Very damaged photo to restore

[sergio2263]

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to restore this badly damaged photo but unable to go any further any advice on how to tackle the photo would be appreciated.

[sergio2263]

My try here.

[edbayani]

man and woman copy.jpg Here is an rough edit

[mikemorrell]

Hi Sergio, going into any depth on this one photo would become a very long post (which I don't have the time to write).

My main tip is not to look at 'all the damage at once' but to make an assessment of the types of damage in different areas and the resources (in the photo and outside it) and the techniques you might use to repair it.

My quick assessment:

• outlines of the women are good (either undamaged or reasonably clear where they would be)
• relatively few details in clothes that need to be matched up
• the womens' noses and mouths are relatively undamaged; the eyes are less clear but both women have at least one undamaged eye
• the chin-lines (with the exception of part of the left woman's chin-line) are relatively undamaged

My approach:

• For the background (and frame), I would first clean up one small area and patch and clone from there to remove spots and scratches. You might want to paint over the background with masked color (or low opacity 'normal') and luminosity layers to even up the tones; masked curves layers applied finely help too
• I would take basically the same approach with the clothes
• Faces are always fine work. Get them clean up first, then use additional color/normal/luminosity layers to even up the tones
• Copy, paste, flip, rotate and warp 'body parts' from one undamaged side of a face over a damaged side; apply curves to adjust the darkness/lightness; remove parts of the 'copied/pasted layers' that don't cover damage

Additional options:

• Draw paths 2-3 pixels wide, applying Gaussian Blur and blended in at 5-15% to 'suggest' outlines that aren't clear in the photo, for example between the womens' dresses or where part of an 'outline' is missing.
• Borrow 'body parts' (eyes) from internet or other photos and transform these (scale, rotate, warp) to match the place where the eyes should have been (and are now just dark holes).
• Look at similar photos to see how light and shadow is subtlety distributed over women's dresses (neck, breasts, waist, skirt) and apply masked curves layers to mimic this

Mike

[sergio2263]

man and woman copy.jpg Here is an rough edit

Thanks so much for edit that has helped to give me more information to work further on the photo. The mother's dress suits her well.

[sergio2263]

Hi Sergio, going into any depth on this one photo would become a very long post (which I don't have the time to write).

My main tip is not to look at 'all the damage at once' but to make an assessment of the types of damage in different areas and the resources (in the photo and outside it) and the techniques you might use to repair it.

My quick assessment:

• outlines of the women are good (either undamaged or reasonably clear where they would be)
• relatively few details in clothes that need to be matched up
• the womens' noses and mouths are relatively undamaged; the eyes are less clear but both women have at least one undamaged eye
• the chin-lines (with the exception of part of the left woman's chin-line) are relatively undamaged

My approach:

• For the background (and frame), I would first clean up one small area and patch and clone from there to remove spots and scratches. You might want to paint over the background with masked color (or low opacity 'normal') and luminosity layers to even up the tones; masked curves layers applied finely help too
• I would take basically the same approach with the clothes
• Faces are always fine work. Get them clean up first, then use additional color/normal/luminosity layers to even up the tones
• Copy, paste, flip, rotate and warp 'body parts' from one undamaged side of a face over a damaged side; apply curves to adjust the darkness/lightness; remove parts of the 'copied/pasted layers' that don't cover damage

Additional options:

• Draw paths 2-3 pixels wide, applying Gaussian Blur and blended in at 5-15% to 'suggest' outlines that aren't clear in the photo, for example between the womens' dresses or where part of an 'outline' is missing.
• Borrow 'body parts' (eyes) from internet or other photos and transform these (scale, rotate, warp) to match the place where the eyes should have been (and are now just dark holes).
• Look at similar photos to see how light and shadow is subtlety distributed over women's dresses (neck, breasts, waist, skirt) and apply masked curves layers to mimic this

Mike

Thanks Mike for your in depth explanation I appreciate it and will take them on board and work with the photo more. I've been trying for a few months now and agree to tackle the photo bit by bit. I will post the finished results for more critique.