Great grandmother very damaged photo Pls help

[sergio2263]

Hi Guys,

I was passed on this photo of this Great grandmother to repair, I am afraid the photo is very damaged, it has been in a frame for years, it is actually a copy of a copy, the original has been lost. I am trying to repair what I can, but would be most grateful if I could have the help and knowledge of how to repair this treasured damaged photo from you guys.

The photo is of my son paternal great grandmother, the lady was somewhat a character in life. It would be lovely to see her photo in great shape and to preserve my son's family history.

Many thanks in advance.


regards


helen

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/...db240920_o.jpg

[Breitling]

Hi Helen, I've downloaded the photo and am attempting a restore on it. So far it's going great, I'll try to keep you updated as I go along.

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Breitling

Hi Sergio, I've downloaded the photo and am attempting a restore on it. So far it's going great, I'll try to keep you updated as I go along.

Hi Breitling,

Thank you very much for your interest and helping to restore the photo, much appreciated, I am going around the tutorials on this forums to see what tips I can pick up. I've looked at the great grandmother's photo too much to see what I can do, but now my brain is all pickled lol.

Thanks very much


regards


helen

[Breitling]

Hey Helen,

I've gone ahead and PM'd you a link to show what progress has been made.

Regards,
Breitling

[Breitling]

Helen, let me know if there is anything that needs fixing.

Before:
http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p...db240920_o.jpg


After:
http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p...20_odraft5.jpg

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Breitling

Helen, let me know if there is anything that needs fixing.

Before:
http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p...db240920_o.jpg


After:
http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p...20_odraft5.jpg

Hi Breitling,

Thank you so so much for your help in restoring this family photo, the photo is very beautiful, you've done a great job bringing it back to life, I can actually see great grandmother's face more clearly. We are most grateful for your restoration work, much appreciated.

Many thanks


Best regards


helen

[Breitling]

Helen,

It was my pleasure in helping you and your family out. I too am stuck in the same position with many family photos that need major restoration such as the photo of your great grandmother.

All the best,
Breitling

[Kraellin]

so, what have you got on this so far, sergio?

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

so, what have you got on this so far, sergio?

Hi Kraellin,

Please see links below, I am still working on the photo, just started, it's very damaged so I am working on it bit by bit.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/...f0239956_o.jpg

regards

helen

[Godmother]

HEY! That's not me!
lol

[Breitling]

That's not a bad attempt so far, Helen. However, why has her face become speckled with white spots?

My tools of the trade were the following:

Spot healing
Hand grafting
Burn tool
Sponge tool
Paint brush
Patch tool
Sharpen tool

[Kraellin]

thanks, helen

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Breitling

That's not a bad attempt so far, Helen. However, why has her face become speckled with white spots?

My tools of the trade were the following:

Spot healing
Hand grafting
Burn tool
Sponge tool
Paint brush
Patch tool
Sharpen tool

Hi Breithling,

Thanks ever so much for your tips of tools, answering your question, I haven't finish the photo yet, I might re-start all over again, for some reason whenever I've put a photo in the forum to get help with restoring it, I've been asked to show what I can do, so I had to quickly fix the photo, as I don't want the members to think I am using them, I am just curious to see how the Pros finish the photo and get some tips so I can fix my photo in a professional way.

I will work on the photo again and post it on the forums.

Many thanks


regards


helen

[leanan`si]

Such a beautiful photograph of a lovely lady, I couldn't resist. After the usual healing/repair tools, I used a very low key Neat Image run to blend the rough texture and a 25 pixel feathered marquee to fade out the edges. Final touch was to use a filter plugin called Virtual Photographer by Optic Verve Labs and used 'ambience' again at a very low level. Virtual Photographer is one of my favourite 'extras' in my CS2.

Leah M

[Gary]

Tried to keep the aged effect with the clone and healing brush tools for the flaws, noise/dust & scratch removal filter and history brush in both lighten and darken modes, de-noised and skin softened to even the tones, curves for contrast and luminosity and selective sharpening. I tinted overall with Hue/Saturation, used a grunge brush for the borders and added some noise.

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by leanan`si

Such a beautiful photograph of a lovely lady, I couldn't resist. After the usual healing/repair tools, I used a very low key Neat Image run to blend the rough texture and a 25 pixel feathered marquee to fade out the edges. Final touch was to use a filter plugin called Virtual Photographer by Optic Verve Labs and used 'ambience' again at a very low level. Virtual Photographer is one of my favourite 'extras' in my CS2.

Leah M

Hi Leah M,

Thank you very much for your interest in my photo, much appreciated. it is nice to see different version of restoration, you've done a wonderful job, the photo is lovely, this give me different tips and tricks of how to tackle this very damaged photo. I've never heard of virtual photographer, I am sure going to download this plug-ins .

Many Thanks again

regards


helen

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Gary

Tried to keep the aged effect with the clone and healing brush tools for the flaws, noise/dust & scratch removal filter and history brush in both lighten and darken modes, de-noised and skin softened to even the tones, curves for contrast and luminosity and selective sharpening. I tinted overall with Hue/Saturation, used a grunge brush for the borders and added some noise.

Hi Gary

Thank you very much for your interest and restoration on my photo, it is much appreciated. The photo is lovely and smooth. I shall try all the different version of restoration and see how I get on.

Many thanks

regards


helen

[Gary]

You are very welcome Helen. My pleasure.

[chillin]

1. I've added noise to break down a little the larger grain
2. Healing
3. cloning
4. D&B + curves & levels adjustments

[Liz]

Hi Gary,
Such a good job. While I appreciate your verbal outline, it would really help learners like us if you could screen caputure your layers pallete. This would help so much in trying to really understand how you've reached such a great result.

[Flora]

Great job everybody!

I like the nice&soft ways of Leah and Breitling very much!!

Helen,

I guess you are going to colorize this picture (...would be a pity if you didn't since you do it so well!!! )
Keeping that in mind, I tried to keep the soft tones of the original where, in my opinion, the colours will result much nicer ....
I concentrated mostly on her skin and features, soooo, please, don't look at what I did to her hair ... (a mess like mine.. ) ... where I quickly used the Smudge Tool without refining...

To soften the noise I did the following:

• Duplicated the Background

• Run High Pass Filter > Radius 1.5, changed the Blend mode to Linear Light and I had a horribly sharpened picture ... Inverted the High Pass Filter Layer (Ctrl + I) ... and I had a horribly blurred picture .... decreased the Opacity of the Layer (for the size and resolution of the Image I worked on, 39% was the value I was happy with ...)

• Used Neat Image (a Noise Removing software which can be downloaded free here) separately on shadows and highlights.

• Used several 'Blank Layers set to..' (Lighten, Darken, Soft Light etc.) as described here ... just scroll down the page to the 'BLANK/EMPTY LAYERS SET TO.... ' paragraph
  

[chillin]

Originally Posted by Flora

Great job everybody!

• Run High Pass Filter > Radius 1.5, changed the Blend mode to Linear Light and I had a horribly sharpened picture ... Inverted the High Pass Filter Layer (Ctrl + I) ... and I had a horribly blurred picture .... decreased the Opacity of the Layer (for the size and resolution of the Image I worked on, 39% was the value I was happy with ...)

[/INDENT]

Thank you Flora for that tip

[Gary]

Originally Posted by Liz

Hi Gary,
Such a good job. While I appreciate your verbal outline, it would really help learners like us if you could screen caputure your layers pallete. This would help so much in trying to really understand how you've reached such a great result.

Thanks Liz. I agree that a capture of the layers palette is a great explanation tool and something that I will keep in mind for the future.

Cheers.

GGB

[swarbees]

have you tried scanning the photo in color ---sometimes the ravages of time can live in a particular color channel --- you can accomplish a lot by using the channel mixing adjustment option if one of the channels is cleaner than the others.

[Flora]

Originally Posted by swarbees

have you tried scanning the photo in color ---sometimes the ravages of time can live in a particular color channel --- you can accomplish a lot by using the channel mixing adjustment option if one of the channels is cleaner than the others.

... Great tip swarbees!!!! ....
That goes even if the picture you are scanning is originally grey
... I wanted to add it to my post .. but forgot about it...

[stormcrowuk]

Ok here is my first post, and my first go at restoration.

Firstly I now realise I need to pay more attention as to what I have done to the image, so please excuse the limited info.

Cloning to remove the worst of the damage
A little surface blurring
Noise ninja to remove some of the noise
Some selective smudging
Adjust levels
As I wanted it to retain an old look to the photo I then added some noise to and finally colourised it slightly.

[babezone]

jus wanted to say what a lovely picture x x

[Verywierd]

Here's my attempt. It's not that clean, as I was trying to retain every scrap of data and the "feel" from the original.
Like Flora, I used (several) inverted High pass layer, but blending on "soft light" and a reduced opacity where it just began removing the dirt and noise, then painted the fix in on a black mask. Then I used a sample skin texture with the heal tool on a blank layer to override the remaining noise on the face (soft light/reduced opacity). Then several blur, noise filters, and light/dark filters on duplicates and hand painted into the original on a black mask. Obviously, the big cracks and clothes were fixed with stamp and heal tools. Tiny bit of colour tone. There are still white spots which I didn't have to the time to fix.

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by chillin

1. I've added noise to break down a little the larger grain
2. Healing
3. cloning
4. D&B + curves & levels adjustments

Hi Chillin,

Thank you very much for restoring great grandmother's photo it is very much appreciated. I don't know how you guys get this photo so clean, every time I look at them white specks it make me dizzy. I have been very busy over the weekend, I shall tackle the photo again.

many thanks


regards


helen

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Flora

Great job everybody!

I like the nice&soft ways of Leah and Breitling very much!!

Helen,

I guess you are going to colorize this picture (...would be a pity if you didn't since you do it so well!!! )
Keeping that in mind, I tried to keep the soft tones of the original where, in my opinion, the colours will result much nicer ....
I concentrated mostly on her skin and features, soooo, please, don't look at what I did to her hair ... (a mess like mine.. ) ... where I quickly used the Smudge Tool without refining...

To soften the noise I did the following:

• Duplicated the Background

• Run High Pass Filter > Radius 1.5, changed the Blend mode to Linear Light and I had a horribly sharpened picture ... Inverted the High Pass Filter Layer (Ctrl + I) ... and I had a horribly blurred picture .... decreased the Opacity of the Layer (for the size and resolution of the Image I worked on, 39% was the value I was happy with ...)

• Used Neat Image (a Noise Removing software which can be downloaded free here) separately on shadows and highlights.

• Used several 'Blank Layers set to..' (Lighten, Darken, Soft Light etc.) as described here ... just scroll down the page to the 'BLANK/EMPTY LAYERS SET TO.... ' paragraph
  

Hi Flora,

Thank you very much for restoring great grandmother's photo, it is much appreciated, I also appreciated the breakdown you've given on how you've achieved the final results. You've done a wonderful job as usual, needless to say. I love her eyes it is so clear. I might colour her but I am not sure yet. Oh I love the smoothness of her hair, this photo has been a nightmare, It took me a while to make the decision to post it on the forum, in the end I did because I wanted to see how everyone tackle this mess, you guys tend to just sail through any damaged photo, which make me realized any photo can be salvaged no matter what the damage.

many thanks


regards


helen