DealerPic

[Boss1]

Ok folks. I'm new to this forum and almost as new to photo restoration. I must admit I'm learning a lot and enjoying the challenge. The pic I have posted is of my 71 Mustang Boss 351. It was taken while the car was still new by the dealership owner. Unfortunately this polaroid pic has suffered through years of storage. A few friends have told me to trash it as there's no way to clean it up. I'm hoping to get some good ideas by using this site. My few attempts have been using the clone stamp. To date I have nothing very good to 'show off'. The largest problems I have are to rearrange the shape of the car around the damaged checking and distortion of the picture surface. I would guess this type of damage is very common to old polaroids.

I also would like to know the first steps necessary to start on cleaning up pics. ex: color adjustments first or last... I am very new to this but I'll be searching this site for lots of help - thanks!

boss1

[Doug Nelson]

It looks like a more dramatic repair than it actually is. Polaroids are actually pretty low resolution, so you can pretty much clone with impunity.

Here I simply opened Levels, clicked on the rear car panel with the white eyedropper, the shadow under the car with the black eyedropper, then painted on a new color blend layer with color sampled from the non-stained section of the parking lot.

There's really not much detail in the sky or car, so the rest can pretty much be done by copying sections and floating them over the damaged areas.

Actually, as damage goes this is kind of pretty

As for working order, start global and work towards smaller and smaller details. So start with overall tone and color, then do the larger fixes, then on down to the smallest fixes.

[Boss1]

better pic uploaded

I wasn't happy with the resolution of my original upoaded pic.
I hope this one will be better.

Boss1

[Flora]

Hi Ray,

I tried and tried to fix your picture .... (no much luck though .... )

I'm posting the result I got anyway, for you to see...

I got there creating tons of Layers (blending set to: Lighten, Darken, Color, Soft Light and Overlay)for general corrections.

I used The Patch and Clone Tools for selected corrections: Car Body, Tarmac, etc.

I used the Smudge Tool on parts of the car trying to correct the, partially, very deformed contours of tyres, tyre rims and tyre areas ....

Finally I surrendered to the cracks ....(not enough details between cracks as to reconstruct the landscape in an acceptable way ....)

Sorry I couldn't do any better .... You must really care about that picture a lot....

[Boss1]

Hi Ray,

I tried and tried to fix your picture .... (no much luck though .... )

I'm posting the result I got anyway, for you to see...

I got there creating tons of Layers (blending set to: Lighten, Darken, Color, Soft Light and Overlay)for general corrections.

I used The Patch and Clone Tools for selected corrections: Car Body, Tarmac, etc.

I used the Smudge Tool on parts of the car trying to correct the, partially, very deformed contours of tyres, tyre rims and tyre areas ....

Finally I surrendered to the cracks ....(not enough details between cracks as to reconstruct the landscape in an acceptable way ....)

Sorry I couldn't do any better .... You must really care about that picture a lot....

Actually it is just a picture of something I care about, my car. But the pic represents important historical significance about this specific car. The dealer thought enough about the car to take the picture. They knew it would be the only one they would sell. (rare car - small town Ford dealership)

The actual color of the car is Wimbledon white. It's a darker eggshell white.
I'll try to upload a sample.

The part I'm really impressed with are the wheel covers/trim rings. They appear so clean and polished - just like new. How did you get that effect?

You actually did a nice job with what was there to work with. I am learning so much from your work.

I'm still learning to 'deal' with these layers. -Not something I pick up quickly. I usually just make a copy of what I'm working on. Then cut up and manipulate the copy to get the desired end product pasted to my working copy...

Thanks again!
Boss1 (Ray)

[Flora]

Hi Ray,

me again...

Thanks for your kind words....

I worked a bit more on your picture...

• Cleaned up the car a bit more.

• Used the colour you sent for 'painting' the car.

• Used 'Motion Blur' for the background.

The part I'm really impressed with are the wheel covers/trim rings. They appear so clean and polished - just like new. How did you get that effect?

I just desaturated them and used the Color Dodge Tool (Highlights, Opacity 10/30%)

[Boss1]

DealerPic2

Here's another pic taken from another angle. I've been asked about getting a better pic of the car. This is definitely the better of the two. I apologize for taking so long to get it posted. But here it is. This is the original scan of the polaroid. I'll post my progress pic in next post.

Thanks to all!

Boss1 (Ray)

[Boss1]

DealerPic2b

Here's my small amout of progress. I definitely have worked on the easy stuff first.

Thanks again!

[Flora]

Hi Ray,

Great Car!!!!

...and plenty of details to work on this time!!!

Here is what I came up with .... Hope to have done justice to your car !

[Boss1]

WOW Great job Flora!

Impressive!

I guess now I can ask the embarrassing question:
How long did it take you? I have been working on this off & on for...

One more request - (please) - Could you go over a few of the steps you took to get these results? I'm sure you used a lot of 'save layer via copy' or something similar then adjusted opacity to help line up before you filled. If not how did you do it? I especially need to know how you used different layers. It seems I am saving new files every time I make a change or improvement. -Similar to creating a new database every time you just want to make a new record... Not the most efficient way>>>>

Ciao Flora.

Boss1 (Ray)

[Flora]

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your feedback ..... very glad you liked it!!!

How long did it take you?

when it comes to Photoshop, this question is one of the most difficult for me .... meaning,

• I'm a slow worker.

• I rarely complete a restoration in one go.

• Photoshop is a hobby for me, so I never check how much time I spend 'working' with it.

• Often I get 'lost' in complex procedures only to realize, at the end, that I could've got the same result in just two steps, using a much more obvious and simple technique...

In other words .... I know I spent a lot of time on your picture but I can't exactly 'quantify' it.

Since I've been asked this question very often, in future, I'll try to keep track of the time I spend on each picture.

As for your 'how' question .... Yes!! I use a loooooot of 'Layer via Copy' to replace large damaged areas.... My usage of the 'Clone Tool' is limited to small parts because, in my opinion, indipendently on how careful you are, large cloned patches tend to look like 'large cloned patches' making an otherwise accurate work look kind of sloppy....

Mind you .... you have to be very careful using the Layer via Copy technique as well which should be adjusted for: exposure, tone, contrast, colour, consistency, perspective ....you name it...

Yes! .... I usually end up with huge 'single' files containing many, many Layers....

Talking about Layers .... often, during a restoration job, you need to 'Merge' all you have done to proceed with your next step.

... There is a very easy way to do this, without having to 'Flatten' the image, save it and re-start with yet another file ....

During your restoration work, whenever you reach a point that satisfies you, do the following:

• Create a new empty Layer on top of all the others.

• Open your Layers Palette's Menu and, keeping the Alt key pressed, click on 'Merge Visible'.

A new Layer containing all your corrections will be created on top of all the other Layers containing each single step you took before. ....
This procedure enables you to carry on with your restoration without losing any of the previous steps/Layers... thus giving you the possibility to retrace your steps and making changes wherever necessary.... even after you've 'finished' the job....

Finally, from personal experience, Save your work very often ..... power failures or a mysterious 'Program Error' can wipe your long 'labour' in a second!!!!

Hope this could help .... and don't hesitate to contact me should you have more questions....

[BonnieN]

During your restoration work, whenever you reach a point that satisfies you, do the following:

• Create a new empty Layer on top of all the others.

• Open your Layers Palette's Menu and, keeping the Alt key pressed, click on 'Merge Visible'.

A new Layer containing all your corrections will be created on top of all the other Layers containing each single step you took before. ....
This procedure enables you to carry on with your restoration without losing any of the previous steps/Layers... thus giving you the possibility to retrace your steps and making changes wherever necessary.... even after you've 'finished' the job....

Whoa! I love this tip!! You mentioned it before but I didn't understand how to do it. I just tried it following your instructions and it works great! Thank you!

[Flora]

Hi Bonnie,

So glad you found the tip useful!!!

I use it so much myself that I wrote an Action for it .... chose a Function Key for it ... so, now, i just press that 'hot' key on my keyboard ... and it's done!

[BonnieN]

Thank you! I know I will be using it often as well.