Don't know how much more to do on this one. HELP!

[glennab]

Hi all

I'm rusty from not being able to do restorations for so long that I'm not sure how much more I need to do to have this little one ready to go home.  I'm going to post before and after images and hope that you'll help me figure it out.  I'm concerned about the corduroy chair/sofa and the black splotches.  When I try to repair them, I get blurs and unaligned areas.  Any suggestions?  Also, I couldn't pull up any more of the blanket and baby's body than I show in my restoration, and I'm not very happy with the hands, but there wasn't much to work with. Feedback very welcome.

Original:


So far:


Thanks!
GK

[Hannie]

Hi Glenna,

You have done an amazing job bringing back detail and color!

The corduroy you could perhaps use a little cloning from the good part and then use the content aware healing brush?

In the original the whites were blown out already and you managed to tone down some of that. 
If you like to tone it down some more you could duplicate the layer and from the Image pull down menu choose Adjustments-> Shadows/Highlights.  Bring back the shadows to what they were (0%) and bring the highlights amount to 2 or 3%.

The hand you can add a little shading around the bottom of the thumb.

:up:

Hannie

[Mhayes]

Hi Glenna,

Great job on a hard restore. I agree with Hannie on her suggestions.

Nice to see you posting again.

:hug:

Margie

[glennab]

Hannie and Margie

Thanks so much for the feedback.  I've never used Shadows/Highlights to recover detail.  I tried with a multiplied layer and got nothing but intensified muck and texture that I didn't want.  I like the color so much more in your version.  I assume that the Shadows/Highlights did that color correction.

As for the corduroy, I tried cloning and patching with content aware and just couldn't get anything that looked acceptable.  I'd even thought about checking stock photo sources to try to find a comparable fabric to replace the damaged area (having a perfectionist attack). Looking at your version, I can see that if the darker area becomes more like shadow than blobs of black it doesn't have to be quite as crisp as the portion that has the most light.

Margie, it's great to be back on the forum.  I've missed being as involved in OPR as I once was, and while I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do restorations, I'll continue trying to at least grab a not-too-difficult one when I can.  It feels great to become immersed in making a damaged photo whole again. It'll always be something I love.  And OPR work will always be one of the most important things I've accomplished in my life.

Cheers and hugs
GK

[Hannie]

Glenna, the color correction I did with a Vibrance layer.  I lowered the vibrance and saturation just a little bit.

Hannie

[glennab]

Here's the latest, and hopefully my final version.  Thanks again, Hannie, for your suggestions.  They really helped!



ORIGINAL FOR COMPARISON:


GK