Photo Restoration - - 90 year old photo

CeDeEl · #1 12-09-2006, 07:11 AM

I've got this picture from my great grandmother. It is a copy made a long time ago, and the original is lost. Any ideas as to what to do? There seems to be stripes across the picture in a 45 degree angle.

Any help is appreciated.

Lasa · #2 12-09-2006, 07:52 AM

This picture could be pretty much be cleaned up with only the patch tool..
First I ran the picture thru NOISEWARE (my noise remover of choice) to help the processes along then I went around patch tooling for this example..
It could probably use a little noise at the end..
Just ideas..
Lasa

philbach · #3 12-09-2006, 08:52 AM

Its a shame you didn't have the original. The copy has no color/sepia in it and frequently scanning in color will reveal a channel that has less noise. I used Neat Image, A levels adjustment layer, Median blur with a mask and finally added a dash of sepia to the photo.

CeDeEl · #4 12-09-2006, 10:04 AM

The scan in sepia is here [link] (about 3.1 mb)

unimatrix001 · #5 12-09-2006, 03:14 PM

I hope you don't mind i gave your sepia toned photo a try. this is the only size i could put up here. I have a larger size if it suits your needs.

philbach · #6 12-09-2006, 03:19 PM

Well that is much better. I first examined the channels and the blue channel appeared to be the best so I started with a channel mixer adjustment layer and used 100% blue channel and monochrome. Then I used Neat Image to start diminishing the grain. Later I copied the layer and used a median filter with fairly high settings and a black layer mask and painted in blur.

Finally I added sepia back in

CeDeEl · #7 12-09-2006, 03:48 PM

unimatrix001 -> I like your version because it tends not to lose much detail, although a lot of scratches still show up (do you have jpeg artifacts on the full resolution one you made?)

philbach -> I like the colors in the one you edited as they seem closer to what I see on the real photograph. The only thing I dislike is the great loss of detail because of excessive blurring

I think it is tricky to keep the detail while removing the scratches and dust.

Frank Lopes · #8 12-09-2006, 04:53 PM

Sometimes less is more...

Quote:

Originally Posted by CeDeEl

I've got this picture from my great grandmother. It is a copy made a long time ago, and the original is lost. Any ideas as to what to do? There seems to be stripes across the picture in a 45 degree angle.

Any help is appreciated.

unimatrix001 · #9 12-09-2006, 06:10 PM

CeDeEl, I didn't see any in the full version until you get around 400 percent view . I left some of the scratches and imperfections in as not to loose the original look of the photo. As Frank said sometimes less is more. The attachment is optimized using the save for web option at 100k at a very low resolution. Here is a link to the full version of the photo. http://static.flickr.com/142/318181976_fc864dc00b_b.jpg

DCobb · #10 12-10-2006, 12:14 AM

I did some of my adjusting in LAB. Spot healing brush. Degrunge.

dc

Kraellin · #11 12-10-2006, 12:26 AM

that's pretty good, dcobb. degrunge is probably a right step on this one.

one thing that is bugging me on all of these, though. you're all leaving the faded white of the background. someone had a tutorial/explanation on how to handle this but i havent found it again so far. i'll keep looking and if anyone remembers where it is, do post a link, please.

jimHere · #12 12-10-2006, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kraellin

...you're all leaving the faded white of the background...

Isn't that a vignette thing that's supposed to be there?

Kraellin · #13 12-10-2006, 10:38 AM

jimhere,

welcome to RP.

if we're talking about the same thing, i dont think so. it's an older picture and the photographer or studio used a painted backdrop. most of what i'm talking about is on that backdrop. but, the same stain or fading is also on her dress a bit and quite prevalent to some extent throughout the picture. i cant imagine it's an original part of the image.

take it in, close up in an editor, and i think you'll see what i mean.

CeDeEl · #14 12-10-2006, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kraellin

It's an older picture and the photographer or studio used a painted backdrop.

I must correct you on this one. There is furniture clearly visible in the background. There is a table to the left, and a fireplace to the right (possibly with an urn on top of it?)

Kraellin · #15 12-10-2006, 11:20 AM

cedel,

hehe, that's fine. i never mind anyone correcting me. i'm just wrong too many times

and i wont say you're wrong either, but take a look along the bottom, near the little girl's knee. running horizontally and behind the woman, isnt that the bottom of a backdrop, one of those big, heavy canvas things they used for those?

but regardless of what it is, the question still remains, how do you get that white fading out of there?