Help - Ready to give up

[zoruth]

I'm trying to restore several old photos by following instructions on the "Restoration & Retouching" book by Katrin Elsmann and I have to say that getting into restoration is a lot of fun.

However, I've had several attempts at fixing the picture attached (higher resolution of the original here), but whenever I do anything, I just delete it and start from scratch again. This one has been particularly difficult for my skill level.

Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: I've uploaded a better, at least another try, of the work in progress.

[DannyRaphael]

Not an easy one, that's for sure. Developing skills in this area takes a lot of time, practice, patience and diligence, the last two qualtiles I'm plenty short of. (Lacking character traits such as these account for why I shifted my focus to photo-art and why I cannot offer any really useful advice. )

But I can see that you do have the knack, so hang in there.

One thing I can suggest would be to replace the background (that looks like it may have been created using the Clouds filter) with a more textured, less computer-generated look.

[zoruth]

Thanks. I have uploaded a second version with a different background. I also removed a lot of the scratches that my earlier version still had. This time around, I created a pattern based on the same background of the original picture and then just used the healing brush to change the background.

The guy on the left has a shirt with squares. At first glance, it looked like stripes, but they are squares. Is there a way to darken those lines?

[Kraellin]

try contrasting tools, like brightness/contrast adjustment layer, levels, curves, shadows/midtones/highlights and so on. but, in looking at this and trying a few of those things, the only way you're going to restore all of those lines is by drawing them in where completely missing. paintbrush or airbrush shld work for that.

[TommyO]

Zoruth,
I like your newer version much better. I would agree with Craig, in that bringing out more of those fine lines may rely on your simply stroking over them using the burn tool or something similar.

You may also want to work on the background to add some randomness. As is, the repetition in the pattern is too close, thus making it look replaced. Otherwise, you're well on your way to a good restoration.