Advise needed for uneven fade on old photo

[cmaskelyne]

I have a very old photo that my Mother-in-law wants to restore. It is faded to a differing degree in several places and I wondered if anyone can advise me whether it is feasible to improve the photo. Obviously it is in a pretty poor state but the whole family is desperate to try and preserve/improve it if possible.

If this is not feasible for me to do with my knowledge of photoshop would it be worth giving it to a professional? If so do you have any idea what this would cost as we do have a limited budget.

Many thanks for any advice.

I have attached the photo so that you can see the state it is currently in.

[0lBaldy]

cmaskelyne, Welcome to RetouchPRO Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.

I think with a lot more work you could have a nice picture... take your time and try to keep away from global enhancements.. just do a small section at a time then give the eyes a rest... there should not be any time constraints if you are doing the work... All I did with this is use the history brush set @ multiply on the faded parts... a couple new masked multiply layers.. levels and curves layers with gradient masks.. all this just to even things out to get a working copy as a base to start

Good Luck and keep us posted with your progress by posting WIPs (work in progress) and maybe there will be some encouragement and suggestions offered

[Repairman]

Looks like there is enough info in the picture to save it. On the very rare occasions I work with prints I get drum scans made by a repro house. They make 2 scans; one normal and one on the dark side - and then I blend them together before the retouching starts.
See fellow poster Florin's work; he's ace at this type of work and good value for money.
R.

[cmaskelyne]

Many thanks for your advise - I will try a dual approach. Doing it myself and seeing whether the price is right for a professional to take a look. I will post back the improvements when they are done.

[Kraellin]

cmaskelyne,

welcome to RP.

as others have pointed out, there is probably enough data there to do something to improve the image. i wouldnt hold out for an entirely pristine restoration, though. there is a LOT of damage there.

if possible, can you get a higher resolution image? currently, the one you have posted is so small that one eye is about 4 to 8 pixels which makes it very hard to get good details back. i know the limit here for a direct posting is only 100k, but you can post the higher resolution image on somewhere like imageshack and then post the link to it here. that would help a lot.

[Flora]

Hi cmaskelyne,

welcome to RetouchPRO from me too!

If you decide to do the work yourself, below an example of what 3 very fast, simple, selective Levels Adjustment Layers could do to bring back details in your image...

Of course, with the details, you enhance spots etc. as well but that can be cleaned afterward.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

....if possible, can you get a higher resolution image? currently, the one you have posted is so small that one eye is about 4 to 8 pixels which makes it very hard to get good details back. i know the limit here for a direct posting is only 100k, but you can post the higher resolution image on somewhere like imageshack and then post the link to it here. that would help a lot.

... couldn't agree more, Craig!!!

[Kraellin]

did you mask or make a selection to get that, flora? i think i tried a feathered selection and didnt get quite as good as yours.

[jesterjeni]

Wow....I could not seem to pull out as much detail as you did..
I gave it a shot..
flora you are sooo awsome!!

[Flora]

Craig, jesterjeni,

thank you for your words!!

Originally Posted by Kraellin

did you mask or make a selection to get that, flora? i think i tried a feathered selection and didnt get quite as good as yours.

Yes, Craig, I made strongly feathered selections and used layer Masks (better said .. I made the selections, tweaked the levels to the result I liked, then strongly blurred the Levels Layer Masks)... result after the 3 Levels Adjustment Layers in attachment ...

[Kraellin]

thanks, flora