Introducing myself

[Heather Bisset]

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[Gary Richardson]

Hi Heather, Welcome to RP. Unfortunately, there's not too much that can be done with the image you posted, the dress is too blown out, and no real detail remains. I've had a quick go with it, and this is the best I could get from your image, and its no real improvement.

[Flora]

Hi Heather,

Welcome to RP!

Like Gary said, "Unfortunately, there's not too much that can be done with the image you posted, the dress is too blown out, and no real detail remains." ...

Here is what I tried:

• Duplicated the background Layer (blending=Multiply).
• Created a 'Luminosity Mask' (Ctrl+Alt+~), copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J) set its Blending to Multiply.
• Duplicated the 'Luminosity' Layer twice (blendings= Multiply and Soft Light), adjusted the Opacity of each duplicate until happy with the result.
• Merged Visible. (here is how to do it without losing the underlying Layers)
• To minimize the paper pattern (in this picture mainly vertical) I used Filter>Blur>Motion Blur first, followed by Neat Image (Medium Settings). (Neat Image can be downloaded free here ).
• I used Levels to increase the contrast a bit.
• Used USM to lightly sharpen the image.
• Created a 'Luminosity Mask' (Ctrl+Alt+~), copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J), run Neat Image on it, adjusted its Opacity.
• Used Hue&Saturation (colorize box checked) to lightly colorize the image.
• Merged Visible.

This Tutorial could help for faded pictures, and this other for paper texture.

Hope this helps...

P.S. Gary, I like what you did