Photo Restoration Help

[ChilliF]

Hi All

I wonder if someone can please help. I am some photos that were taken by a professional photographer (honestly!!) There is an arc of light running through some of them and I was wondering if there is anyway I can fix them. I have attached the worst one as an example, but there is about half a dozed that are affected in this way.

I can do the dust removal bit and some of the minor touch ups, but the rest I would need help with.

Thanks very much.

C

Photo

[mistermonday]

C, you have a double problem because the rest of the image is underexposed. I would brighten the entire image, then mask back the overexposed area and add a Burn layer to darken the arc. If this image is a scan of a print, I would rescan it on a good scanner with high dynamic range, so that you can capture as much detail in the shadow areas as possible. Most low end scanners darken the shadows and lose a lot of critical detail making these images more difficult to restore.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

myself, i'd pray Flora stops by and chooses to work on your pic

and welcome to RP

[ChilliF]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

C, you have a double problem because the rest of the image is underexposed. I would brighten the entire image, then mask back the overexposed area and add a Burn layer to darken the arc. If this image is a scan of a print, I would rescan it on a good scanner with high dynamic range, so that you can capture as much detail in the shadow areas as possible. Most low end scanners darken the shadows and lose a lot of critical detail making these images more difficult to restore.
Regards, Murray

Thanks for the advice I will give it a go and see what happens. Will also rescan them and see if that helps. Can you suggest any decent online tutorials, I know my way around Photoshop but still pretty much a novice.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

myself, i'd pray Flora stops by and chooses to work on your pic

and welcome to RP

I'm praying

and thank you

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by ChilliF

Can you suggest any decent online tutorials, I know my way around Photoshop but still pretty much a novice.
thank you

Welcome to RetouchPRO Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends. Poke around, ask questions, take part in some of the discussions, challenges, etc., offer help, have fun!

I would try this tutorial "How to Repair a Light Leak or Stain" right here at RetouchPRO... there are a lot more applicable tutorials there also that might help!

[LonK]

Hi ChilliF,

As long as you're not looking for a quick fix, this is reparable. In a nutshell, I gradually burned in the light areas to correct the luminosity, followed by extensive selective color corrections and detail repair. If this is the worst of them, I'd suggest starting with one with lesser damage so you can get a feel for the process.

Good luck,

[Kraellin]

very nice, lonk

[Flora]

Hi ChilliF,

welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

Originally Posted by ChilliF

....some photos that were taken by a professional photographer (honestly!!)....

... Just hope you didn't pay for the job!!!

Beside the light streak, the more or less 'normally' exposed part of the picture has big problems with the colours and get more and more blurred as you get closer to the right side of it (my right side)....

I started working in PS Camera Raw on the underexposed left side first, then, separately, on the other side for minimizing light streak, colour problems, noise and sharpness.

After this, I just threw in the 'kitchen sink' to get an acceptable result.

There is still a lot that could be done .. even if I don't think it would improve the image dramatically ...


Craig,

Originally Posted by Kraellin

myself, i'd pray Flora stops by and chooses to work on your pic

... but thank you

LonK,

Originally Posted by LonK

....As long as you're not looking for a quick fix, this is reparable...

... I couldn't agree more ... Nice job!

[Kraellin]

beautiful job, flora!

and i agree, i hope he didnt pay the photographer.