Need help with this picture

[tawnidilly]

This is one of the few pictures of my baby brother who passed away 38 years ago. I have tried to make it better and can't seem to fix the washed out damage. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any help!
Tawnidilly

[mistermonday]

My suggestions are to start with the best hi resolution scan that you can get using a good quality scanner that has a high dynamic range so you can capture whatever detail remains in the blown out areas. You can also have the image scanned by a photo service on a high end scanner.
The Green channel has more detail than the R and B.
In Photoshop, duplicate the background layer and Image>Apply image to apply the G channel in Normal Blend mode. Then change the Blend mode of the layer to Luminosity. From here you can try to fix the color or just convert to grayscale.
Regards, Murray

[igot2pman]

Very dificult picture, did a lot to it. color corrections (selective color), levels, brightness, contrast, heal, burn, and some of my own tricks.

Hope it helps,
-Keven

[mundanity]

The other day I read these two tutorials:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=272

I was trying to think of a way of combining those techniques and I tried it on this image.

[TommyO]

tawnidilly,
I think what the others have done is very close to the max you can get without actually filling it in artistically. Obviously, there is more detail in the face and hands, which could be touched up quite nicely. Then the clothing could be artistically, or by bringing in pieces from other baby clothes. Unfortunately, the original clothing is just too white to reveal anything useful.

[tawnidilly]

Thank you to everyone who helped. I have been very busy today. I will be looking at all the suggestions and thank you all so much for your help. It is greatly appreciated!
Tawni

[Kraellin]

find the detail as best you can, as others have done here, and then add back in missing detail with airbrush, paintbrush or whatever you're comfortable with in painting tools.

the thing with 'blown out whites' is, they are 255, 255, 255 in the rgb scale. there is no contrast and no ability left to contrast anything. color correction is the same thing. there is no color, so no color to correct and it's going to be the same with a lot of your standard tools. so, find and bring out the detail then add back in the missing detail as best you can.