restoration help

[belly]

Some suggestions please!

Requesting help for the best way to restore this photo. This is the only available photo of this person.

Thanks!

[Flora]

Hi belly!

Welcome to RP!

I've just downloaded your picture, which had been already downloaded 6 times before I arrived!....this means...help is on the way...

[winwintoo]

If you still have the original, try scanning it from a different angle. Sometimes turning a picture 90 degrees and scanning it again will lessen the cracks.

Just a suggestion,
Margaret

[d_kendal]

hi belly,

welcome to RetouchPro!!
yikes, that photo is in awful shape! what I'd try first on that photo is mask the guy and put him on a new background, then do loooots of cloning. If you're interested, you could email the photo to Doug for use as a restoration challenge. I'm sure you could find out lots of ways of fixing it from peoples entries and descriptions.

- David

[belly]

Thanks Margaret, but the hi-res file was sent to me. I do not have the option of scanning it.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi belly,
Welcome to Retouch Pro.
Looks like a nasty photo to work on. I have had several of those in the past and even if you replace the worst channel, in this case the blue one, it's still alot of work. There is a decrack action available here but I don't know if you will get good results with it in this case. You will have to set the action to lighten the cracks since it comes by default to darken them. If you have trouble let me know and I will explain how you do that.

What I did with mine like that, and this is no quick fix, is to use a small brush the size of the cracks and the dodge and or burn tools set to low opacity and lighten up the cracks or darken them to match the surrounding good areas. You only need to do his head and shoulders since the background can be replaced.

Maybe others more experienced can give you a better plan of action. For me, it's always been a painstaking business.
Good luck and let us know how you fair with it.
DJ

[Mike Needham]

I have to say that photo is in absolute shocking repair! I dont know what to suggest really, other than really small, tight cloning and with no intention of being snide either a good reference photo and/ or a picture of Roy Shneider(?!?) [jaws]

Looks an awful thing to do any thing with, what if anything have you tried so far?

[Mig]

This is a mug shot. Do you know this person's full name? If so, then there's a better version of this somewhere.

[Jakaleena]

Ok, that's a tough one. But here's how I'd do it.

(I'm going to put it in parts so I can post screen shots with it)



1. Select part of the skin with the magnetic lasso tool. Invert your selection and switch to quick mask.

[Jakaleena]

2. Gaussian blur the mask @ 10

[Jakaleena]

3. Exit Quick Mask, invert the selection, choose a good skin tone and fill the area with it @ 75%

I'd just keep doing this on skin areas until I had them all filled. Then, I'd start painting and cloning to smooth. Finally, I'd do delicate paint and clones on the features and get it all blended together.

Oh, I'd make a separate layer for each area, paint, clone, etc. so that I could go back and redo if necessary...

[Flora]

Hi everyone!

...I think I tried everything I know, trying to find a short-cut for improving this image...to no avail....So old "Clone Tool" is where I went back to....with less than acceptable results...

Jak

I think that your tip is a real "gold mine"..
Thank you very much for sharing it!

P.S. being as stubborn as I am...I'll keep on trying!

[belly]

Thanks to everyone who posted a reply. This is a difficult photo.

Jak has given me a new way to approach this, so I'm going to give her suggestions a try.

Thanks for your help!

Kelly

[Flora]

Kelly

I started out following Jak's tip , I continued with a lot of cloning (lighten and darken)...I made some curves adjustments, (adding a bit more depth), ...and this is what I came out with....(still a big disaster area, but a bit clearer.... )

P.S.....I worked on him only ....I left the rest untouched!

[Jakaleena]

I'm so glad you guys found my tip helpful. That really is a NIGHTMARE of a photo to have to be working on!

Good Luck Kelly!