Newbie Nees Help w/ Badly Water Damaged Photo

[a0157518]

Hello all - This is my first post to RetouchPRO and, right off the bat, I'm asking for help. I have a restoration/repair job for a customer and it looks nearly impossible. Attached is one of the two photos I need to try to improve/restore. This is the ONLY photo my client has of his father and it is BADLY water damaged. He really wants me to try to keep the whole body in the photo because the costume of the subject is an important part of the photo/story. But there is almost no detail to work with waist down (there's really not a whole lot of visible detail to work with at all...) Any suggestions? Anything at ALL would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much!

P.S. I am a newbie to RetouchPRO, but I am an experienced Photoshop user (current version is CS3). I've done 3 restorations/touch-ups previously, but none were anywhere near this difficult.

[Frank Lopes]

First of all: welcome.

I would recommend a couple of things:
Upload a higher res image. You can go as high as 100k. The higher the res the easier will be to tell what needs to be done.
Post your best crack at it and the members will guide you with all kinds of recommendations.

Welcome!

Originally Posted by a0157518

Hello all - This is my first post to RetouchPRO
.......
(current version is CS3). I've done 3 restorations/touch-ups previously, but none were anywhere near this difficult.

[a0157518]

Frank - Thanks for the welcome! I've replaced the 100 ppi original post with a 300 ppi version, so hopefully that will be better for anyone who may look at it. I am definitely planning to see what I can do with it myself over the next few days and will upload the results when I can. But I'm thinking this will take hours of cloning and healing (and maybe some imagination and "hand painting" as well) and so I will have to work at it bit-by-bit, around a few other jobs I'm doing. I guess I was actually looking to get any up front tips that someone might have, in hopes that I start out with the best process possible. For example (and I probably should have mentioned this), I've been reading various posts on this forum and have already found one tip (use brightness/contrast adjustment layer to see if that helps bring out some detail before even beginning) and that does help some. Anyhow, if I don't hear anything more, I'll get started, work on it as possible, post the results when I am done, and hope for any tips/help on the back-end, instead.

Thanks again!! Really appreciate the quick reply!!

[TommyO]

It certainly is a difficult challenge. Ideally, it would be nice if you had the image in your possession so you could examine it. Sometimes, a Photoshop restoration is not the best alternative for the customer. A conservator in his/her city could also examine the image to see if there is another alternative available, for example a water or solvent treatment to minimize the bubbling of the upper layers of the photograph. Nothing can be attempted until the type of photograph is established and maybe some experimentation is done on another photograph from the same batch.

Otherwise, by using Photoshop you should do quite a bit of examination and experimentation yourself before jumping in with both feet. I did not see much advantage in LAB mode versus RGB. In fact, RGB seemed to offer some advantages in the channels over LAB. Examine those and you will see that it may be easier to work in one channel to remove certain damage, then revert to another to repair or bring out other details. That could be a starting point anyway.

[Kraellin]

i dont recall ever seeing damage like this before. quite odd. but, aside from that, my best recommendation is, talk extensively with your client as to what this photo is and what is in it. since it is of his dad, he may well have seen it for years and in much better condition and working with him closely may well be the best thing you could do here. this is NOT an easy image to work with so you're also going to want to inform your client up front that this may not end up as a brand new, pristeen image.

[mepaulus]

If you could post what sort of costume this is you could maybe google a similar image to work from to replace details , at first sight i thought it was a native american but looking closer it seems he may be eastern indian.It would appear to be some sort of tradition costume so you should be able to find an image to help restore it.

[a0157518]

Thanks TommyO, Kraellin, and mepaulus for your posts/responses... very much!

TommyO - I will definitely take your advice to look at the image in various channels to see if one can help over another with certain aspects/parts of the photo. Great idea! (Actually, I do/did have the photo in my possession... it's a 1970's Polaroid shot and it's crumbling so badly that is was difficult to scan.)

Kraellin and mepaulus - I know that the subject is part of Mardi Gras and, after studying (and Googling and studying and Googling some more I ascertained that he is dressed up as member of a Krewe (not sure which one and it seems that Krewes generally dress up as ficticious American Indian tribes). I guessed and then had my client confirm that he is wearing a long, flowing dress/blanket-like costume so you can't see much of his legs/feet. He has a headdress with feathers and is carrying a staff/stick. His costume has some sort of emblem on it (my client says one or more sewn on patches - he does not know of what). I cannot seem to find any example of a costume like this on the internet, unfortunately. Most of the Mardi Gras Krewe outfits I find are much more colorful and elaborate.

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and comments. If you can think of anything more, please post again!

[mepaulus]

I think i might have found something like the costume , you could maybe contact the person who posted the image , this would appear to resemble what you describe and what i can see in the image.Here is the link to the page

http://noladder.blogspot.com/2008_03_09_archive.html

Good luck

[a0157518]

mepaulus - THANK YOU! You're right, that does resemble the costume that my subject is wearing. I think that will be very helpful in trying to fill in some details! Appreciate the help!

[mepaulus]

Originally Posted by a0157518

mepaulus - THANK YOU! You're right, that does resemble the costume that my subject is wearing. I think that will be very helpful in trying to fill in some details! Appreciate the help!

Most welcome , if you need further help you could try looking at the forums/ pics here , maybe posting that pic i posted and see if anyone can come up with more info.

http://www.powwows.com

Good luck.

[moonchild64]

I believe if you will look up "mardi gras indians" at youtube then you will be pleasently suprised and just may find what you are looking for.

I 'think" the regalia you are looking for is in this vid around the middle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhMAmvEX288

[learninlady]

Wow, I thought I was the only one to find challenges as such!
I have no idea of what it is supposed to look like in the background. I couldnt find any reference what so ever.
Ah, looks like such a nice photo too!

[a0157518]

moonchild64 - Thank you very much. I will take a look at the video (and perhaps others on youtube) as soon as possible. I've been looking at stills only, thus far, didn't think about videos, actually! Appreciate the tip.

[a0157518]

Hi Learninlady - Yes, what a challenge, huh?! Looks like you started to clean this up nicely but, your're right, you really cannot tell what's in the background. I "think" that the photo was actually taken during some sort of a parade so there may be others also in costume in the background. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to try to extract the subject (and regalia) from it entirely and make/use my own plain background, though. If possible...! Thanks VERY much for your post and for taking a look/swipe at this!