-5 and fine tune from there.) Maybe add a little noise or film grain (via filters) would give it a more aged look.

In any event, take a deep bow on this one. It's a job well done. With the others yet to do, you'll just get better and better at applying your budding skills.

~Danny~

[Billfields]

For a first time just using those two tools you did great.

I too think the v is just part of the wallpaper pattern. The border was pretty messy and the fastest way to deal with it was what you did, crop it off. But it seemed you wanted to keep as much of the original feel as you can. To get your border back, use the eyedropper to sample a white area. (just click on something like the baby's sleeper) Set that as the background color. Then chose "Image" and "canvas size". Set both the height and width at 1 and make sure the "relative" box is checked. You'll get your border back. If it is too wide just crop again.

I think you are correct in that some playing with the curves settings might help. Input at 130 and output at 105 looked better to me but it's a matter of what you like. If you convert your picture to greyscale then to duotone you can get some interesting "aged" effects depending on the two colors you choose. The great advantage of working digitally is you can try so many things. Were it me I would colorize the picture but that just happens to be my "thing". I limited my offering on the attached to putting the border back on your version and experimenting with a stronger sepia color.

Again, this was a great first job!

Bill

[RamonaMarie]

I'm printing these suggestions out and starting a folder. This is really so helpful. Thanks so much again. Look for me to be asking for more advice.