blown out face help please

[ontwolf]

Attached is a photo of my grandfather, I have tried everything to try and bring some life back into face. I know the problem is in the red and blue channels. Should I just copy the green channel, work on channel, then desaturate and colourize. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[0lBaldy]

Brought a little detail back by doing a good basic levels

then another levels layer to darken Grandfather and masked jacket N hair
then new layer with Shft+Ctrl+Alt+E to combine all layers into new layer
then levels/curves to taste
Hue/Saturation layer to desaturate
then new layer with Shft+Ctrl+Alt+E to combine all layers into new
Ctrl+J (Copy Layer)
Burn tool-Shadows 15% large soft brush over nose, under eyes, mouth, cheeks
Burn tool-midtones 15% large soft brush over nose, under eyes, mouth, cheeks

Filter>Noise>Dust/Scratches radius 3, change blend mode to Luminosity

uncheck all the layer eyeballs except the luminosity and background layers

then new layer with Shft+Ctrl+Alt+E to combine the Luminosity and Background layers into the new layer

this might help get you into a pretty good starting point

Alternative

copy background
Channel Mixer layer Monochrome, red -18%, Green +74%, Blue +36%, Constant -30%
Curves layer to get some dark details
Levels layer to brighten things back up
then new layer with Shft+Ctrl+Alt+E to combine all layers into new... uncheck eyeballs on the levels, curves, channel Mixer layers
create mask on new combined layer to mask out the jacket and hair
Ctrl+A..., Shft+Ctrl+C..., Ctrl+V (Copied merge all to new layer)
Filter>Noise>Dust/Scratches radius 3, change blend mode to Luminosity

------------------- Levels --- Channel Mixer

[ontwolf]

Thanks a million O'baldy, Your description of flow is fantastic, I am going to incorporate therm and attempt to finish image.

You have indeed provided me with the tools to get started

Will provide finished image for input

Again thanks
John

[0lBaldy]

Your Welcome John, Looking forward to your finished restore!

[ontwolf]

below is my finished restoration, I followed O'baldys flow of work then applied some healing brush and clone stamp then added some color then applied a levels adjustment layer.

Please let me know how this can be improved on please. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again O'baldy for your expertise.

Looking forward to reading more in this forum and learning.

John

[Kraellin]

i gave the face a shot. i only did the face. this is mostly airbrushing, one layer for a base and another layer with a color blend on it. above that i did a merge and new layer then a clarify on that to darken and define things. after that it was mostly smaller touches of airbrushing.

[picatrix]

I only did some basic correction - this is obviously a starting point only.

I converted the pic to LAB mode, then applied Shadow/Highligth correction only to lightness channel. This reveals most of the hidden details.

I did it quickly, so some halo effect can be visible, but I think you can get a really good result if you set up Shadow/Highlight sliders precisely.

Hope that helps.