Restore bad damaged photos

[barrywants]

I have been playing with a very old B&w photo of my grandad, Pulling my hair out trying to get it as new, I have serched and looked hard for tuturial
to repair badly damaged photos, Seen a couple on simple repair but nothing to what I want to do, I want to repair and build face structure. Here is the photo I am trying to repair, Can anyone help me here please. I can do most things using PSP colouring b&w and stuff but getting this photo repaired is mind bending.

Regards Barry.

[barrywants]

I have been playing with a very old B&w photo of my grandad, Pulling my hair out trying to get it as new, I have serched and looked hard for tuturial
to repair badly damaged photos, Seen a couple on simple repair but nothing to what I want to do, I want to repair and build face structure. Here is the photo I am trying to repair, Can anyone help me here please. I can do most things using PSP colouring b&w and stuff but getting this photo repaired is mind bending.

Regards Barry.

Here is what I have managed to do with the face but it's as far as i can go, Just giving me a head ache. Can anyone help me with it please.

[barrywants]

Whoops sorry here is the photo I have managed to do so far, If anyone can help I would be most greatfull.

Regards Barry.

[Timmysmum]

Hi There,
I probably can't help you very much but offering my moral support I have many photos like this and am very interested in what other people say.

I did have some luck using the clone and scratch removal options in PSP.

here are my tips :-
Copy your original photo and work on the copy
Zoom in so you can work on a small area
Use scratch removal tool (in the same place as clone) I set my wdith to 20 and used the pointed end rectangle shape
use your mouse and draw round the scratches
Continue in short intervals to clean up the scratches.

Clean up stains and dirt using the clone brush (use a small soft brush)

You can then play around with the photo enhancement options
I'd try one stop photo fix first and if that doesn't work try the individual settings.

If your photo is slightly out of focus try the clarify option
Edge preserving smooth is also a good one to try.

The final option would be to choose sharpen once or twice

I also like the sepia tint in art effects.

Hope that gives you some ideas
Look forward to reading some other tips.

Sue

[haylo1573]

If you do a 'restore old photos' search you'll find a few sites that specialize.

I haven't had a chance to really get into them yet but browse here:

http://camtronic.com/restore/photoretouching/

and

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/paintshoptutorialsretouch/

Hayley

[barrywants]

Thankyou for your replys, haylo1573 I have visited those sites befor I dont want to pay for fixing my old photo, I just want some help in fixing my photo
doing most work myself. Timmy I have played around with those options and just cannot get the photo to work for me, makeing it worse as I go along
but thankyou for offering moral support ;) Is anyone out there who maybe able to correct my photo please,

Regards Barry.

[Starling]

Go to retouchpro.com and take their tutorials. That group has a lot in common with this group -- nice people, good information -- but a different focus. Their main focus is retouching old photos, with a side line in photographic art.

Your photo is almost bad enough for one of their challenges. If they take it on a lot of people will work with copies and they explain what they did, so even if you can't just use their files, you can do what they do.

I think you can do a lot with that photo. It needs to be brightened up and it needs cleaning up, but there is enough information there for it to be done.

You might want to do a new scan at a much higher resolution (try 600 dpi) and sized up 200%. The more information in the scan the better the results you will get. You can always take it down later.

[barrywants]

Thankyou folks I really do appreciate your friendly advice, Great forum here wished I had found it earlier could have saved these head aches LOL.

Timmysmum I have found out a great software I did'nt even know about called "Neat Image" Can be found on google. Fantasic for smoothing out those bad photos. here is a sample of my grandad what was done with it.
Well worth alook.

Thankyou guys and girls.

Regards Barry

[Timmysmum]

Barry
Thanks for getting back to us isn't DSP great. A big improvement on the photo I'll check out the software.
Haylo and Starling thanks for the links, I went surfing and I signed on at the retouchpro site it is amazing some great tutorials to try and again very creative people thanks for the tip. (although I can see myself spending even more time on the pc now I've found yet another cool site lol.
Thanks again
Sue

[Emma]

Glad you found something that works for you. Another tip is to try the Adjust>Add/Remove Noise filters. Some of these will blur interior areas, leaving edges sharp, and removing noise.

For the badly damaged portions, it takes a lot of practice and a lot of hand work with the tools already mentioned. The restoration industry is fueled by that, it's labor-intensive. Keep practicing and reading all the tutorials you can find, and learning more about the filters/effects/adjustments.

You can also just ask the professionals for some advice. Some are stingy to protect their craft, but others are helpful and will give free advice if you just email and ask.

Keep it up! Looking good!

[aussiesunset]

Go to retouchpro.com and take their tutorials. That group has a lot in common with this group -- nice people, good information -- but a different focus. Their main focus is retouching old photos, with a side line in photographic art.

Your photo is almost bad enough for one of their challenges. If they take it on a lot of people will work with copies and they explain what they did, so even if you can't just use their files, you can do what they do.

I think you can do a lot with that photo. It needs to be brightened up and it needs cleaning up, but there is enough information there for it to be done.

You might want to do a new scan at a much higher resolution (try 600 dpi) and sized up 200%. The more information in the scan the better the results you will get. You can always take it down later.

Thank you for that link to that site. It's just what i needed. I have been going through all my photo's my mother gave me b4 she passed, and realized how deteriated they are. Especially her old Poloroide ones. I've scanned them but they really need to be brought back to life...in bad need of CPR...lol
she gave me lots of older pic's that need to be saved too but those poloriode's where the worst. Beware of the Poloriode's lol
Barry thank you for this thread. It's helped me out too. I hope all goes well with that photo.