Please check out , ready for error check !

[battleaxe]

Here it is ! Before and After.  I put a 4 pixel gaussian blur to get rid of the little spots, hope it wasn't over done .  Tried the photoshop noise and scratch remover but it made plastic areas.

[Hannie]

Hi Battleaxe,

Nice photo, thanks for posting!
I agree with you that a 4 pixel Gaussian blur takes away too much of the little detail that is left.
You said that the dust and scratches filter made it plastic, you could try this:

after levels adjustment and a tiny bit more contrast click Alt and from the drop down Layer menu Merge visible and then

use the dust and scratches filter and move the radius (keep threshold on 0) far enough to hide some of the worst fine scratches and spots, 4 would work, then move the threshold slider to the right until the you find a setting where those fine spot just start to disappear but the detail of the photo is still in tact, that would be around 20

Now you have a nice basis to start working from and the rest is just cloning/healing/patching.
I did a little bit of that on the left side (about 1/4 vertical strip of the photo) it took about 15 minutes, it is rough but detail is preserved.

Hannie

[Mhayes]

Hi Battleaxe,

This is a tough one because of the age and the damage. Hannie gave some really good advice on fixing this so that you don't lose what detail is left in the photo. I'm not sure if yours was a WIP or not, but there is so much damage that resulting in a lot of dark splotches that need to match their surrounding areas. For instance, the lady's jodhpurs needs to have the tonal range evened out. Then we come to the horse where there is damage where the radius distorts from the horse's bit through his chest. Also, there is a variation of light and then from the eye to your left side is dark. From the looks of the horse; I would say this is damage. I took Hannie's version and then placed mine over with the horse. What I tried to do is to add more to the chest on the horse and even things out. My version leaves a lot to be desired, but I think it will give you a better idea of the shape.



Margie


P.S, I see the left hand side is too dark .

[battleaxe]

Thanks Hannie and Margie!
  I did the blur after cloning and patching, but had teeny tiny holes.  Will retry the dust and scratch again.  Also the horse looks more realistic with a chest  ;D  Wasn't sure about making the jodhpurs more uniform in colour, thought it might be natural shadows.  Silly me.

[battleaxe]

Ok.....Is this ready to upload now?




funny .. the bit of damage on the left grass does not show up on my computer until I uploaded it..... weird....  I checked it again and the uploaded version only shows the damage.... I even re-uploaded..

Anyway.... is the horse and jodhpurs better?

[Mhayes]

Battleaxe,

Yes, the horse and jodhpurs have improved, but the bad news is that it really needs more work. It looks to me that you have used your original restore and worked from there? I know this is a hard one, but now your photo takes on a greenish tone. As has happened before, some restores posted to the Forum may not be true to how they look when downloaded from PhotoShelter. This has to do with the some Internet providers not reading color profiles. That brings up another can of worms. Even though, the Internet might be flying blind on color, your photo should still have a color profile and this one was originally sRGB. Even though it is black and white, all photos go out with that color profile for ease of printing. When I downloaded your copy off the Forum; I get the message of: ". . .does not have an embedded RGB profile."  With it being black and white, not as big a problem as when you do this on a color photo. Make sure when you upload that it does have the sRGB profile.

This isn't easy, but you don't want the rider and horse to look like they just came out of a coal mine. I don't know if you have added more noise---if so, it gives everything a dirty look. I also think you want the photo lighter. Maybe step back and let this one rest and come back with fresh eyes.

Margie

[battleaxe]

Will do as you suggest.  I will start afresh after a small break.  I did not add noise though I will be more careful in  cloning and patching.

[Hannie]

Hi Battleaxe,

You are very careful to preserve the original detail in the photo, that is a good thing.  Sometimes you need to be a little more rigorous in your cleanup though.  The sky for instance, it is OK to clean up the blotches (without replacing the background) so it is more pleasing to the eye.

Perhaps you can use an adjustment layer in Soft Light mode, fill with 50% grey and start evening out all over the photo with a black or white brush in various opacity.
Don't worry if you can see some streaks in the results, those you can make disappear with a Gaussian blur, play with the % until you get a nice even result.  I use this in nearly every restore that I do.  (instead of the dodge and burn tool)

Good luck!

Hannie

[battleaxe]

have started over
when I dust and scratch remove , the pixelation  goes but it looses the detail.  If I do that am I allowed to high pass or refine edge  to bring the detail back or should I leave it as it is in this pic ....pixalated.

[battleaxe]

here is the dust and  scratch removal one.

[Hannie]

Hi Battleaxe,

If you use the dust and scratches filter as described in my first post in this topic you will have no (significant) loss of detail.   You still need to level out the sky and other faded areas, you could use the method described in my second post in this topic.  If you need help with any of it I'll gladly help out and explain it a little more!

Hannie

[battleaxe]

Hannie  I did follow your instructions  re dust and scratches.  Will  bring the threshold  higher .  Must admit I did not follow the second set..... sorry.  I seem to be getting thick and wrong headed lately.

:hug:

[battleaxe]

ok....
here are two more tries.

[battleaxe]

Just to let you know this is my last version (truly!!). Am uploading this one.

[Mhayes]

Battleaxe, you've come along way on this one. Would you like me to see if there are any similar ones to to this to work?  ;D

Thanks,

Margie