headstone photo help

[ProAc_Fan]

I've been enlisted by a family friend to create a 4X6 print to be used on a headstone. I was given a rather underexposed ( backlit) 5X7 print from about 15 years ago. I scanned the print at 600 dpi and extracted the deceased lady from the shot. I think I can do a decent job correcting the exposure but I would love some suggestions on maybe what kind of background to use. This photo will be displayed for ever in public so getting it right seems very important to me.



Thanks

Mike

[Tom K]

For what its worth, I have seen photos and they seem to be on porcelain
set into the surface of the stone.. The backrounds are usually off-white.

Tom

[ProAc_Fan]

So perhaps just a plain off white background? This is a color print but it looks much nicer ( to me anyway) in B&W. B&W also seems to be much better when it comes to how grainy the scanned photo appears. I'm going to share the image I am working from. Perhaps that would help with any advice.

Original Photo Extracted Image


These are the images I'm working with. I probably should clone out a few of the obvious flaws in the photo but I'm more concerned on what to do in terms of a background right now. This image is likely to be viewed from a relatively long distance so pixel peeping is not my concern. I just want it to look very presentable and be an accurate representation of the deceased.

Mike