Bringing out Background and Faces

[nebgranny]

I am working on my second restoration in a couple of days. I do not want free service..so I have cropped the top part of the picture which I want to receive help with.

I would like to learn how to bring out the background of the photo and also make the faces a little more clear. This picture is stuck for good to the glass. My friend scanned it and sent it to me. I know I can do a good job on the bottom half of the picture but this top portion I would like to have suggestions on improvement steps. Thank you ..Neb

[bart_hickman]

First did unsharp-mask, amount 150%, radius 26. The radius will scale with image resolution--so you will pick a larger radius if the image you are working on is higher resolution. I slightly masked the highlights here to keep their faces from getting too bright.

Then extracted the saturation channel and did a curve boost to that.

Then slight dose of Noise Ninja.

Bart

[nebgranny]

Thanks Bart.
I am posting the whole picture as have asked her permission. This is her wedding picture which is stuck to the glass. His pants are driving me crazy as well as some of his jacket. Any suggestions on how to improve them? Thanks Neb

[Daviskw]

Hello there

I did a little color correcting so I could bring a little color to the brides skin.

I also cloned some of the staining out at the bottom of the picture.

I built up his right leg by cloning then mirrored it to the other leg

I also borrowed some fabric in his jacket to remove the stain by his left hand.

I used Shadows/Highlights to bring the background up a little.

Here and there a little dodge and burn.

I also use a unsharp mask but at 60 30 0

Butch

[bart_hickman]

I noticed your second post is more contrasty than the first, so the tweaks were a bit different.

I went at this thing like a drunken sailor with many layers each with tiny little changes. Here is a rough order of what I did--you can experiment to suite your own tastes.

-USM with large radius--helps clarify the image.
-Shadow/Highlight adjust--brings out the shadows and tones down the highlights a bit so you can see the texture of her dress (assume that's desirable). I added a mask and erased some parts of the shadow/highlight layer I didn't like.
-Curve adjust layer to remove the ink near his hand and arm. Used a mask to block the effect of the curve in all areas except where I painted.
-Copied his right leg, reversed it, then free transformed it to lay on top of the right leg.
-Cloned on a color blend layer to remove some discoloration from his suit
-Brushed on a color dodge layer to enhance eye whites and teeth
-Copied a gradient from his coat to transform onto his new left leg to give it some depth.
-Cloned in a new background to his left.
-Boost saturation slightly
-At this point his coat was too blue so I neutralized it using a masked levels adjust layer
-Noise reduction
-Smart sharpen--using the mask, removed the effects of the sharpening in some locations according to taste.
-Spot healed the white specks in the top area.

There's still some things wrong with it, but it's just more of what I already did. I think this is probably less difficult with either a high-res image or the original photo to examine.

Bart

[nebgranny]

Thank you both for all your hard work on the photo. I am going to try and use the suggested methods you have documented. I sincerely appreciate people helping those of us struggling to learn. Thanks Dav and Bart. Neb