Help With Restoring Dull Photo

[rco]

I have an image i'm trying to improve. It's very murky and i can't seem to get it to look right before i start with the cloning/healing etc. Any ideas? Here's the original and the work so far

[dataflow]

this is as good as i can get it
http://3ddataflow.com.au/stuff/worker.jpg

[rco]

Thanks Dataflow. Here's what i got so far

[Cupcake]

Looking much better rco.

[smaster]

Jep, good work rca :-)
i was wondering how much detail is preserved in the image.
I got the house as good as you quiet fast, but the jacket in the middle was a bigger task.
i guess so chanel combining tricks? :-)

[filmrescue]

RCO...nice work...how much time did you spend to get to this point?

[rco]

Hi smaster and filmrescue, the guys clothing detail was borrowed from an external image of the same type of uniform and the photo took about 5 hours to get that far.

[smaster]

Ah ok, nice cheat .-)
it looked like magic, thank you for the explanation :-)

i also have expirience, sometimes there is no information left in the image,
and the only solution is to draw on the image some new stuff.
(for example big scratches on the face on a portrait foto -> nose left)

[Kraellin]

how did you handle the guy on the right?

[rco]

Craig it was a case of more borrowing from other photos