A reminder to make an enlargement for the 90 yr old.
Enlarge it as much as you dare without getting distortion. She will really appreciate it.
Even if you have other small photos that you just enlarge for her, it will be a big benefit to her.
Those old pictures can be so small, and when your eyes are old it makes it all the harder.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t asking you to fix the whole thing. But the retouched image you posted, side by side with the unchanged version, was cropped down from the full-size image as I posted it. I assume you made your improvements on the original and cropped it afterward. If I could have the full-size image you worked on, even though it’s not fully restored, that would be helpful.
Hodge and squeegee, thanks for all your great work. Unfortunately, the little boy at the edge of the picture (my late uncle) is essential, not optional.
And thanks, elbows, for the suggestion. I’m planning on enlarging quite a few images for her, and they have to be big, since she has macular degeneration.
I’ll take your word for it, thanks for the explanation. It seems like an easily settled issue, though: just take a JPEG and upload it to Flickr, then download the image again into a new file. Take both JPEGs and load them into Photoshop. Place them both in the same document, aligned exactly, and set the top layer to Difference. Any differences will show up as not-black.
Hodge, okay, I was curious so I tried the test I described above. You’re right, the image does get mucked with a bit.
Original image
Differences that Flickr added
It looks like they run an unsharp mask over the image to enhance edges. I didn’t see any color or contrast issues between the before and after pix, just edge enhancements.
Okay then. Here it is.
squeegee, that’s interesting. I wasn’t really expecting to see that sort of edge enhancement. I have to admit I’m not as active on flickr discussion groups as I was a year ago so it’s entirely possible they’ve dealt with the colour issues and I missed it. Cute baby portrait, BTW! Nothing beats a fast lens!!
commasense, I hope you’ve gotten some ideas for approaching the restoration. As you can see, it is possible but it takes patience and practice. Judicious use of the clone and healing stamps combined with selective burning and dodging should be all the tools you really need to do a decent job. That and a lot of time.
Some general rules of thumb: Never work on the background image, ALWAYS make a copy on a new layer. In fact, use multiple layers. For instance, my final PSD file has six layers, the background image, a copy where I cloned the borders, a masked contrast layer to darken the right side, a dodge/burn layer, a healing brush layer, a selective sharpening/contrast enhancement layer of dad’s face and a final curves layer to provide a darkened vignette in the corners. Faces, esp. the eyes, are most important so that’s where you should focus all of your energies. Don’t waste too much time on the background or insignificant clothing. And, as stated before, re-scan at the highest possible resolution and in full colour. You need to start with as much information as possible because every change you make will downgrade the image
And re-scan that puppy at a higher resolution! I once did a restoration on a wallet sized print, scanned it in @ 1600dpi. I spent a few hours cleaning dust motes and such, but the result was awesome, even enlarged to portrait size (I think the original must have been from a large format camera, there was so much detail in that little picture). Some areas of your image seem to have resolution issues (I’m thinking especially of the right side of the young girl’s face) that may be greatly mitigated by a higher resolution, full color, and generally more careful scan. Get out that bottle of Windex and clean the scanner, then do some experimenting.
