Photo Restoration - - Beginner Asking for Help

tammylj · #1 03-11-2007, 08:36 PM

Here is a picture of my great-grandparents on their wedding day in 1914. I have used photoshop, but have not used it to do any type of restoration work. I've attached what I've done so far, but I think it could be better. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

videosean · #2 03-11-2007, 09:16 PM

I think it looks good. Maybe a matter of taste but I would darken it just a touch, attached image of the curves adjustment I made.
I am curious if maybe the scanner clipped the highlights/overexposed the red and green channels though.

Dave.Cox · #3 03-11-2007, 09:55 PM

Hi Tammylj

I'm pretty new here myself. Your photo looks pretty good, but you can bring out a lot of detail and get rid of much of the 'foggy' look by adjusting the levels. Add a level adjustment layer, and move the sliders from the left and right to where the chart just begins to show that there is something in the image. You can do the master only, or do the red, green, and blue channels individually.

Kraellin · #4 03-11-2007, 11:17 PM

hi tammylj and welcome to RP.

you've done a nice job on the restoring, but your brightness is still too high in the original blown out portions. you'll want to use something like curves, levels, brightness/contrast and/or hue/sat adjustment layers to correct this.

i used a curves first followed by a hue/sat and then a brightness/contrast. the hue/sat works nicely here because of the way the channels are blown. you can take down the yellows and the greens and still keep things looking nice. dont worry about taking it to a desaturated image at this point; you can always bring back a sepia tone later, if desired.

you might also want to run a .jpg artifact removal on this, depending on how the original looks after the scan. i know artifacts can be introduced by compressing and posting here. so, it will depend.

also, take a look at the dress again. there is a bit of touch-up that needs done there yet.

and in doing the original restore, i would make the first one show all of the card backing WITH the names on the bottom there. for prints or displays, you can always remove that later, but do the first with that part left in. studio names and such shld always be left in on the original restore.

tammylj · #5 03-12-2007, 12:03 AM

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. The first attempt was like a 30 minute effort, so I just started over. I think I need to get the contrast, brightness, etc right before moving on.

So having said that, here is my effort at getting that right before moving on to restoring damage. I have a lot of noise now, but hopefully Neat Image will help with that once I get to that step.

The original is a 300ppi tiff, so no worries about .jpg artifact removal.

Thanks Again

Tammy

Kraellin · #6 03-12-2007, 12:18 AM

ok, you're still a little bright. try a shadows/midtones/highlights filter. bring the highs down and the lows and mids up.

DCobb · #7 03-12-2007, 01:10 AM

My try.

dc

tammylj · #8 03-12-2007, 01:27 AM

Ok, another try.

I really like this one. I just played with Shadows/Highlights and levels, then used Neat Image. I still need to fix the creases and spots, but I think so far it looks pretty good.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for all the help!!

Kraellin · #9 03-12-2007, 12:04 PM

yup. that's much better. better contrasting all around. and good image detail now without being too bleached or washed out.

when you start handling the other things, you can use clone and airbrush on some of those blown-out areas. i used clone on the neck of of the woman and some airbrush on the sleeves and such.

do your cloning and airbrushing on a separate, blank layer. turn on 'use all layers'. and for airbrushing, it's a good idea to gausian blur this at times and then just erase the bits that wash over into unwanted areas. if all done on a blank layer, this is easy.

tammylj · #10 03-12-2007, 12:08 PM

Craig

Thanks so much for the tips. You all have been a great help.

I will post again once I complete it to let you know how it turns out

Tammy

Kraellin · #11 03-12-2007, 12:14 PM

you're welcome and by all means, do post. i love seeing how folks progress and you're already making great strides

videosean · #12 03-12-2007, 02:02 PM

Just want to say I agree with Craig - you've definitely improved the exposure quite abit. The faces don't look blown out anymore and the dress looks better IMO too. Very nice

tammylj · #13 03-12-2007, 11:54 PM

Ok, you can see the finished?? image in the Critique Forum.