New to CS3 how would you restore this photo

[darter801]

I am new to CS3 and this is the only photo I have of my dad before he passed away, any ideas how I can restore it in CS3????

[Chain]

This is absolutely doable.

First, to give yourself a good starting point; scan it in extra high resolution, and in 16-bits per channel. Save it as TIFF or PSD, but avoid JPEG (JPEG will reduce image quality).
If you want, you can upload this file somewhere and post a link here so others can try to work on it.

Use Healing Brush and Clone Stamp Tool on a new layer (sample current and below) to remove dust, scratches and smaller stains.

Curves (and other adjustment layers) can be used to correct color.

The main problem with the image is the brown/yellow stain. It is darker and has another color than the rest. You will have to use masks on your adjustments when removing it. It might take a bunch of layers before you get this right. You might want to use the color blend mode in areas and manually sample/paint back in the correct color.

You probably want to experiment a bit as you go along to see what works best. Other people might also suggest more advanced techniques of extracting information from individual channels (if some are less damaged).

Edit: The attached image is made from from the low-resolution preview. Still a lot of tweaking to do, but it shows that this can be done with curves, masks and heal/clone.

[darter801]

Thank you Chain, if you can let me know how to post a link somewhere than I can put the PSD on here?

[Chain]

Upload it somewhere online, and copy the address from the address bar at the top of your browser.

Simply paste that address here to share it with us. To make it a nicer link, select the text you want to turn into a link and klick the "insert link" icon when making the post (then paste the address).

[darter801]

ok thank you

[darter801]

http://www.mediafire.com/?p78ta0h6lju4mey

Here is a link to see the psd of the picture. I scanned it in at 600 dpi. I hope I can try and restore this pic since it is the only one. I have been trying to figure out how to use CS3 myself as I go, so any suggestions will be great. Thank you

[sergio2263]

I've had a quick go, I went for the red channels got rid of the others then used level, curves, healing brush and clone brushes. That's the best I could get the photo I'm not very good with restoration I am afraid. I've download the larger file hopefully I can do a better job.

[darter801]

Thank you for trying.

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Chain

This is absolutely doable.

First, to give yourself a good starting point; scan it in extra high resolution, and in 16-bits per channel. Save it as TIFF or PSD, but avoid JPEG (JPEG will reduce image quality).
If you want, you can upload this file somewhere and post a link here so others can try to work on it.

Use Healing Brush and Clone Stamp Tool on a new layer (sample current and below) to remove dust, scratches and smaller stains.

Curves (and other adjustment layers) can be used to correct color.

The main problem with the image is the brown/yellow stain. It is darker and has another color than the rest. You will have to use masks on your adjustments when removing it. It might take a bunch of layers before you get this right. You might want to use the color blend mode in areas and manually sample/paint back in the correct color.

You probably want to experiment a bit as you go along to see what works best. Other people might also suggest more advanced techniques of extracting information from individual channels (if some are less damaged).

You've done a good job with the stain I shall have another good it's a good image to practice restoration with.

[chillin]

I would first work with curves, to recover some colors & next do the clean-up.

[darter801]

Wow it is looking good, I did put it on line in PSD scanned at 600 dpi here is the link http://www.mediafire.com/?p78ta0h6lju4mey

[Gary]

Originally Posted by darter801

Wow it is looking good, I did put it on line in PSD scanned at 600 dpi here is the link http://www.mediafire.com/?p78ta0h6lju4mey

Used this PSD. Converted the B&W; removed the facial stains with channel blending, clone and healing brush and then added back color by painting on separate layer in color mode blended with masks; extracted (using Topaz Remask and quick mask mode) the subjects to a new layer and added the BG.

Cheers.

[Chain]

Originally Posted by Gary

Used this PSD. Converted the B&W; removed the facial stains with channel blending, clone and healing brush and then added back color by painting on separate layer in color mode blended with masks; extracted (using Topaz Remask and quick mask mode) the subjects to a new layer and added the BG.

Cheers.

Good job, but I feel it is looking too "fake" (if you know what I mean). We have useable color information in the original, so I would use that even if you clear up the luminosity separately like you did.

Darter: did you finish yours? I'm considering giving the high-resolution scan a go...

[darter801]

Chain,
No I haven't got to finish mine, my computer crashed I am trying to sneak some of it at work. Thank you to every one for trying to help restore this picture it really means alot to me.

[Chain]

http://imgur.com/uOVKh.jpg – Here is my attempt at the hires version.

My colour restoration skills aren't up to par, so the colours still look bad – but a lot better than the original.

Ps: I noticed what looked like JPEG-compression when editing. Are you sure you didn't save it as JPEG at any stage this time? Also, it was only 8-bit (I converted it to 16 bit while working) but it turned out ok. If you scanned it again I wouldn't bother to retouch it again ;p

Edit: Oops, I notice that I accidentally made your mom's upper arm thicker when I reconstructed it. I hope it's ok.

[darter801]

Thank you very much for your help!!!! It looks really good

[darter801]

Chain can you let me know what you did so I can try and attempt it myself????

[Chain]

Hmm, I can't tell you the exact steps because I did a lot of different things on this image (a bit of experimentation, trial and error, etc.).

But the things I did were (in short):

1. Convert to 16 bits per channel (scan should have been this, but it was not). Gives me more to work with when I do a lot of adjustments.
2. Clone and heal to remove dust/scratches/stains.
3. Curves adjustments limited by masks (I usually go: Quick Mask (Q) > Brush over the areas I want to adjust with soft brush > Exit Quick Mask (Q) > Add Curves Adjustment Layer).
4. The blue channel had a lot of "blotches" in it (and is the channel most damaged by JPEG-compression) so I actually decided it was simpler to throw it out, and replace it with a copy of the green channel that I manually tweaked to match the original blue channel as close as possible.
5. At one point when I had gotten quite far, I replaced the Luminosity with a copy of the green channel. This also made the next point easier:
6. Clone or Brush on a new layer set to Colour blend mode (or possibly Hue). Sampled colour from an area that has the correct colour to paint over areas with the wrong colour.
7. I increased the Vibrance/Saturation a bit at the end (colour blend mode).
8. A little bit of sharpening (luminosity only) was the last thing I did (limited by a mask in some areas).

Step 2-3-7 were done over and over in different orders throughout the process depending on what I saw needed some work. At a couple of points I merged the bottom layers to make the file lighter (no point in keeping the adjustments as layers when I had been cloning/healing/colouring on top of them).

Every new adjustment was done on a new layer (tip: try to keep your healing/cloning/colouring below the adjustment layers when possible). This allows me to go back and tweak the settings for an adjustment several times, adjust opacity, or turn them on/off to better see if it's an improvement or not.

[John Wheeler]

That's great Chain!

[chillin]

Nice work Chain.

[darter801]

Chain you did a really awesome job thank you so much for helping me and I am going to keep trying to fix it on my own as well.