Nearly done - need hair help

[lurch]

This baby is almost done, but I'm stuck on the hair. Can't tell what's damage and what's real, and I'm a total failure with hair brushes for re-drawing it. I'm also not in love with the background. Tried to rebuild what was there, and it just kept getting flatter and flatter.

Any advice from the veterans would really be welcome.

[Johnboy]

Lurch,

I think you have done a great job on a difficult photo. As for the hair, the only place I think that needs more help is the white spot at the top of the head where there is damage in the original. I don't think the rest of it is damage as much as it is "baby hair." I think for a child of this age he has quite a head of hair. While there is some damage in the hair, I a lot of the white showing the the baby's scalp. I would that you compare damage in the restoration with that in the original and go from there. As for the background you might try to burn it in a little by doing it on another layer. That way if you don't like the results you can toss it. You might try making a selection of the background, add a curves adjustment layer but just click OK, and then change the blend mode to darken or multiply. You could also play with the other blend modes to get what you want. Again if you don't like the result you can trash the layer. I just learned this last trick from Katrin Eismann's book, and am using it on my current restoration. It has helped with some of my problems. You may want to do this to the foreground as it looks to be a little blown out or too washed out. Hope this helps.

Johnboy