Help with old photo

[ShanshuAngel]

I just found this photo in my mother's picture collection. It is my great grandparents and is over 100 years old. I have limited abilities when it comes to restoring things. As you can see, alot of the dots on her dress are missing because of fading. Does anyone have an idea how I can restore the dress without it looking "fake". I have tried copying parts of the dress that look ok onto the bad part, but I can't get it to blend right. Any help on this photo would be greatly appreciated!! I would like to give this photo to my grandfather for his birthday in October.

[ShanshuAngel]

Had a problem attaching the photo, had to resize it.

[DannyRaphael]

Greetings:

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Restoring this image will bring your grandfather great joy.

Have you tried using Layer Masks for restoring the dress dots? If not and you're not familiar with them, here are two excellent tutorials:

* http://www.shootsmarter.com/suzette.html
* http://www.vrya.net/ts/photoshop7.php

Once you get the hang of using Layer Masks, your PS skills will have taken a quantum leap. I mean they are one of the best and most useful tools Photoshop has to offer.

~Danny~

[ExclamPt]

You might try the "Healing Brush" which I prefer to think of as a "texture copier."

Recently, I had success reconstructing a herringbone twead jacket using this tool almost exclusively.

!

[catia]

I would use the lasso tool to select a large portion of the dress that is in good shape. Then press cntrl J. This pastes the selection into a new layer mask. Then left click in the area you just selected and hold down the mouse button to move it to a new location of choice. You can select all (cntrl A) on this new layer and rotate or scale it if needed. Once I have that piece where I want it I press the layer lock location button to lock it down. Then I select all again, then copy and paste. Now I have a new layer and I move it, etc, etc. until I get the roughed in dress. Then go back and use layer masks and/or the clone tool to clean it up. On this particular dress, be careful lining up the dots.

Have fun,
Catia

[catia]

Here is a partial result using the above technique. It has not been cleaned up.

Remember, labor of love.

Catia

[ShanshuAngel]

Wow thanks so much everyone for the replies. I am slowling but surely fixing the dress by copying small parts that are not damaged onto the bad parts. It looks great! I will have to try the healing brush for the top, copying and pasting just doesn't seem to be working. I've found some great tips on this site, so if those can't get it done, it's beyond repair. Thanks again for the help.