Any Suggestions ?

[cygnus]

Hi

This is my first restoration project. I would appreciate comments and suggestions.

Thanks

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Cygnus,

Welcome to RetouchPro.

For a first attempt you have made a credible attempt, however like most beginners you have made the mistake of just taking things a little too far.

The purpose of a restore is to hopefully "restore" the picture to how you think it would have looked before the ravages of time took their toll. So essentially you're trying to do as little as possible to achieve that effect.

The things that immediately hit me about your picture were that you'd replaced the background, and oversmoothed and overlightened the skin. By doing the latter you removed a lot of the original picture detail in the face and hands.

I've had a quick play around with your original image, and posted below.

Essentially I've just cloned out the damage, then applied a noise filter (Neat Image) to take out some of the noise. Oops, almost forgot, I also brightened it up a touch with levels.

[duwayne]

Gary has said it very nicely. My approach was very similar to Gary's except I used Neat Image noise filter before and cloning or healing. Also, if you find you have overdone the restoration a little bit, you can blending it with the original (maybe 25%).

[cygnus]

Thanks for responding Gary & Duwayne

Well I am sorry I missed out saying that clients had wanted me to change the BG. As regards the workflow, I started out with noise removal & cloning damaged areas. I left half way as I wasn’t liking the results. If I continue perhaps the only course would be to use dodge tool to lighten the some areas on the face and most areas in the neck region. Also, I see some problem on the right side (above the chin).

Frankly, I don’t see any skin texture in current image so why not use my original and create some variation with burn tool.

I would appreciate your guidance.

[byRo]

A good attempt cygnus - but there are two things that are bothering me.

1) I'm pretty sure that you got the shoulder-line wrong, to me it's at the place marked in the attachment;

2) Having the background in a different colour in an image that is basically greyscale is very confusing. Either keep it greyscale or colour it - the way it is looks a bit strange.

Rô

[cygnus]

Thanks byRo for pointing shoulder line and also for your suggestion about BG. I think I will stick to white BG.

I am a bit confused, which image did u like (1st posting or the latest) ?

[Lasa]

Hi,
Maybe it would be easier to simply remake the background with a similar gradient. Going to need to add some noise to mesh it a little with the background The background needs to mimic the foreground look and feel to make it beleivable.
Also if you want the hair to look a little less extracted make small brush with 5-6 dots in it, then use it to smudge the end of the hair. I think it helps.

The trick to cloning is to use a middle soft brush with a 60-75% opacity.
That way you build up the clone spots..

I could have kept going and finished cleaning but I think the idea comes across.

Good luck,

Lasa

[Lasa]

once its cleaned up..color?
Lasa

(I like the BW more)

[cygnus]

Lisa excellent work. I too prefer B&W. I will post the finished image once I get reply from byRo.

Thanks a lot.

[byRo]

Hi, cygnus, didn't see you were waiting for me.
The first was better, the second is too blurred.

Rô