Photo Restoration - - Restoration Too Dark

Colan · #1 11-04-2007, 06:28 PM

Hi

I have been working on the circa 60 year old photo. It had very dark backgroung with faces blownout. I have tried several times, but my background is too black with no detail. Not the best picture to start with, but I feel it can be better than this. Any idea's

Dave.Cox · #2 11-04-2007, 06:44 PM

Unfortunately, the dark is so dark that there is no information there. You can't bring back information that doesn't exist.

Sanda · #3 11-04-2007, 08:15 PM

shadow and highlight brings out some if the detail in the original. But not much help in the restoration.

Colan · #4 11-05-2007, 03:08 PM

Hi Dave

Thanks for taking the time to check photo. I knew this was almost gone before I started and did the best I could to remove damage, but thought it was worth a try to see if anyone knew of a magic method to improve the detail. There are some photo's you eventually have just got to accept that the detail is gone and what you've got is as good as it gets.

Hi Sandra

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I tried your suggestion and it did help a bit. As I said to Dave, I will just have to live with what is salvageable.

Regards

Colan

Kraellin · #5 11-05-2007, 11:40 PM

there is more detail here than is at first evident. take a look at the red channel and you'll see what i mean. it's still going to be a bit of a trick, but there is more depending on how much time you want to spend.

Dave.Cox · #6 11-06-2007, 11:28 AM

Yes I noticed that there is some information in the red channel, but much of the detail in this one is completly gone. Another good way to see if there is any useable information that can be recovered in a photo like this is to make a couple of copies of the original in new layers, and set the layer mode to screen. This will lighten things up enough to see if there is anything there to work with.

Wolfman · #7 11-06-2007, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colan

Hi

I have been working on the circa 60 year old photo. It had very dark backgroung with faces blownout. I have tried several times, but my background is too black with no detail. Not the best picture to start with, but I feel it can be better than this. Any idea's

Here's my try using shadow/highlight to open shadows and some contrast adjustment. Of course opening the shadows reveals more problems. I did very minor repair and could do more.

Colan · #8 11-08-2007, 03:21 PM

Kraellin: I opened in red channel and seen it showed a little more detail to the extreme left of the image, but most of that area is still dark. How to bring anymore out is outwith my knowledge. Do you think more can be found in the dark area?

Dave: Thanks for suggestion, I will keep that in mind for other projects I do.

Wolfman: Thanks for taking the time to work on the image, yours is not as dark as mine.

Regards

Kraellin · #9 11-08-2007, 11:18 PM

yup, that's all it is, a little more. but that little more can sometimes help. i can make out, for instance, where some of the arms go and a bit of background detail.

but, it is pretty badly underexposed and where it's just all 0/0/0 in the rgb, you're not going to bring any of that back. and that's where the real art of restoration comes in. by bringing up as much detail as possible, even if dim, how much can you 'fill in the gaps' to enhance the restore?

now, that's not to say that i could bring all that much back, myself. probably couldnt, but there is some more there if you dig for it and then use that tiny bit more to help the restore. and that's all i'm saying on this one. it's just a tiny bit, but that tiny bit can be extended a tiny bit more through logical speculation to bring out a little bit more.