Really need help with a photo that has deep cracks

[effect2011]

hi i'm new here its my first time,
I have a photo which i want to restore see it it has a lot of deep cracks, i havent seen any photos like it, normally i use dust and scratches its suppose to remove it a little but it didnt and the big cracks remain.

any advice what removes deep cracks, without making the photo blurry?
i have also attempted to restore a copy of this but not sure if i'm doing it right ive many used the clone, patch, and heal brush.
thanks

i have added my try but i'm losing detail on the faces, but if i remove the noise reduction then the cracks will reappear again.

[Boneappetit]

Hi effect: Welcome aboard. I'm pretty sure there's someone around here, (not me) that can do something to restore your photo, but if this the actual size of your picture, it is a big limitation, in order to effectively work with it.

[effect2011]

hi, thankyou for the welcome
ive made the picture a little bigger now it wont let me upload more than 100kb i hope someone can advise me here, where do i begin on this photo, i managed to take some cracks out,but some of them are hard.

to anyone who can advice me i would be grateful
thank you

Originally Posted by Boneappetit

Hi effect: Welcome aboard. I'm pretty sure there's someone around here, (not me) that can do something to restore your photo, but if this the actual size of your picture, it is a big limitation, in order to effectively work with it.

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by effect2011

hi, thankyou for the welcome
ive made the picture a little bigger now it wont let me upload more than 100kb i hope someone can advise me here, where do i begin on this photo, i managed to take some cracks out,but some of them are hard.

to anyone who can advice me i would be grateful
thank you

As a 2nd choice, you can save it as "Set For Web and Devices" adjust quality until you get it to 100 kb, that way you can upload the picture, and I'm sure you'll get some feedback from other members...

[effect2011]

thanks, i have changed it and now it opens up better.
i hope someone gives me some advice.

Originally Posted by Boneappetit

As a 2nd choice, you can save it as "Set For Web and Devices" adjust quality until you get it to 100 kb, that way you can upload the picture, and I'm sure you'll get some feedback from other members...

[Tony W]

This file is so small @432x545 pixels that when zoomed to work on you can see a lot of what looks like jpeg arefacts which may not be so apparent on a larger scan. If it is a reasonable size scan then perhaps the scaling down for the forum has not helped - if you have a larger scan post a link - it may just be a little more helpful.

What size is the original image and what scanner settings did you use?

In any case I think that this will prove to be a pretty challenging image which will require much time to get any where near being acceptable, due to the amount of damage which can be seen even at this small size! The damage seems to be so extensive that there are virtually no areas to clone or patch from without artefacts.

Had a quick look and play with this. The attached image shows from left to right the original, a B&W conversion with excess sharpening to highlight damaged areas and the last one with sharpening removed and using the patch tool to try and disguise the bigger cracks.

With a bigger and better scan it may be possible to apply masking to isolate the cracks and repair the mask areas only with either Dust and Scratches, Cloning or Median filter or combination.

However, IMO it will still remain a very challenging and time consuming project and unless of huge sentimental value the end result may not justify the time spent - only you can make that decision though!

[effect2011]

hi thanks for trying, it looks good.
no its scan is quite small and an original one.
you said you last one with sharpening removed, how did you remove the sharpening?
also can you please tell me what you did to get the color on the photo brighter so that detail of the clothes are still shown referring to your last image.
thank you

[Tony W]

I am not aware of how you scanned the original or the capabilities of your scanner but as the original is so small and badly damaged you should aim to extract the maximum information. If you have not already tried this it may just possibly offer improvement - try setting your scanner as follows:

• Bit Depth If possible 48 bit colour. This will give you 16 bits per channel and may be helpful to maximise the quality by giving you some headroom when editing contrast etc.
• Print size: My preference would be to set the print/output size to larger than the maximum intended final print size. It could be helpful in the initial editing stages and may offer some benefit when you downsample for print output. Even if it does not offer any noticeable improvement it is usually the better option as sizing up causes more losses than sizing down.
• Resolution: Depends what final print size you want but 300 dpi is normally quite adequate for prints - much less needed for Web.

The price you will pay for all this is of course a much larger file size! You may benefit from experimenting with a small portion of the image scanned at the highest settings vs the same portion at your original to see if it is worth doing first.

The sharpening removed referred to the fact that it was applied to a copy of the original on a seperate layer therefore I just turned the visibility of this layer off.

To get the brighter image (from memory) I used the channel mixer on a new layer set to monochrome and probably adjusted the RGB sliders to get the look I felt appropriate. Then a new curves layer to tweak highlight, shadow and midtones.

Hope this of some help

[effect2011]

here is my try, not sure if its that good.

[Tony W]

Did you actually re scan as my suggestion at high bit depth, resolution etc?

Could you see any improvement over your original scan?

Ok, I think that even at this small size there is a definite improvement certainly in overall sharpness. It also looks like you have started the process of repairing the scratches.

This is obviously going to take some time but just keep going. One suggestion that may help is to 'sneak up' on the big cracks by repairing the surrounding areas first - this way you will have some clean reference areas to clone or patch from.

[effect2011]

hi
no i didnt re-scan its a friends photo sent to me by e-mail and this is the only highest scan they have got I will fix the surrouding first.
and see how i get on with it.

thanks

[MrRicky1947]

I am in a similar position with a photo tried all the trick I could think of is there any plug-ins that will help. This photo is in bad shape

[Kraellin]

you can use the scratch remover tool on some of those scratches, but i see a lot of cloning in your future. there's just too many little scratches and such in there to do just about anything but clone or airbrush or both.

[ChrisHutch1]

Hello Effect,

You can definitely restore the image, but it's going to take a little time and dedication to achieve the quality look you're seeking. I don't know of any filters that will make this a quality photo.

Good luck, I think you're going to have fun with this one.

Chris