Help with Mam and Renee please

[Peter Booth]

I have an old damaged photograph of my sister and my late mother taken at my late brothers wedding some 45 years ago. It is my sisters 70th birthday on 14th of December and I thought I would have a try at restoring it . I have managed to repair the tear through my sisters face but it is the skin textures of both the subjects that I am at a loss of how to fix. Could one of you kind people on this group give me some help with this , Thankyou in anticipation.I've painted in the background as it was also a mess,

[Vikki]

Have you tried Neat Image? It will work wonders on the noise (texture).
I would also put some noise back into the background. It is too smooth, and therefore makes the people look even more grainy. Realistically, the background would have about the same amount of noise as the foreground.
I would also suggest adjusting the levels for this to add some contrast.
The image is has a lot of uneven noise so it came out a bit soft here, but this is a general idea. I also moved the two women closer together.

[Vikki]

I meant to add this

[Peter Booth]

Hi Vikki, Thank you very much for your reply and your restoration looks great . I found last night that I had committed the cardinal sin of not keeping the original before restoring my sisters face as i wanted to post that too. I do have it on disc somewhere though??. No I havent tried neat image as yet, I'm still trying to learn Photoshop and finding it a bit of an uphill battle, enjoying it all the same and get quite a kick out of what I do manage to do with it.

[Vikki]

Thanks Peter.
It's always nice to see the "before" in a restoration, so that the work done can be appreciated. Hopefully, you can find it.
I always keep the original visible, so that I can see how the progress is coming along.
Neat Image is a grain removal program that can be a big timesaver in some cases. If you're not ready for that, try this tutorial. It can help with the tedious work of cleaning up, and will give you some experience using layer masks. It's easy, I promise, and you'll use it all the time.
Tutorial