some guidance in restoring a scratchy old photo

[tigersnow63]

This is my first attempt at restoring an old photo inspired by all the discussions here, but my result is terrible. I would really appreciate some advice in how I could go about doing this. File 1 and 2 are included. Thanks in advance.

[mistermonday]

Straightened image, removed noise with Noiseware, and applied a simple curve to brighten the dark areas. If I were to continue from here, I would either convert to grayscale or sepia tone the image, apply a small amount of sharpening. Assuming you have a higher resolution original than the one you posted, you will likely not have all the jpg pixelation and artifacts in your final version.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

nice, murray.

the main problem with this photo is the vertical streaking. i'm not sure where that came from, but you might want to check your scanner and make sure it didnt come from there.

like murray said, there's quite a bit of .jpg artifacts in this photo. you can try the .jpg artifact remvover, scan at a higher resolution or clone these out. i cloned. i didnt do the whole image, however. i mostly just did the faces and some of the clothing, mostly on the gentleman in the middle.

i started the image a full strength clarify to add back some defintion and contrast.

i also rotated the image 1/2 degree to the left.

i ran a digital camera noise removal (in psp) at a medium setting. didnt want to blur with noise removal.

the rest is all clone and push to remove some of the streaking and artifacts.

i did add a mild sepia toning to end.

and like i said, i didnt finish this. i just did enough to show what could be done.

[bart_hickman]

Are the vertical scratches actually in the photo paper itself? In other words, do they have texture? You might try scanning the image once and then second time rotated 180 degrees. This would give you two scans with the scratches getting illuminated from different directions by the scanner light. Then you can combine the two (average them) and the scratches might disappear or at least attenuate.

Bart

[tigersnow63]

Thank you Murray, Bart and Craig. You guys rock!

The scratch is from the photo. I will try to scan two different ways as suggested by Bart. I do have the original scanned at 1200 dpi. I will work on it to see I can get better result. Thanks again guys.

[Kraellin]

you're welcome, tigersnow. oh, and welcome to RP