Topic awaiting preservation: Help repair an old family photo

I took a bunch of ancient photographs from my grandmother to scan them and maybe clean them up... I was able to do a very nice job with most of them, but this one is in such poor condition that I cannot possibly imagine how to deal with it. I did make it a bit cleaner, but the texture of the man's suit is still in a horrible condition. If any one knows how to make it look decent, plase help.

Original
Still not clean

Looks too far gone to me.
Unless you want to spend the time to learn how to paint, which isn't a bad idea. Well, you might not have the patience to get it to where you want it to be, but it's good exercise.


[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 05-12-2003).]

i've been doing photomanip for a long time and uh.. that photo is pretty 'far gone' ... and painting probably is the only way to get it to look partially new. i see when you were cutting out the background of the guy playing the guitar, you erased part of the headstock of the guitar. i hope you kept the original image intact. the fuzzies around the man are easy to clear up. its the actual image of the man you're going to need to replace. And if you're going through all this trouble, you might as well find a nifty background to put him in, it would be nice practice.

asptamer: You might find this sueful:

:FAQ: How do improve the quality of old photographs?

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

First a couple of things..
IMHO, you should try to make the restored image look as it was, rather than trying to make it look new, and I didn`t address the background or many scratches, so when you`re cloning damaged selections, keep your source moving, or patterns develop (like on the ear).
This was done quickly, so please forgive the sloppy selections.
There is savable info in there, so how far you need to take it is only determined by how much time you can spend on it.


There are lots of issues in this one, so you need to attack each area by itself. Here are some things that will help in different areas.
On the face, I made 2 copies of the selected area and set one to Screen, and one to Multiply. Then mask out the light areason the multiply layer and dark areas on the Screen layer.
On the texture, try the Blur tool set to Darken mode and select a brush about the same size as a light spot, and click (don`t drag) to cover it some. ( works great on dust) And use Screen mode for the dark spots.
Or, If you have version 7 you can use the Healing tools the same way.


Hope this sloppy example helps get you going in the right direction.

Since DB tackled the Granpa I figure I give the lady a quick try.

Massive work on her left to do no question but if you have the time and patience I think you can do something with her.

I followed the instructions given ^^^ to bring her out a little. Loose selection around the existing arm c p that and flip it horizontal and line the layer up and used the eraser a little a low setting - merge when you think you got it right.

Face - looking at the image I made a selection of the left eye and played with brightness and contrast and repeated that for the pupil.
Gau-whatever ( <- Spelling) Blur at a low setting I used 0.3. With the Stamp and Blur Tool at maybe 20 Opacity I worked the face a little.

For what it is worth one unfinished Granni here ....



sib

WOW. thanks you for the input, guys.
One thing though. I'm still exploring the infinite capabilities of PS, and so still dont know certain things. db, or anyone, could u please explain in greater detail what involoves masking out the light areas on the multiply layer and dark areas on the Screen layer? Because I certainly like the result that the above procedure brings.

With the Multiply layer actice, click the Add Layer Mask icon (second from the left at the bottom of the layer pallette) and paint on it with black on the areas you do not want Multiplied (i.e.; the light areas).
Same thing for the Screen layer.
And grey partially hides stuff.

Them new Canon scannrs are niiiiice.
problem solved for only $170 USD pch!! not toooo expensive! http://www.canon.com/technology/detail/flatbedscanner/fare/

Shine and shine. :: [Cell=992] :: [See my team's 30 second animation]

You might find this tutorial helpful...
http://www.ephotozine.co.uk/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=293

Well that was a nice job on G'pas face there... One thing I was told is to first Image>Adjust>Level the picture... Go onto all of the channels and move the lower and upper input levels to where the histogram starts... I'd post a picture but I don't have a server. Urgg! >< The background though looks as if you clonestamped the thing... a lot. Maybe remove the big blotches with clonestamp and apply a gaussian blur to the entire immage and then history brush what you didn't want to be burred? Don't know if that'll look right. Just trying to help...

[/two cents]
[/two cents again]

[EDIT: More stuff ^^]

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[This message has been edited by Ruku (edited 09-04-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Ruku (edited 09-04-2003).]

I have spent a few mins on this today to see what i could accomplish:



You cant really see the detail up close, so here it is in original size for download

Basically all i have done is:
1. Cleaned the LEVELS with the same method as was mentioned above

2. Then duplicated the layer and ran FILTER>NOISE>MEDIAN , this blurs the smaller details while keeping the edges of the larger details( very handy tool )

3. I then duplicated the main image again above the MEDIAN layer and ran it through FILTERS>OTHER>HIGH PASS , this blurs the larger details, while keeping the smaller details.

4. I then set the layer blend to LINEAR LIGHT and reduced the FILL to approx 60%, you can play around with this.

This is just a rough guide, there are more things to try with a little bit more time that will improve the image.



[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-04-2003).]

Good start, axle.
Hindsight being 20/20, you should have fixed the scratches before duplicating the layers, but you`ve pulled a fair bit of info out of the original.
This is just a shot in the dark, but maybe the Linear (or maybe a Hard Light layer somewhere ?) is where that white textured overlay lookin stuff is coming from..
It`s cool to see this one progress.

Because the image is so far gone, it makes it more difficult to correct, but i am having fun with this one.

here we go
www.quakeplayers.org/~dust/clean.jpg

remove scratches
dup layer
one layer apply median filter
other layer run a high pass
blend the layers with softlight and 60% fill

hah sorry it looks like axle beat me, i guess i should read before posting

I've worked with it....but not the whole thing, man it whould have taken hours to do the rest......
anyways here's the link.....tell me what you think " P.S. i love spoilers" http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album135&id=1905_copy&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

Armen, very impressive.........