Please help a newbie out.

[jwmgoblue]

Hello everyone. I am very new to this and could use a little help with this picture. I have been trying for the past week and have made no real noticible progress. I just can't seem to get the programs to do what thery are supposed to. This is the only known photo of my great grandfather and I would really like to restore it so I can print an 8 x 10 of it for my dad for his birthday.

Here is the link to the photo:

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/File0001.jpg

If anyone could look at it and tell me if there is any hope I would greatly aapperciate it. Thanks for reading.

[Kraellin]

jwmgoblue, welcome to RP.

yes, this can be helped. the critical area is the gent's face. with that tear mark running right through the middle of his face, that's where i'd start. i made a selection of his left side of the head (our right) and then copied that and pasted it back in, closer to the other side of his head. whoever taped those two parts back together, didnt get them quite close enough. so, you have to digitally put them back together closer.

once you get them as good as you can, make another selection of his good eye (his right one, our left) and make a copy then a new image of the copy. do a mirror on that and then paste it back into the original image over his left eye in the right location.

then, using things like clone, airbrush and smudge, blend that 'new' eye into the surrounding area so that it looks natural.

hopefully, you have a higher resolution image, also. the one posted here is a bit low res to do really good work.

and dont be too discouraged if your effort doesnt look like a brand new photo. there's a lot of damage here and with part of the face damaged, that makes it just that much harder to get good results.

the rest of the image looks as if clone, airbrush and smudge would do the job.

[DCobb]

Here is a quick attempt at the restoration. Due to resolution, it is difficult to work with. This attempt is rough and incomplete, but it will give you a little idea of what it might look like when done.

dc

[jwmgoblue]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure if this question should be posted here but, it does have to do with the picture. I am using Photoshop cs4 and akvis retoucher to try to restore the photo. I have tried to follow all of the tutorial that I can find. For some reason, I just cannot get the akvis retoucher to work properly. When I try to activate the plugin after selecting the areas as described, it says that I have not selected anything. ???? Anyone possibly know what I am doing wrong? Or, could anyone point me in a direction on maybe doing it differently. Thanks. DCobb...That looks great. Thanks.

[gordonb]

Originally Posted by jwmgoblue

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure if this question should be posted here but, it does have to do with the picture. I am using Photoshop cs4 and akvis retoucher to try to restore the photo. I have tried to follow all of the tutorial that I can find. For some reason, I just cannot get the akvis retoucher to work properly. When I try to activate the plugin after selecting the areas as described, it says that I have not selected anything. ???? Anyone possibly know what I am doing wrong? Or, could anyone point me in a direction on maybe doing it differently. Thanks. DCobb...That looks great. Thanks.

Usually when I get that message in PhotoShop it means I've made a selection on the wrong layer :-(

[akvis]

Hi! The new version of Retoucher does not require pre-selection in Photoshop.
It has its own selection tools, as well as additional corrective tools and post-processing tools. Here - http://akvis.com/en/retoucher-tutori...ss-in-cage.php - you can see how to use, for example, Linear Retoucher tool which helps to process images more accurately and to keep borders.