New user looking for some guidance

[dhauschi]

Hello everyone,

I have begun to look at restoring some old photos of my family. I've read various posts on the web and books on restoration. I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of removing scratches and dust etc. I am how ever stumped on how to get rid of a dark band through this photo. I've tried using the dodging tool to remove it but I'm never really satisfied with the result. I was wondering if I could impose upon someone to give me a step by step method to get rid of this blemish. I would also welcome any other advice on how to restore the photo.

The attachment is a fairly low quality copy of the scan. My scan is a high rez 16 bit colour that I will convert to gray scale.

Thanks Dave

[pixelzombie]

make an adjustment layer to lighten the dark band, then make a mask on the adjustment layer so it only affects the dark band...

[Cameraken]

Hi Dave

Welcome to Retouch Pro

This is not too difficult to repair. Selective levels adjustments to balance out the dark mark and then some cloning to finish the repair.

Marks like this are signs of a badly fixed print. (The developer is still reacting to light)

If you wish to halt the deterioration then the image should be re-fixed and re-washed.

If you don't want to do that then the picture should be kept away from light or the dark area will turn completely black.

Hope this helps.

Ken.

[dhauschi]

Thank you Ken and PixelZombie,

I did what you both suggested and this is my final outcome. I fairly pleased with it.

Ken the picture is stored in an acid free album and very rarely gets looks at. I plan to print the restored photo so it can be displayed.

As I said I quite please with the outcome but I'm also very eager to learn so if you have any other suggestions please let me know.

[Cameraken]

Hi Dave

Yep. That’s looking better. The boys' shirt is, perhaps, a little too bright.
All it needs now is a little sharpening.

Ken.

[Britsdad]

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Hi Dave

Yep. That’s looking better. The boys' shirt is, perhaps, a little too bright.
All it needs now is a little sharpening.

Ken.

Yep I'll second that, maybe a little too bright, the sky and the boys shirt is a little blown. As for sharpening, I changed it to LAB mode and ran an unsharp mask on just the L channel setting 100% on amount and 2.0 radius 0 threshold, then a little cloneing on the grass ect and desaturated and it came out like this.
Over all you've done a nice job.......regards John

[grannysdc]

Straightened image... Cropped... Removed the band using the history brush on screen at 10 percent opacity and 20 flow ... Did HDR using screen, original, multiply images.. adjusted levels and sharpened a lil..

Granny