[Flagpole]

G'day all!

I was just hopping that someone can tell me if the below restoration by me is about as reasonable as one can expect to get from the original (warning these files are 1600x1200):

The original photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/...653f47fc_o.jpg

The restoration attempt:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2363/...94e46ec5_o.jpg

Is there more possible with this photo apart from minor touch up to bring it back or should I be satisfied with the job so far?

Thanks for any replies,

Flagpole
Sydney, Australia

[Kraellin]

hi flagpole, and welcome to RetouchPRO.

reduce your contrast just a bit. it's just a touch harsh with that much contrast. also, make sure when you do your clean up for specks that you cover the border area. besides those things, good job

here's an example of what i mean. instead of taking this back to a pure black and white, you might leave it as is and just treat it from there. i added some brightness and a bit of contrast, some clarify (very light) and some digital camera noise removal after which i did a usm at 2/100/5 (very little). this keeps things a bit more natural.

[Flagpole]

Thank you for the kind response. I will take some of this onboard.

Regarding contrast- I didn't really adjust the contrast at all in retouching, however this may be a byproduct of multiple noise reduction and leveling during the process. May have to watch it next time.

I would need to sit down and really have a serious go at this some time in the future with a full day or two to go at it. I was just wondering if I was missing anything or if there was some more I can do to make get the details out (though they aren't too bad in general for a 58 year print).

[0lBaldy]

Nice picture, Thought I would give a go just to see if I could enhance some details slightly
used Imagenomic "Noiseware" to get rid of some of the noise
Lots of cloning and healing for the spots (Dark and light)

[Nikolas]

Hi Flagpole

Nice work on the retouch, it looks great. I agree with Kraellin though, that your contrast is a bit harsh. Try and play around with a levels adjustment layer to bring out some definition between the the people and the background. Good work nonetheless.

Regards.

[Flagpole]

Thanks again for the feedback. I may go and look at some of the levels adjustment as per recommendations here.

OlBaldy, I like what you have done but to me that almost looks like a painting now rather than a photo. I rather it retained original photo look as much as possible without looking "plastic". I don't however like the sepia tone and thought if anything it was distracting and hid the tones too much.

I am grateful for all the replies and may have to try and get more practice with retouching tutorials.

[TommyO]

Hi Flagpole and thanks for posting this one.

I think you could be satisfied with your result, like you said, apart from minor touchups. If you are new to restoration, then this is a very admirable job.

I agree with most everyone on contrast, with one alteration. I tend to like the darker tone in the background. So, if you are liking some of the darker tones also, you could add a layer to selectively lighten only their faces and parts of their clothing.

One easy way to do this would be to simply add a curves layer, adjust to where you like the contrast of their faces, etc. then paint black with a large soft brush on the layer mask to bring back the darker tones on the background, etc.

Another way is to emulate Dodging with this technique. Alt click to add a layer, select Overlay mode, then click yes to fill the layer with 50% gray. Now you can paint with a medium sized soft brush with about 15% opacity or less on selective areas. Use the swatches to pick shades of gray - anything higher than 50% will darken the image, anything less will lighten. Working with a low opacity will allow for slight changes. If you make a mistake, just erast it or use undo.

I took your original and did a basic levels, curves and then did the dodging/burning as above just to see if it would even out the faces and clothing a tad. It did and was rather fast, providing sufficient detail to begin fixing the bad image areas. In fact, it looks very similar to yours with the major differences that the faces are evenly toned and the clothing shows a bit more detail in the highlights.

All I did was the tonality changes. I did not do any bluring or softening yet, which should help the facial areas smooth out a bit.

Good luck with it and please repost your final results !
Tommy O

[Flagpole]

Thanks Tommy,

Good tips on dodging and burning. The two tools I often underuse in general as I tend to take the image overboard. I will go back and see if I can lighten the faces but I like the original tone of the photo. The uneven tones IMO are more likely due to side lighting the photographer used and I do want to retain as much as original photo feel as possible. My main concerns were details and it seems there is very little that can be done unless I manually paint them in.

So far everyone has been very helpful in giving me a lot of directions to work with. I will try and take them on board and try to come up with different variants to see which may work out better.

Thanks,

Flagpole
Sydney, Australia

[lilysharon]

I like the old look to the photo and would try to keep the tones and just fix the creases and use levels to give it some more contrast.
A dodge and burn layer to add some more debth to eyes, teeth etc.

[Kraellin]

excellent job, OB

and lilysharon, also excellent