Restore bad damaged photos

[barry_uk]

I have been working on a only photograph of my grandad, It's very bad picture really I have managed to bring up the face image but now I am stuck
on to touch up and rebuild it, Can anyone here help me please I feel I have hit a brick wall and unable to go any further. Need help badly I am a user of PSP 7 Please someone help. Many thanks.

Regards Barry

[Duv]

Hi Barry. Welcome aboard!

You might try noise reduction software like Neat Image and work with the red or green channel. Blue looks especially bad.

Cheers
Dave

[barry_uk]

Hi Duv you say try using "Neat Image" whats that never heard of it? As for colour that I am not bothered about. I can add colour easy enough it's the building of the face I require getting it fixed. Any help I will be forever greatful.

Regards Barry

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Barry,

Neat Image is a noise reduction programme much favoured by many members here.

A free demo version is available from www.neatimage.com click on the download button, and select free demo version.

Hope this helps.

[barry_uk]

Hello again friends I have played with my grandads photo and am now realy stuck Can someone maybe help me please I have tried and tried
to get the image as a pure photograph, So I can colour it, As you can see it looks bland and somewhat strange I feel it needs little work but I am stuck on what to do for the best, Please help, This would be the best birthday photo for my dad who has only this photo of his dad.

Many thanks.
Regards Barry.

[philbach]

Well this is a tough one. I used the channel mixer and selected pretty much the red channel. I ran neat image and checked very low frequency which helped a lot. Finally I copied that layer and ran dust and scratches. I used an aggressive setting and used a layer mask and then painted in a few areas. I cloned the white spot out of his hair. At the end I used a levels adjustment layer to increase the contrast

[barry_uk]

Thankyou Phil for your attempt, I see what you have done I still feel it needs alot of work, The right side of face you did looks like a growth what I can fix not a problem, now I wish I could just get it to look like a normal perfect B&w photo, Anybody else fancy a go and seing if they can perfect this picture, After the hours I have worked on it, i am at my teather now
I am willing to pay someone if anyone can help me. Thanks

Regards Barry

[barry_uk]

OK had some more fun playing around the best I came up with was this, Any ideas now on how to make it look alittle more realistic? I am now 100% stuck
nothing new LOL. What do you think folks. Any ideas what now i can do.?

Regards Barry

[philbach]

Well you started off with a really difficult picture. Although there are some things you might try now like blurring the the margins of his hair, and facial outline. Working on his eyes some more and, perhaps, doing something more aggressive with the tie.

Further improvements sort of go into the art category. Like drawing something that isn't on the photograph. I think you have restored that photo as well as it could be. Good Job

[barry_uk]

well I have did some more to it again what do you think!

Regards Barry

[Duv]

Hi Barry.

Personally I think you need to fine tune your second last effort. It left me with a wonderful sweet cold sweat. Seriously though, a little additional burning on his left eye, face, mouth and left hair line plus a little smoothing and High Pass Sharpening, and I think you will have an awesome result.

Cheers
Dave

[Janet Petty]

I had a go at your picture, which isn't in too bad of shape considering. My only comment is that the original you posted is way too small in resolution to do much of anything with. If you could post a picture nearer to the 100 kb limit, it would help.

As to your efforts, the colorization on the last one is on the right track. Kudos for your willingness to tackle a difficult job.

Janet

[the_shadow_sith]

Good Work Barry.

[barry_uk]

Thanks guys for your kind words, Duv I have had another go at what you said but I keep messing it up cannot get any better myself If you can try for me I would be very greatful Manythanks

Regards Barry

[Duv]

Actually Barry, if you don't mind, I'm going to flip flop and agree with Janet. I tried to burn in a little more around the hair, left eye and outside of face and slightly darkened with curves. Nice job on the shirt and tie.

Cheers
Dave

[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.