Cracked photo to say the least...

[wsconline]

I may have posted in the wrong fourm before so I will post here just incase.

Ok, so I am a photo restoration n00b and such. I use Photoshop CS2 for web graphics mainly, so I'm treading in unknown territory for the most part. I have a friend that asked me to see if I could try to repair a very special family photo for her. I may be in over my head but I would really like to come through for my friend so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

The photo I am dealing with had some water damage I think. Anyways, it is 11" x 14" so I had to do a couple scans and merge them which worked out ok. I scanned it at really high DPI(1200). I can't really rescan again if needed because, well the photo is like 1000+ miles away from me now.

Where would be the best place to start with it? I have spent the past 5 or 6 days pouring over tutorials on the net but haven't found anything for something quite like this.

Click here to view the damaged full photo which is shrunk down to show on the web.
Click here for a closer look at it which you can see the cracks a lot better.

Thanks for your time and assistance.

[twinkissed]

I did one like this and used Neat Image but about 3 times over each other. The client liked the results because it was much much better. I apologize, normally I give a shot at these things but I'm just breezing through today. We're going out of state. Still, try Neat Image if you can and see if that helps.

[wsconline]

I did one like this and used Neat Image but about 3 times over each other. The client liked the results because it was much much better. I apologize, normally I give a shot at these things but I'm just breezing through today. We're going out of state. Still, try Neat Image if you can and see if that helps.

Well, I tried Neat Image as you suggested but with little to no results. Maybe I wasn't doing something properly. Thanks for the suggestion.

[twinkissed]

I apologize it was my fault because I only looked at the larger photo not the whole thing. I have a little extra time tonight so I'll see if I can come up with anything.

[twinkissed]

Here is what I did, I ran the poloroid dust and scratch filter on the close up photo. If you were to use it on the whole photo you would want to do little sections, then I ran neat image (sharpen on as high as possible). I then adjusted the curves. Then I made a duplicate layer, and put a guassian blur on it and added a layer mask. I then used the paint brush to go over parts of the skin, etc. that still had small scratches in it. Almost as if I were repainting the picture. Then I used a light color from the background to replace the background. A really quick job so it looks like this will take you a while to do. You will have to be careful using any type of filter because as you can see, you start losing the sharpness. I know this is quick but I have to get back to getting ready for my trip. Good luck and hope you get some more help

[wsconline]

Thanks for trying to help me this latest time around, never got around to saying that. Been busy and haven't had a whole lot of time lately to work on it. I did manage to slice the photo in chuncks so I could work on it easier. I have played around with the software you suggested and such, but I still haven't had much success getting rid of the cracks. Is there any chance you could post a step by step guide to help with it? I'm about ready to pull my hair out.