Advice on how to deal with a mirror and cracks

[djmulls]

Hey Guys

First off I would like to say thank you for all the help you have given other people, its been invaluble for me to get as far as I have.

I am working on a badly damaged image and as its the first image I am ever restoring, challenging is probably the wrong word, for me anyway. I have included a copy of where I am up to and I know I have a long way to go.

Anyway, I am after some advice on how to proceed from where I am at the moment:

1: What would be a good way to deal with the mirror in the background of the image? I have been kinda focusing on the head as the biggest issue, but getting as far as I have, I realised filling the mirror may actually be worse.


2: I've been removing the cracks semi-successfully, however if I go any further I start to lose details like the necklace and other bits and pieces around the picture. What would be the best way forward?

I have been using a combination of the Dust and Scratches Filter, the Polaroid Dust and Scratch filter, the Median filter and a few others. To be honest I have gone over this picture so many times I can't actually say which tools / filters I have used in this version of the pic.

One thing I haven't been able to do is use the Find Edges filter. Once run I have no idea how to modify it and get back to the original image. Sorry, this kinda shows up my lack of Photoshop knowledge.


3: Looking at the other posts, how does it take some of you guys 10 minutes to remove all the little cracks that I have been working on all weekend!!! And mine is still covered it little crack!

I always knew the small cracks would be an issues, I just didn't think how much of an issue. I thought the big cracks would be much worse, but those I kinda sail through without to much trouble at all.

I also have a folder on my hard drive with 1gb's worth of versions of this image, where I keep going over and starting again and saving it off before I make mistakes.


Any advice is appreciated,
Thanks
David

[crazyfly1]

Dj,
Welcome to Retouchpro.
You have done a fine job so far. Imo the answer to your questions depends on what you are restoring the picture for and where you want to take it. If the restore is supposed to bring the image to "perfect" then you still have some work cut out for you and the best suggestion I can really make is be prepared to spend a lot of time zoomed in at 1000% with the various tools.
If this is a family picture that you are bringing back to presentable, then I'd say your about done. From here I would fix the rest of the cracks in the clothing, flip the head on the man and make him have a whole head. Do a slight bit of cleaning up on the skin. I like the reflection in the mirror, I believe you have the image of the person who took the photo in the mirror, neat. You removed the radiator on the right (or is that just a crop you did to post here?) I would leave that in. As for the reflection that is missing...
Hmmm, best I could say is flip the image and use the existing reflection, blur it and you will at least have a background that matches.
Again, great job so far.

[djmulls]

The picture is more me / my dad who is the person in the picture. I have no idea how he stored these pictures, but obviously badly!

The angle of the picture suggests its at ~45 degrees so it wouldn't have the person taking the photo, but I really like your idea of flipping the side I have and using it on the other side. That didn't occur to me at all and yet its so obvious!

The only idea I had come up with was to put a border on the mirror and then blacken out the rest and make it look like a wall, but I didn't particularly like that idea.

I did crop the radiator as the original image is very badly damaged down that side and as it wasn't the focus of the photo I cut it out. Saying that, the camera focus does seem to have been on that radiator because its surprisingly clear around that point.

Thanks for your help

[crazyfly1]

Hey David, I attached what caught my eye in the mirror. Could be a man with a camera? Of course, it could be a lot of other things...what was it about the wizard of oz one of the little people hanging from a tree in the background of one scene? Turns out it was a goose. Man, thats one piece of useless trivia that could clear space for something else in my old brain.
Anyway, I would like to see what you come up with as you progress with this image. You've done a fantastic job so far, it's obviously a labor of love for you.
The radiator, I'd keep it just because it's there and it's part of the history, and your children or grand children won't have a clue what a radiator was, nice conversation piece.

[albatrosss]

My shot at it. Will try to list steps if interested

[djmulls]

Wow that picture of my dad scares me :P

It looks complete, but it also looks like someones been drawing on the wall. What did you use as a background?

The pic of my dad I am going to use another photo for. It will require flipping around a little, but I should get as close to my dads likeness as possible.

I am interested in how you did the background though.

[albatrosss]

Sorry about the scare.

1 I cleared the blank part of the photo
2 Found a photo on line that had a mirror reflection and cropped it.
3 Dragged to photo and sized it to cover the blank spot
4. Used a mask and then painted to fill the blank area
5 Sampled the color in the photo and painted over the mirror to get what I wanted colorwise.
6. I then blurred that section using a filter

[djmulls]

Cool, thanks for the update.

I have had to put this on hold for a while due to a family emergency, however as soon as I get anymore done, I shall be posting the results here for you all to see

[tawnidilly]

Originally Posted by djmulls

Cool, thanks for the update.

I have had to put this on hold for a while due to a family emergency, however as soon as I get anymore done, I shall be posting the results here for you all to see

What is in the mirror is the back of their heads.