Help with my first picture please?

[fatimzz]

Hi all,
I was wonderng if I could get some pointers on how to fix this picture (scan001). I have reason to believe that this is the first time I was photographed so it is all the more important to restore. I tried cloning to remove most of the blotches (I see that I need to do some detailed cleaning up to do though), auto levels (dont know how to do it manually), neat image and auto color (though I am not sure what good THAT did.)
Most important I want to see what all is possible to do here. I think my restoration is not bad for a newbie's, just not enlargement material. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Fatima

[BillFrey]

Hi fatimzz,

I don't think there's a quick fix on this one. The colors are degraded. The posted picture has to many jpg artifacts to see how much could be restored, but I made a little attempt.

With a hi res scan I'm sure you'll get good results.

Bill

[Lasa]

You are well on your way..its just a matter of keep cloning and healing.
When cloning it helps to keep the opacity to under 70% use the darken and lighten in the clone modes helps also.
The image is very splochy with color changes..I simply picked a color and painted it in, using the color mode (background and jacket) to avoid healing the whole image.

I like your colors..keep at it.

Lasa

I just saw Bills..nice job.

[fatimzz]

Thanks for the tips! I will try again and re-post soon.