Help!

[glennab]

Hi Gurus

I'm still  struggling with my first difficult restoration, and while I feel I've made good progress, I could use feedback on where to go from here.  I'm not happy with the faces (He's still in progress; hopefully that's obvious).  I don't like the "painterly" look, but am not sure how to overcome that when every pixel has had to be replaced. 

I'm going to post the original, a lightened original, and where I am so far.

Would be grateful for any feedback.   (should I try to get more detail out of his jacket, i.e.)

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Regards,

GG

[glennab]

Hopefully this will have the restoration in progress. 

[mschonher]

Hi GG,

I have a few suggestions/ideas that helped me with a similar photo which I've been trying to post but I'm having a problem with posting photos.
When I first tried restoring this photo I also lightened it a bit to see more damage. I had to start over because it began to look like a painting not a photograph. I try not to perform any adjustments like levels and curves at firstThen with the healing brush I begin little by little to restore the damage. I looked at your photo and there is plenty of good information for you to steal from. It takes a lot of patience but the result will be worth it. I don't bother with backgrounds or clothing until the faces look natural.  Another thing that helps me is to keep checking my progress by panning out pretty often. Also I try not to work too too large as this distorts the nuances of the skin tones. No ones skin is one color and that is why your photo looks painterly. When you restore those pixels really look at the colors you see and not what you think they should look like.I too have a tendancy to choose the lightest pixels but that is why your photo is way too light. I hope this helps.
Keep up the valiant effort GG and you have my admiration for choosing such a difficult photo.

[havril]

Hi Glennab
I think the problem you have with this pic is the problem that we all have from time to time. Overcorrecting an image.
What you have ended up with is nearer to a painting as you have cloned a lot of the detail out.
there are 2 or 3 tricks to help avoid this. If we take the mans face.
First of all to get rid of the black dots you can  more or less reverse the system I use for getting rid of white marks that is:
Select the area you want to clean up by using either the lasso if it is just one area or the  the quick mask if it is more than one. This system works on flattish surfaces like the sides of faces but as  successful  not on shaped things like ears.
Go into  layer>new>layer via copy. then go into windows>layers and change the mode from normal to  lighten . Then go into the filter>noise>dust and scratches. Alter the slides according to needs in most cases ignore the threshold slider and  moive the radius until the spots disappear but you are left with details. In this case I move the radius slider to 2. BTW you can sometimes add another layer via copy on top of this making the mode darken then play with the opacity slider and you get a good affect.

The purple parts on the face need selecting and go in to image>adjustments> color balance. and add some yellow to the skin.

Hope this Helps
Harvey


                                           

[glennab]

Greetings Harvey and mschonher:

Thanks so much for the great information.  It didn't occur to me to start my work on the darkened image.

I've gone from being pretty arrogant about my restoration abilities to feeling totally humbled.  Have become very fond of this couple and I so want to to a good job for them.

I'm not sure whether it's better to have an art or graphics background in order to get these photos as close to original as possible (I'm a graphics person - not a lot of fine art experience but plenty of time spent manipulating photos).

I posted these photos with great trepidation, because I'm so unhappy with the results.  I appreciate your being gentle with me and offering a better way to approach the damage. I can't wait to get started when I get home from work!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Have a wonderful day.

GG