Image Help?

[jesterjeni]

I have been working on a series of 17 photos for a dear sweet family friend, she graduated in 1947 and I have tried like a million things to get this face back.......HELP!!! I dont know what to do to fix her, there are no reffence photos for this....the girl in the photo with her face messed up has recently passed on

[Tony W]

I really think there is just too little information available to rebuild a convincing image. The original even in the undamaged areas is so poor. I sincerely hope that someone can prove me wrong here but I have had a little try which I am not exactly happy with due to my lack of painting ability.

Someone with a lot more skill than me I am sure would do a much better job. FWIW what I did was to burn in the lady's right eye then tried to mimic the shadows on the face as in the other two ladies. Combination of cloning, burning, smudge etc.
I have a couple of major concerns about the image
1. Does it look anything like the girl in question?
2. Could not find the hair style?
3. The size of the face looks somewhat out of proportion to the rest of the image - was this already worked on, or pasted in from another image?

[jesterjeni]

I searched to find the original, untouched photo
I really didnt see any hair on the original, maybe she has it tucked under her cap
because of the age of the picture and the way her head is turned,she is for a lack of better words...a little lopsided
I do see the likeness...
I like what you have done....
removing the damage to her face in the original has me completely pickled...I have tried about everything...I like to work sometimes with the inverted image, I read on here that helps..but so far to no avail...
any help on this picture is appreciated, I thank you

[Tony W]

This one for me was/is really difficult. Just wanted one more try to see if I could improve any - not sure that I have succeeded though!

My first impressions from the new image you posted:
Girl has full lips with a slight lobsided smile?
Face looks a little too full needs to be slimmed a little from my first attempt?
She is facing a little more front on than other girls therefore shadows need to be modified from first attempt.

So again FWIW have made the changes - there is still much room for improvement so to criticise my own efforts:
I still think the face looks a little too big in comparison to others.
Now I feel what I did would benefit from blurring to mask the work and more closely match the other faces.
Highlight on cheek needs blending a little more
Probably many more problems that I am too tired to spot

[Cupcake]

CS5 & Painter.

[CaptainObvious]

i'll take a look at this over the weekend. I think there's enough there to rebuild that face.

[jesterjeni]

awsome captain obvious, I have been trying to re-build the face....I cupcake and I got about the same result...I like the tones tony added...I have tryed inverting the image and working on it like that ...It does seem to help a little but the eye and that deep discoloration on the one side has me stumped!!
I appriciate everyones help!! Thank You!!

[Nan]

This is what I came up with. Mostly cloning around the eye, some selective levels adjustments and a little smudging. That eye is really tough.

[jesterjeni]

very nice!!