Photo Restoration - - In need of heavy repair

sage150 · #1 03-16-2008, 08:51 PM

Does anyone have any idea's what migth be done to save this photo?
Any assistance is appreciated.I've been trying.

Kraellin · #2 03-16-2008, 11:30 PM

hi sage,

looks like a lot of clone and clone-like brushes needed here. so, it's a matter of patience and detail.

what have you been trying mostly so far?

leanan`si · #3 03-17-2008, 03:24 AM

Hi there Sage

You and me both! I've just submitted an image as well!

Just one thought about your image, how about checking the RGB Channels (tab next to Levels) and have a look to see whether one channel looks better than the others, then go into Image - Mode - Grayscale. You'll be asked if it's okay to discard other chans, say yes and you can then restore in the better of the available channels. I had a look and thought Red channel might be best for repairing this image.

Hope it helps

Leah M

sage150 · #4 03-17-2008, 08:12 PM

I've been trying different types of things such as trying to take some parts of other
photo's and replacing the very damaged area's.The photo is damaged badly and would
like to restore it as close as possible to the original image. I've deleted many attempts
at this.

sage150 · #5 03-17-2008, 08:14 PM

Thanks Leah,

I'll look into this.

leanan`si · #6 03-17-2008, 08:36 PM

Just some other thoughts .. personally I tend to minimise the use of the clone tool and try to use the healing brush (if your Photoshop version has it) and select copy paste 'bits'. When there are straight lines such as the edge of the wharf, the railing, the edges of the boat and trims, try selecting a good portion, copying it and shifting it along to cover the damaged area. You can align those pieces quite accurately using the up/down/left/right arrows .. called 'nudging'.

Are you doing these repairs on a new layer? If not, create a new layer and use the 'sample all layers' option with the tool you are using.. if you don't like the result of your correction, simply erase that portion, and it doesn't affect your main image. If you are happy with results, as you finish one area, you can choose to 'merge visible' layers, create another new layer and move onto the next portion.

When you open the image, always duplicate the background then turn off the original background layer. That way, as you merge during your work, you always have a copy of the original to hand in case you need it.

Save work as .. stage1/stage2/stage3 etc as you progress or before you merge layers and you lessen those 'throw it all away and start again' issues.

I don't know whether you have used a noise reduction action to help improve things. Be aware that sometimes they can be quite heavy and cause loss of detail that you need to work with. If you do run one, go into 'edit' and generally you will be able to fade down the effects if it's too aggressive.

Photos are precious things, lots of time, trial and error, and patience and I'm sure you'll get there

Leah M

sage150 · #7 03-17-2008, 09:06 PM

Thank you Leah,

I'll try following your advice.

TommyO · #8 03-18-2008, 07:57 PM

Sage.. and Leah,
I normally don't like to correct anyone's advise, but I thought I should at least mention an alternative to Leah's comment... "then go into Image - Mode - Grayscale. You'll be asked if it's okay to discard other chans, say yes .."

Normally, we do not want to discard anything, as you never know when it could be useful again, even for just a small part of the image. An alternative to the above is to add a Channel Mixer layer, click on the "Monochrome" checkbox at the bottom, then adjust the sliders to apply the most percent from the best channel and a small part from the second best, etc. This preserves the channels for future use or reference.

Good luck !

Kraellin · #9 03-18-2008, 09:31 PM

i think it was 'olbaldy', a member here, who reminded me of the polaroid dust and scratch removal filter. you might want to try something like this to help eliminate some of the work. just be careful not to remove too much. you'll also have to use it in stand-alone mode after a certain image size limit. i forget the limit but it's something like no side larger than 800 pixels.

here's a before and after using both the white and dark filtering.

leanan`si · #10 03-19-2008, 02:45 AM

I take your point Tommy0, for me, it's difficult to know in this kind of situation just how basic or technical to aim for when you have no idea of the working knowledge of the person asking the question.

Sage - Two other points to ponder.

1) The photo has been scanned while it's underneath the plastic sheet of a 'magnetic' album. Part of the textural damage is from that diagonal compression of the plastic, yet curiously, there is a portion of the gentleman's jacket which is relatively undamaged. The plastic cover has lifted? Has removing the plastic from the photo proved dangerous? There may be a technique suggested somewhere in this forum which could work.

2) Sometimes a crop can make all the difference when there is detail almost impossible to uncover and I've attached one that might be considered?

sage150 · #11 03-19-2008, 05:03 PM

Thank you everyone for your input on the photo.I will keep trying many of the suggestions
you have given me.Yes this photo was in an album under plastic from what I recall.
Interesting that you knew this and actually reminded me. I had forgotten.
The photo was in salt water as many of my photo's were when we were hit with
a nor'easter when living bythe seashore. Thank you

Littlecoo · #12 03-19-2008, 06:38 PM

For fine fiddly repair work such as fine scratches and specks where heal/clone just isn't working for me, I sometimes use the smudge tool with a small, soft brush set to mid-low strength and using darken or lighten modes (lighten for dark marks/darken for light marks) to carefully blend out this kind of damage.