Very old B&W photo

[qrees]

Hi

I've found some very old photo of my great-grandfather and I'm looking for some advice/help how this photo can be restored.

Here is the original photo:
_dziadek_pradziadek_org_thumb.jpg - Bigger version

And here is my attempt:
_dziadek_pradziadek_ret_thumb.jpg - Bigger version

Scratches are not as much a problem as it looks washed out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[photoshoppath]

Wow, So many great.

[Chain]

Good work cleaning up all that mess
Yep, it has not faded evenly; this means that you will have to adjust the areas separately. The main thing would be the man's upper body and head.

I would recommend a Curves-layer with a nice soft mask.

To keep the color consistent will be hard, but the color here has no information in it so you do not really need to keep it. Below your adjustments you could add a hue/saturation-layer, set it to desaturate 100%, and set blending mode to saturation (or color).

Some dodge/burn might be required for some details on the face. One eye probably needs reconstruction.

Then on top of your adjustments you can then add back in some sephia-colors with the same tones as the original image. Perhaps using a Gradient Map with colors sampled from the original image set to blending mode color (fade opacity to taste).

Quick example attached.

[Flora]

Hi qrees,

welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

Originally Posted by Chain

Good work cleaning up all that mess
Yep, it has not faded evenly; this means that you will have to adjust the areas separately.....

..Couldn't agree more.

I quickly worked on your cleaned version to lift the heavy shadows on the clothing of both man and little boy and to balance shadows/highlights in the rest of the picture.

As Chain has already said, I selected and worked on each area separately ... I used a Shadows/Highlights adjustment Layer and Levels.

I didn't even out the 'blotchy' areas ...

[qrees]

Thanks a lot for help and suggestions, I'll try to play little bit more with adjustment layers.

@Flora: Great work cleaning the suit.

[Flora]

qrees,

thank you so much for your kind feedback ... and you know where to find us should you need further help!!!