Photo Restoration - - Great Grandma Needs A Facelift

Polly Sizemore · #1 09-28-2006, 04:02 PM

How can I give g-grandmother a facelift to see what she really looks like?? She was found in storage with water damage, soot damage and a few specks of paint. Any suggestions will be so appreciated.

Littlecoo · #2 09-28-2006, 04:26 PM

G'day Polly,
Are you just wanting to restore the whole image? or wanting to manipulate your g-grandmother's appearance?

DCobb · #3 09-28-2006, 07:35 PM

Gave this one a try. Cloning and healing brush and Liquid filter to lift the neck. I don't think the nose and lips are quite right, but I just do this type of work to entertain myself.

Dudley C.

Daviskw · #4 09-28-2006, 09:52 PM

Good work Dudley... The sample is pretty small and hard to work on but I gave it a try and decided to keep the luminance and overall feel the same as the original.

I started by checking the channels. I thought the red or green would work pretty good with the least amount of damage so I used the red and converted to grayscale then back to RGB.

Nothing fancy here just lots of cloning and healing brush. I did give her a little more neckline and outlined her nose with gray then smudged the gray back in for an outline shadow.

No sharpening just a variations and added a little red and yellow.

A very nobel face..I did decide to brighten it just a bit

Butch

Polly Sizemore · #5 09-29-2006, 07:48 AM

Guys the things you have done are very good. I now can see what g-grandmother looks like. I wanted to see the picture cleaned up and you have done that. Is it possible that you can help me by telling me the steps you took to get this far?? I have Adobe Photoshop but I am just getting started on the learning process. So any help will be appreciated.

philbach · #6 09-29-2006, 11:04 AM

Well I guess the first thing to do is look at the original photo. It appears that Grandma has some of her hair on her right shoulder. If so that shouldn't be removed.

At any rate like Butch take a look at the channels and get an idea on what channel is least messed up. Then use a channel mixer adjustment layer and click monochrome (since its not a color photo) and then dial in what channels you want. Butch picked a blend of the Red and Green Channel.

Next on top of that use a levels adjustment layer to increase contrast.

After that remove blemishes etc. You may want to select grandma and copy her to a new layer and replace the background with a gradient.

Finally if you wish you can put the sepia tone back in with a HSL adjustment layer.

So those are some steps to take using photoshop.

Daviskw · #7 09-29-2006, 02:19 PM

Thanks Phil..you covered it well... Polly the only thing I would add is I used mostly blank layers set to all layers. I worked first on the face... then background.. then dress and hair.

Where the nose and mouth are not too defined I took a blank layer set to multiply and a thin back brush and outlined where I thought the edges should be. Then I adjusted opacity to lighten the line. Got a smudge tool with opacity around 15 then pulled the black in toward the face to blend and make shadow... Not my thing but it seemed to work. Then I worked into the edge on the background with a slightly soft brush and the clone tool.

Butch

DCobb · #8 09-29-2006, 06:07 PM

Butch

I really like what you did with the photograph. It is really neat to see what the experts can do. I lack artistic talent when it comes to restoring picture elements such as the nose, etc. More practice on my part is definitely needed.

Dudley

Kraellin · #9 09-30-2006, 01:20 AM

way too much to explain tonight. love the classic features of this woman!

oh, and welcome to RP, polly

craig

Polly Sizemore · #10 09-30-2006, 07:35 AM

Thanks Craig.
This picture is about 115 years old. It was in storage for more than 40 years. My mother-in-law showed it to me and I wanted to see it restored. She never new her g-grandmother. She died in 1900 and this is the only existing photo. I like the blue eyes you gave her. Blue eyes are dominate in her family.
Polly

Kraellin · #11 09-30-2006, 02:21 PM

you're welcome, polly.

here's a black and white version. i'm still practicing colorizing. i'm trying vikki's (one of the folks here on RP who does superlative colorizing) method. i'm getting better but not as good as she is.

craig

Polly Sizemore · #12 10-02-2006, 10:07 PM

Hey Craig I think the nose and lips are really great. They look better than I could imagine. How'd you get such great lines of definition?? The black and white is soooo coool.....Thanks a bunch.
Polly

Kraellin · #13 10-02-2006, 10:55 PM

polly,

generally on an image like this i start using things that will bring out detail. contrast, levels, curves and so on. there still wasnt enough to truly be sure of the lips and nose. the nose was the hardest and for part of the tip i just really had to guess based on what was surrounding that damaged area. then i just chip away at the damage. in this case i simply cleaned up the background, eating away the grunge there with masks and clone type actions. i ended up with a nice black and white mask of her profile from which i went on to do other things with the image.

craig

chillin · #14 10-03-2006, 01:35 AM

I tried to find the right nose… forever

Peter S · #15 10-04-2006, 03:17 PM

Had to have a go at this one.
Used Clone, heal, blur, Levels and Dodge and burn to bring out highlights.
Left as soft focus.
Had to add some noise as it was looking a little plastic )too clean)

Peter