Restore bad damaged photos

[barry_uk]

Thanks Dave I am stll playing around maybe I will master it lol however Im chuffed at what I have accomplished so far. if anyone feel they can get it better please be my guest be intresting to see what others can come up with.. many Thanks

regards Barry

[philbach]

Well I tried again. The problem is that the initial photo is so blemished. I was wondering whether you could rescan it. This time though don't use levels initially but copy the layer in screen mode and copy that in overlay. At least try to get an initial scan that doesn't have so many difficulties.

This attempt was fairly aggressive and I used the usual levels, curves, blending modes. Eventually I just painted in the shirt and tie.

Maybe you could send it to Doug and he can list it as one of his famous and frustrating challanges.

[barry_uk]

thanks phil I am happy with face colour on yours I think if mine was same texture it would look lots beter, Did you use psp7 ? if so what did you do to get that efect!

Regards Barry

[Duv]

I thought that if you can't beat it, join it by adding more noise.

Cheers
Dave

[philbach]

No I don't use Paint Shop Pro. Photoshop CS is what I used. I have struggled to learn that application since about '88 or so. About the time I get the damn application under control I have to go back and relearn.

Getting back to your initial scan. The picture of your dad's head is brighter than the initial scan that you posted. That means to me that you increased the brightness and contrast of the initial image. That step may have introduced blotches into the photo. Perhaps you can redo the scan and have a better photo to work with. Thats why I suggested trying other methods. Rescan with no scanner adjustments, open in photoshop, construct an adjustment layer like levels with no adjustments but change the blending mode to screen. Copy that layer and this time try an overlay blending mode. Maybe that will result in a picture that is less grainy and chunky.

Maybe not. I know and good luck.

[barry_uk]

Hi Philbach the original photo is on first page as it wa scanned i did nothing to it just enlarged it nothing else in psp. I have tried varied DPI settings so I work on the picture that was the best I could do. It's a copy of the original I wonder if thats why it wont scan very good? Many hours I have spent on trying to build up a perfect image only to fail miserably Thanks my friend..

Regards Barry.

[philbach]

Well it was fun struggling with you, Barry. Thanks for posting your images.