Latest Restore

[hoodman3]

Here's  my latest WIP. There are two issues that I need help with. How can I sharpen the image and how do I improve the faded color in his shirt?





Thanks in advance.
Pete

[schen]

Pete,  I think you did a very good job already.  There is not much that could be improved. 

I tried to sharpen the image and ended up the damages were much more conspicuous.  So I added a mask and only picked up the sharpened facial features. 

I added a level layer then tightened the contrast of each color separately.  I added a blank layer and painted some of the orange blocks of the shirt over his right shoulder and right sleeve.  Then change the blending mode to color and adjusted the opacity.

After all that work, I was not sure I added much to your restoration.  It was an aged and very damaged photo.  Any more effort may look too contrived.   

[glennab]

Hi Pete

I don't have any suggestions to add to Shujen's concerning the shirt, but I would try using the high pass filter to give the appearance of sharpness.  I've been using it a lot, even at work, because it's not a drastic change and it doesn't look contrived.  Duplicate your original, go under filter-other-high pass and you'll get a gray layer.  As you increase the value, you'll see edges begin to show.  Set the high-pass layer to overlay and then play a bit with the numbers of the high pass filter.  Usually low numbers will give you just a bit of an outline, and it's amazing how much sharper the image appears and much more naturally than any other sharpening tool I've tried.

I hope it works on this one.

Cheers,

GK

[schen]

GK,

Great tip on the high-pass.  I did not even know its existence.  Learn something new everyday.

Shujen

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Great job Pete. :up: With the shirt you could always pick a reasonably good swatch of the material and paste on a new layer, rotate and squash it around to match the direction, then blend it in?

[Johnboy]

Pete,

Glenna's suggestion about the high pass filter really works. I used it on one of my last restores. Check out http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1883.0.html to see the results. The photo towards the end of the post has the high pass filter used on it.

Johnboy

[Hannie]

Hi Pete,

Great job you did!
A little more levels adjustment will also make it appear sharper.  I burned his mouth, nose ears and eyse just a little (3%), a little skin color in his face (color layer). 
Some smoothing out of leftover blotches.

Hannie