Help fixing photo from 50's

[wholetthe15]

Hey, i'm kinda new at this and i was trying to restore an old picture from the 50's. I've done the best i could, but now i'm stuck... Can anyone help? or does anyone have any suggestions for me on what to do? Here is the Original picture, and the one i tried to fixed. Please help =)



original:

http://i9.tinypic.com/2mdrmm0.jpg

fixed:

http://i10.tinypic.com/2lwr8uv.jpg

[bart_hickman]

If you look in your channel palette, you'll see the blue channel has proportionally less of the damage than the other two. In the case of a monochrome image, that usually means you can do an algebraic combination of layers (using a channel mixer) to remove the damage and still leave some image info.

In this case, I added a monochrome channel mixer and adjusted the blue channel up and slid the red and green until the noise cancelled out. In your case, the RGB coefficients ended up at -90, +28, +158. Gives the first attachement.

Then add a curve to get the exposure back (second attachmeht). Takes about 2 minutes.

From here you can use noise reduction and healing and so on to fix up the remaining scratches.

Bart

[philbach]

Blue Channel

Like Bart I started using the channel mixer. Monochrome output with 100% blue channel.

I cropped the image

Next I used Neat Image to clean it up some.

Finally I copied the layer and used a high pass filter at 5 using overlay blending mode to sharpen the image. To this layer I added a mask to hide areas that didn't need sharpening like the background.

[Craig Walters]

wholetthe (dogs out?), welcome to RP.

the first thing i wondered about in your fix was why you changed to greyscale. this will limit what tools will work or be active in your editor (at least it does in psp). it may also limit what plugins will work or be active.

there's all sorts of ways to approach this thing. you can try noise reducers like Neat Image or psp's noise reducer or ps's, if that's what you have. you can try polaroid dust and scratch remover. you can try what bart and phil listed. clone, heal, smudge are also options but may take longer and so on. it sort of depends on how good you want your finished product and how much time you have to devote to it.

the filtered approach tends to be quicker but will also tend to be not as good a quality. the manual, somewhat bit by bit approach will probably get you a better result but take longer. so, that's really the first question you want to decide, how good is good enough, and that will sort of determine your approach.

craig

[ahmetturker]

3 WORK.

Hayat güzeldir.

For Repair:
1. Desaturate.
2. clone stamp tool.
3. Shadow / Highlight.
4. Noiseware plug.
4. unsharp mask.

For Colours:

1. Akvis Coloriage plug.
2. Bursh - Mode colour - paint.
3. Hue / saturation.
4.Curves.

[wholetthe15]

wow, thank you so much. Thats amazing =)

how did you get everything in color? i was trying to play around with the paint brush to try and color in somethings, but it didn't turn out so well. How did you do it? =D

[Flora]

Hi,

wholetthe15,

welcome to RP!!

I had a go at your picture..

• I started by cropping it and desaturating it following the DigiDaan technique explained by Leah:
  

  The basic process depends on creating two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers. Create the first Hue/Saturation adjustment layer directly above your image layer and set its blend mode to Color, but don't touch any of the sliders at this point. Then add a second Hue/Saturation layer above the first one; leave its blend mode as Normal and drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left (-100) to desaturate.
  
  Now open up the settings for your first Hue/Saturation layer (the one set to Color) and start playing with the Hue slider. By moving this around you are effectively changing the proportions of the colors in the original image that go to make up the black and white result. Once you find an effect you like, you can also try adjusting the Saturation slider to make it stronger or weaker.

• I, then, selected the shadows:
  • Softer Selection > (Ctrl+Alt+ ~ to select Luminosity, Ctrl+Shift+I to invert my selection ... now the shadows are selected)
    
    
  • Stronger Selection > select the shadows using a channel.
    
    
  • Strongest Selection > Select the shadows using a Threshold Adjustment Layer
  
  
  
• To balance the shadows and start minimizing the noise, I used the curves (Attachment 2) on my Selection.
  
  
• Merged visible:
  
  (Keeping the Alt key pressed, open your Layers Palette's Menu and, click on 'Merge Visible'.
  
  A new Layer containing all your corrections will be created on top of all the other Layers ....
  
  This procedure enables you to carry on with your restoration from your advanced point... 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.... )
  
  
• I re-selected the shadows by Ctrl+click on the Curves Layer Mask, activated (clicked on) the Merged Layer and pressed Ctrl+J to paste my selection on an0ther new Layer.
  
  
• Run Neat Image to remove the remaining noise from my selection. (Neat Image = a free noise removing Software that can be downloaded here). In Attachment 3 > Start, workflow and result after this procedure.

I coloured the image following the technique described in this Tutorial.

Nice job, ahmetturker!!

.

[ahmetturker]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

Wow, original painting, your job. Well done Flora.



.

[Craig Walters]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

excellent colorizing, flora!

also, flora, that DigiDann method doesnt seem to work in psp. i tried it both ways, with the color hue/sat just above the bg and with it as the top layer. neither way worked.

i did this one also but i didnt try to do everything. i was somewhat just experimenting with psp xi's new 'color changer'. i think this might be similar to ps's selective color, but maybe not as sophisticated... not sure. anyways, i wanted to try it out on this.

also, that big black object on the left in the background is a piano

craig

[skyjely]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

Hi Everyone,
Here is my version of the 50's shot hope you like it.
I kept it as a gray scale Image. Used the channel palette(blue channel).
to get a quick fix over all then use curves to get the right contrast and
brightness.
I clones the background right side to have a better perspective putting the two boys more in the center of the shot.I put a sofa in the background replacing the
piano that was there.



Cheers!
skyjely

[Craig Walters]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

hi skyjely, welcome to RP.

nice work. always fascinates me what folks do with the more difficult pieces... sofa instead of piano. interesting

craig

[Flora]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

ahmetturker,

thank you so much for your kindness!!

Craig,

thank you very much!! ... Pityt the DigiDaan technique doesn't work in PSP ... It can be a big help!!

that big black object on the left in the background is a piano

OOOOOOooooooppppppppssss .... I took it for a closed desk!!

skyjely,

nice job!!

[Craig Walters]

Re: Help fixing photo from 50's

flora,

i may re-visit the digidann technique again. i dont always get the instructions right on the first try

as for the piano, dont worry, i recently called the gap between a boy's legs a table leg

craig