Photo Restoration - - Suggestions on how to fix this

mgaleone · #1 11-23-2006, 08:52 AM

This is an old color photo of my father's family. It is in terrible shape as the colors and brightness is off. I have PhotoShop 7.0. Any ideas of what I can do to fix?

p3net · #2 11-23-2006, 04:40 PM

You may want to consider using levels and brightness/contrast to adjust the color and brightness to a more manageable level. The photo almost has some qualities of a negative, so you may want to consider converting it to black and white and using the original photo as a guide for coloring it.

Lasa · #3 11-23-2006, 08:56 PM

Can you post a large size picture to see what you got?
Lasa

(opps my bad, I must have copied the thumbnail when I looked at it last night, sorry)

CJ Swartz · #4 11-23-2006, 09:05 PM

mgaleone,

Welcome to Retouch Pro! It's a good place to come for ideas and help when working on important family treasures.

We can help you better if you can give us some information about the photo and your current experience working with Photoshop and retouching photos.

Do you have the original photo in your possession? Was there any damage to the exterior of the image -- anything spilled on it or something like that? Is it a photo or a slide? Did you or someone else do the scanning of the image. Is it possible to scan it again and try to get a better copy to work with? Did you upload the original or a copy that you have already worked on?

The image looks like something has already been done with it -- I don't see dust spots (like all my old family photos have on them

) and there isn't much detail in the clothing. If this is a version that you have already started working with, it would be helpful if you could upload the original (unretouched )version. It's often easier to start from "scratch" than to work from a partly retouched photo. If this is the original scan -- what type of scanner was used? Can you scan it again and use some of the scanner tools to lighten the photo? Again, it is easier to work with the best scan that you can get and then retouch as needed.

What experience do you already have with Photoshop and retouching -- it helps us to know what steps you are already familiar with -- if you're a total newbie, then we know to explain in more detail; if you have a lot of experience, then we can list some steps and suggestions.

There's lots of folks here who would like to help you work on your family photo, and the more information we get (in the photo and about you), the easier it is for folks to get started!

I've tried working on the version that you submitted, but I haven't gotten very far yet -- I'll post my effort later, but I'm hoping that you have another scan that you can submit.

Well, this isn't good, but with a bit of the blur tool/healing brush, adjustment layers - hue/sat, color balance, selective color, levels and some other (I tried different things and don't remember all), it is a bit of an improvement. I'm really hoping that this isn't the original (or you can re-scan it) because there's something that just isn't right -- the red channel is best and usually the green channel has more detail, but this doesn't. Someone else may be able to get more out of it.

mgaleone · #5 11-24-2006, 07:24 AM

Thanks for the reply. Well let's start. I am somewhat experienced with PhotoShop. Not a newbie, I know how to get around some. The better the explanation the easier it will be for me to try.

The photo that you worked on it close to what I have come to getting. I am not sure if the original is available. I can’t remember when I scanned it. Only it was done a few years ago on an HP scanner. Not a real expensive one either. There might have been some work done on the photo earlier. It has been sometime since I have looked at this any, only since I found this website to see if I could improve my skills.

It is a photograph not a slide, well I am not sure it could have been one made from a slide many years ago. It might have from a box type camera. Size was around a 4 by. The condition of the photo paper itself was good but the contrast and coloring was all off. I can look around to see if the original is stored at my home with the rest of my stuff. I don’t think so.

I am thinking about extracting the family from the background. Using a lighter and different background. Then changing it to a black and white image. I am going to try and do some touch up on the faces to try and improve the image also.

Thanks for your help and I will be messing with this off and on between my other jobs.

Regards,

mgaleone

p3net · #6 11-24-2006, 03:02 PM

Here's my attempt below.

I started off by duplicating the image so I can get color references. I then used levels to bring the tones to a more manageable level. After that, I used curves to finish that off.

I then duplicated the layer and desaturated it. After I had done that, I changed blend mode to overlay. I then selected the brush tool, changed the mode to airbrush, dropped the opacity to 80%, and painted on a skin tone -- I had originally tried to sample the colors, but they were messed up to the point of no return in my eyes. Instead, I'm keeping the tones as close as I can.

After I did a bit of minor work with the brush, I headed over to Shadow/Hightlight and adjusted that. Afterwards, I headed to color balance and hue/saturation. I then edited the exposure.

Although it still doesn't look that great, I'm a bit happier with the color. I also have to agree with the point above -- something about this image just doesn't feel right. Let us know if you find another/a better copy.

PS -- Saving this as a JPG compressed it a bit. Sorry

byRo · #7 11-24-2006, 03:33 PM

mgaleone, welcome to RetouchPRO.

As a restoration there is precious little that can be done.
When we do a restoration we are recovering the original image that has been covered by the "noise". To do this we eliminate the noise and what is left over is the original.

This is not the case here. The original information is not simply covered by noise, it just isn't there any more.
If you want to go beyond a simple quick fix, then the only way is to do some sort of "artistic impression".

Depending on the circumstances this may not be too problematical, but in this case (a family shot) somebody's going to end up looking different.

In resume. If this is not one of those "this-is-the-only-existing-photo-of..." type restorations just pass on this one. It's a lose-lose situation.

Rô