restore crackled images

[cinderella]

I'm trying to restore a two images to a decent look.

The originals are posted here.

http://profile.imageshack.US/user/texasnanatobe

So far I've changed them to grayscale, run a decrack action which hasn't helped very much, used a levels adjustment.

I'm trying to get a plan of action for improving these photos.

Work on the children's faces with clone and repair stamp.
Blur the background, altho I would like to preserve the house/barn

Is this an impossible task?

Thank you for any suggestions.

PS I'm hoping the images are full size on imageshack. Flora gave a good reason to use a place like this for images.

[0lBaldy]

When working on restorations it is always best to have at least an 8X10 at a high resolution scan of minimum 300 to 600

When using any de-crack filter always use it on a copied layer and use a hide all mask to hide the Global corrections and paint on the black mask with white with a brush only the size of your scratches to reveal the corrections you want

On this Sample Gif I used Polaroid (free) dust and scratch filter
layers: copied the background layer twice.. polaroid D&S on top layer (light setting box checked)... hide all mask... paint white over scratches....
merge down.... copy twice... use Polaroid dust and scratch again on the top layer, with the light setting box un-checked (getting rid of the dark lines/spots this time)

(After clicking the sample give it a couple seconds to show changes)

[cinderella]

Thanks olbaldy

You said "When working on restorations it is always best to have at least an 8X10 at a high resolution scan of minimum 300 to 600
"

Unfortunatley this is all that I have . A copy of a copy that are the only photos the woman has of her family as kids!!!

What you did is amazing. I'm inspired.

I'll download the polaroid plugin. And go from there.

[cinderella]

I'm not having much luck with these methods. Probably not setting parameters correctly.
I just read the advice on this forum for "hard core Crackling" and will try some of those techniques later today. Also searched on this web site and read some other techniques which I tried. No luck. I hope I can find time to read the techniques and practice.

Xippix recommended using csi. What is this? A version of PS or a separate plugin or software ?

Thanks for all the recommendations . Grandgirls are arriving Sunday for a 2 week visit so I hope I can try these methods (again) before they get here.

[Florin]

Hi. I could give you a hand with PhotoZoom Pro to enlarge the pic with apropiate resolution.
This is a complicated retouch, will require a lot of skilness because mostly needs brush retouch. I'm painting these ones with the stamp clone tool in 98%.
Let me know if you need the PZoom use.
Regards

[spotter]

I read somewhere about isolating the cracks by finding the channel they most show up in, duplicating it,using find edges to darken and isolate further,reverse the image,then making it a selection and pasting the selection into a mask in your original image layers menu. You can then blur and darken just the cracks which does help to some extent.
It takes a while to get your head around but I have used it a couple of times.

[bilink]

new to the forum, trying to learn here is something i try
ok attachment size has to be 100K, tone i got is 240K, ill try to upload somewhere