Removing Paint from picture surface

[Tmax100]

Hi everyone this is my first post - came across the forum while in need of this project.

The attched pictures are of a friend's parents, taken in 1971. My friend wanted them restored, to give his brother a copy, framed for Christmas.

He had them professionally scanned in London for £50 and was quoted £800 EACH to have them restored.

The pictures were touched up by hand by the original photographer - I can only assume they were over exposed and she painted in the missing highlight detail.

The touch up painting must have been quite good at the time, because they were framed and spent 20 years on display. They have been in storage for the rest.

As you will see the pictures have faded leaving the ink/paint dominant.

I had no idea where to start, but guessed a high key monochrome image on fine art paper would be all I could really do with Nora's picture.

I spent about 3-4 days on it trying various things, I am very happy with the final 10x8's I am handing over.

Has anyone got any other ideas as how to restore these? or indeed has anyone tried before with removing painted surfaces?

Anyway have a good Christmas, I know my friend will, he's £1600 better off!!!!

Cheers


Simon
London UK
tmax100

[BillFrey]

Hi Tmax100,

I did some tests on Nora's photo and it can be restored to its original state.

You need to lighten all the old paint. I usually use a levels adj layer with mask.
Then a color adjustment(s), and perhaps a little colorizing to fix the painted areas.
Finishing with a luminosity adjustment of your choice.

If you want it done nicely, I suggest doing it the long/tedious way, pixel by pixel.

[Alison]

Hi tmax100,

A very quick shot at this just to show you what I did.

Used the healing brush, you could patch and heal as well and I used neat image to smooth the skin.

EDIT - And you'd obviously take a lot more time and care than I did :-)

[Cameraken]

Hi Simon

Welcome to Retouch Pro

He had them professionally scanned in London for £50 and was quoted £800 EACH to have them restored.

Well that’s not London prices that's just ridiculous.

Here is 30mins work and I would have charged less than what he paid to have them scanned.
In fact we could probably have done them both for the cost of the scan.

Ken.

[Juergen D]

It took me a little longer than 30 minutes, but nevertheless... Here is my attempt.

Juergen

[Alison]

You're all making me feel guilty for only taking about 2 minutes

[Flora]

Hi Simon,

welcome to RetouchPRO from me too!!!

Originally Posted by Tmax100

..He had them professionally scanned in London for £50 and was quoted £800 EACH to have them restored.

...it surely makes me rethink my decision of keeping Photoshop as a hobby!!!!

Anyway ... I had a go at this 'otherwise' beautiful portrait ... It definitely took me more than 2 minutes, but much less than 3-4 days...

P.S. Great job everybody!!!