Very mottled and blotchy skin tones to restore

[Robert Stephens]

Hi Everyone! Hope you all have a Happy Easter. I just introduced myself on the Salon Forum (Bob Stephens) and I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you on the forum. I have a particularly vexing old photo where the faces of both men are badly spotted and mottled. I've applied face masks, used cloning and patch tools but the end result just looks too contrived and little better than the condition I was trying to correct.

I've included a copy of what I've done to date (adding new background, darkening suit jackets, etc). If I can uncover a method of fixing the faces to a reasonable state of cleanliness, that would be great.

Any and all advice would be welcomed.

Thanks!

Bob Stephens.

[0lBaldy]

Re: Very mottled and blotchy skin tones to restore

Hi Bob, Welcome to RetouchPRO.

Thanks for posting this photo. Just one thing to help the forum... if you scanned the photo and have a high resolution copy you can post fairly large pictures which are under 100k using the 'save for web' function in Photoshop as described here:
Size, Quality and/or Format your Attached Images.. (Click here)
The save for web function in the latest Photoshop is hidden under File>Export>Save for web (legacy)

If you want to post a larger resolution that is over 100K then you can host your image elsewhere and attach a link in the thread, but also, always please attach an under 100K version (so the thread remains useful in the future, regardless of external links). (link to the highest resolution.. or the largest size you can upload) Also, please post the untouched original and your WIP (work in progress) so we have a comparison

If you still have access to the original, Re-scan it in color as per this thread
(as there seems to be some silvering going on in the shadow areas)

Looking forward to seeing a higher resolution copy to see if a Dust and scratch masked layer would help the faces some

[Robert Stephens]

Re: Very mottled and blotchy skin tones to restore

Hi OlBaldy. Good to hear from you and Thanks for your helpful suggestions on reposting a larger copy of the original (which I have and can re-scan). I'll workup a new copy of the photo and will post later this week for sure.

Thanks again for your reply and I'll post a new copy for you and everyone to have a look at.

Have a Great Day and Best Regards.

Bob Stephens.

[lzpimentel]

Hi everyone, I'm a photographer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! I'm back to this forum after a long break, but never posted before!