Advice

[thedonjon]

This photo has huge sentimental value to my friend who lost her son. I searched trying to find help on how to make skin look natural when you have to take out the marks and discoloration. I ended up with the face of the son looking "plastic".
Also, does anyone know why the original photo (color on glossy paper) looks pretty sharp, but when I scan it or take a photo of it (I've tried both methods), lots of imperfections show up, including artifacts/grain?
Would very much appreciate some advice/guidance.
Thanks!
Donna
I uploaded the image but don't see it here? Will post to see if it appears.

[Wolly55]

Re: Advice

Hi thedonjon, you will always notice imperfections on photos when you have scanned them or taken photos of them. You may need to take multiple scans/photos to get one good one. Also when i scan in an image i make sure all adjustments in the scanning software are switched off allowing me to have a natural scan. Sometimes if you have adjustments on this can increase some of the problems you see in the photo. As for the sons face, i would use (as you look at the screen) his left cheek and flip to use on the right side and then the right side of his forehead and flip to the left side, have these on separate layers and then adjust each layer to closely match the tones, then do a clean up. Hope this makes sense.

[LazDodge]

Re: Advice

Hi Don:

A beautiful family! Worth going into the image to repair.

There's a lot of dirt and some smudges on the image. First thing I'd suggest is to clean your scanner glass. Just use a soft lens cleaner cloth and if needed, just spray a bit of glass cleaner directly onto the cloth, not onto the glass.

You can use same cloth to gently dust off the original photo - don't smear across and don't press down hard otherwise you'll make things worse.

Rescan as high a resolution as possible - turn off any scan presettings so scanner doesn't alter the image.

I don't know what software you're using - but I just used the spot healing tool and bit of cloning in Photoshop on the attached revised image. Work in small areas at a time - takes patience so don't get frustrated. Something doesn't look right, just go back in the history and try again.

I've attached cropped images of both the original and the revised. Needs more work but it's a start and shows how it's possible to repair.

I hope this helps - I'm new to restoration myself!

- Jeff

[thedonjon]

Re: Advice

Thanks Jeff and Wolly. Jeff, I actually took a photo of the print because I wasn't happy with the scanned image. Unfortunately, the photo was found in this damaged condition with all sorts of marks, smears and stains on it.
Wolly, I'm going to try your advice on flipping the sides over.
Thanks to you both again!

[Wolfman]

Re: Advice

I worked on your image......it's probably 95% done.

[thedonjon]

Re: Advice

Thanks Wolfman. This sort of shows the same problem I had with the guy's face, it looks blotchy. This is the most difficult image I've ever worked on!

[edbayani]

Re: Advice

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview...+fam1+copy.jpg
Here is an edit

[thedonjon]

Re: Advice

Thanks. I actually am looking to get tips so I can do it myself. :-)

[Wolfman]

Re: Advice

Thanks Wolfman. This sort of shows the same problem I had with the guy's face, it looks blotchy. This is the most difficult image I've ever worked on!

Is this better? I wasn't that difficult. I used frequency separation to smooth out his skin tone a little.

[thedonjon]

Re: Advice

Thanks. I've been wanting to give frequency separation a try. I will watch a tutorial on it.

[Wolfman]

Re: Advice

FS helps when using the low frequency layer to even out skin tones.