Sage Advice Needed

[runcalamity]

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=336&pictureid=1458

I have worked on this a few times never to my satisfaction, if anyone has time to take a look and offer some advice to this amateur I'd really love it, I work with PSE 7 and am fairly familiar with it but haven't worked a lot with gradient masks so get hung up when I get involved in that area. I need to focus and just do it, maybe there's a tutorial that my simple mind can understand but I don't want to lose this picture and would be eternally grateful for any suggestions. This is the raw picture, untouched.

[idtwinmom]

I have not done a lot with photo restoration, so there will probably be someone else who can give more or better advice. My first thought though would be to try the clone tool. You would have to work in very small segments, and it would be very tedious, but you may get some of the photo back this way. For areas like the hand it can be helpful to have a second photo from the same period. It doesn't have to be the same person, but more looking for a similar size/shaped hand that you can then copy and blend into place. Use of the Perspective tool (Image > Transform > Perspective) can help get it into place.

[runcalamity]

I never thought about the hand thing in that way, I've though about cropping the faded bottom out completely, saturating the faded areas as much as possible, altho' sometimes that really causes a color change but then I could re-do the whole thing in a sepia or black and white to smooth it out or just colorize it myself to some extent. I appreciate your suggestions it makes me think. Thanks

[debilou]

ok, I made it better, not perfect...2260

part of my problem was I was dealing with such a tiny image..

If I had had the full hi res image, it would have been much easier

Pm me if you want to know what I did..

[debilou]

ok, here's a little better vesion..

[runcalamity]

but know what I should have done, I should have made a duplicate layer and worked on that instead of the original, I am never happy with this one,http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=336&pictureid=1474 grandpa horse restore 1 Thanks for all the suggestions, I will probably pull this up again and rework it, the hand still needs some work, maybe I should add some color, oh well,

[debilou]

oh, you are soo close

If you duplicate the layer...
then create an Adjustment layer with levels - don't make any change to levels - you just need the adjustment layer.
change the blend mode to multiply

And, then paint in or paint out what you need...

You will be almost there...

[PQ]

When I saw the header, "Sage advice needed," I had to come and see what this was all about!!! Great title Calamity!

[runcalamity]

Way in the background by the barn to the right of the barn door is a buggy, you can barely see it in the original the wheel of it shows up around the bottom of the horses reigns, where the loop is, grandpa caught this horse who was a run away loose for a week running amok in the farm neighborhood, nobody could catch her, and had to wait for the local newspaper to come out and take his picture, local hero, before he could return it to the owners, he just looks exasperated with the whole thing to me :lol: the original horse whisperer I guess. Thanks again for the help, I'll keep you posted on the progress.:wave: