I'm new to this

[Britsdad]

but I have been playing with this photo for months, on and off, with Corel photo-paint and I just can't seem to get it right. I have aquired Photoshop CS recently but I'm not sure it will be any better, I just can't get rid of the fadeing as I would like, as you can see from the atttached files(if I,ve done it right) So I thought I would ask a pro or two on this forum. Does anyone have any suggestions?.....with antisipation John.

[Britsdad]

Forgot to mention, my Great Grandad is the guy stood on the far left as you look at it...God imposing figure or what? (lol)

[Doug Nelson]

They're an imposing lot

What kind of group is that? Some sort of association?

[Gary Richardson]

Had a go with your photo.

Mostly levels and curves adjustments with layer masks applied.

Not really satisfied with end result, but don't have the time at the moment to do a proper job of it. With time I'm sure much better results could be achieved.

[Daviskw]

Good Job Gary

Used levels adjustment layers here as well.
I tried to get rid of some of the milky haze using unsharpmask and a color burn layer. In the process I added too much contrast I'm afraid.

Butch

[Britsdad]

From what I can gather they were all in a cricket team somewhere around Chesterfield in Derbyshire in the 1880's. Funny they're not in whites tho'....sketchy family history.

[Britsdad]

yea good job, I see where you're comeing from, maybe a little dark for my taste, but that's not much of a problem. Have you used any sharpening on it? seems less sharp than the original, or is it this laptop screen?

[sinister dexter]

Thought I'd have a bash too

[Britsdad]

I like your foray into the 1880's, what did you get the colour with? was it the colour burn layer? and, forgive my ignorance, how do you put on a colour burn layer?....John

[Britsdad]

I like the shadows in the background in yours, more even than mine, did you do the foreground and background on different layers?.....I've been trying to add a couple of duplicate layers ,then over lighten one and darken another, and useing the history brush to bring back the detail from each,(not a lot of success yet) am I going about it in the wrong way? I'm not too hot on PP. But I'm a patient sole (must admit I'm getting myself in a bit of a state tho'....lol) keep forgeting where things are, what they are and what they do!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Woodbine, yes my quick attempt probably is a little under sharp. Ran it through Neat Image to reduce some of the noise caused by working the image, with the unfortunate side effect of the slight blurring.

I agree about it being too dark, this too was done in an attempt to minimise noise.

If I'd had time I'd have burnt and dodged some of the faces a little to up contrast, and created an edge mask so I could sharpen things a little without introducing too much noise.

[philbach]

Since the photo was quite irregular in contrast I used a series of layer masks. Using levels adjustment layer, I copied the layer using overlay blending mode and I sharpened the photo some.

[sinister dexter]

Hiya Wooders,
I tend to take it bit by bit on different layers and try and get each part to look how I want it. Then I slap it all back together and try and tidy up any nasty looking bits. Probably not the right way to go about it but the only way I know how

[aceman]

had a quick 5 min go at this. I pretty must just always work on the one layer, which isnt so good if you make a mistake but its just the way I have always done it.
Anyways I tried to clone / heal some of the very dark patches out and then just curved and levelled like crazy. Obviously could use a bit more adjustment eg defining the back shoulders more, and theres still quite a few marks, but you get the basic idea as far as the overall levels go.
Most important thing I believe is not to take the easy way out and just pull the curves ( or levels ) down so far that you get a large amount of lost detail. Its just a matter of getting your eye in and seeing which bits you can curve down or up and then select another area, and then maybe go back again and adjust, adjust adjust etc etc etc.

[Syd]

John I liked what you had done so far so I took yours into Lab mode and sharpened the lightness channel a bit (amount 50; radius 1 ; threshold 0) then added a curves adjustment layer to darken the light areas. I painted back the areas I didn't want to darken by painting with black in the Curves adjustment mask...I usually paint with a 14% opacity brush and bring it back slowly. Finally I used a photo filter to add a hint of sepia.

Sincerely Syd