I need Help with this old photo

[I3onnie]

Honestly have never restored a photo like this before I was reading some tuts but its so difficult! What should I do and where do I begin?? I am a digital painter and that's all I really know how to do in photoshop CS4
All the blotches are killing me any help or refs on tuts will be really appreciate it and if you'd like I can draw a pic for you for all your help C:

[aartist]

The photo is very badly damaged and will be very hard
to bring back to an acceptable restoration level. Try
practicing on another photo you have that is less damaged.

This photo is not one a beginner should try to do.
You will not like the results and may well feel totally
frustrated in the process.

With a less damaged photo, I usually reduce fade and
take any sepia out to bring it to a more contrasted
black and white. Then use scratch removal and fill in
blanks using cloning. Sometimes you can apply noise
reduction and let the computer help you. In the end,
you may want to re-apply sepia.

If this is the one and only photo you have that you
truly must restore than I'm sure others on this forum
will be able to help you. Good luck but don't expect
miracles!

[I3onnie]

My mom asked me to restore this D:> for her so I'm trying is soo hard D: but thanks for the advise

[grannysdc]

Posting a link to a higher resolution larger picture will help others try things out and make suggestions

Other Hosts if you do not have your own site:
mediafire.com (100 Meg per file, free)
ImageVenue.com (3Meg max, free)
pixentral.com (2Meg max, free)
photobucket.com (1 Meg max,free)

Post a link in the thread to the site that is hosting the larger image.

[Kraellin]

there is also imageshack: http://imageshack.us/ and i'd seriously consider posting the larger image size. on badly damaged photos, the bigger, the better.

[TommyO]

I3onnie,
Welcome to RetouchPro ! I would have to agree with Aartist, you have chosen an extremely hard image to learn restoration with. If you continue with it, just realize it is a long term project. I may take somewhere in the 40 hour plus range to complete. So, divide your time into chunks to make it less frustrating. Know that the first 4 hours will only accomplish "X", the next 10 hours only "Y", and so on. Then, at least you will feel some sense of accomplishment along the way. Also, create lots of layers, never merge into one, and periodically save your work into separate files. You may decide later that you can redo part of it better; so, it would be nice to not start from scratch.

Rather than ask for help on the whole thing, ask for help on a particular part. Crop that part and post it. You can then merge the result you like the most.

Best of luck with it. It certainly looks like an image worth restoring. Those childhood photos are not replaceable and one day you'll be glad you have saved it.