Image Restoration

R8JimBob88

R8JimBob88

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1,253
Name
James Stockton
Edit My Images
Yes
I have done a quick favour for my mate, his Great Grandad died not too long ago and one of the only pictures they have of him is rather old and tatty, from sometime back in the 1930's. I have done a few photography favours in the past but they have asked if I can try and restore this photo for them.

Something I have never done before but willing to give it a go, I grabbed the clone tool and set to work! Bearing in mind the original photo is only about 2in x 5in. What do we think?

Before

scan0001.jpg


After

Untitled-1-2.jpg
 
Hmmm maybe. I think thats more personal choice, i'll ask him what he would prefer.

Infact I think I may prefer sepia too.... back to CS3!
 
I just ran it through noiseware community edition its a free download off the web it will take out some of the work involved for you. From your pic above I managed this with the default settings hope this helps:

Untitled-1-2_filtered.jpg
 
Hope you don't mind, but I've done a bit on the collar and shoulder based on Banath's post.


Untitled-1-2_filtered.jpg
 
Noise reduction has turned it almost into a cartoon! Some grain is what you would expect for a picture like that. Right eye looks wrong. did some of the surface get lost where the crease is? Could do with more work but certainly better than the original.
 
I agree but it was not meant to be the finished article it was only an example of what was possible using free software available. A lot more work would be needed after this but some of the creases have been removed which would usually be painstakingly cloned, the grain/aged feel and detail could be put back in photoshop once the pic was finished to give it an authentic look.
 
I would be interested in a bigger file it doesnt look that hard of fix, I zoomed in and theres details to pull out, just a larger and bigger res would be even easier (y) a crop to get rid of the top and also crop down to just below the jacket pocket, to reduce the amount of work needed
 
I hope you don't mind but i had a little play too, i decided that what was letting the pic down was the creases, so i have ironed his uniform for him:

Hero.jpg


Let me know if you want me to remove it...

Jonathan
 
Again just run through noiseware as an example for a starting image (however I seem to have shrunk the file size!):

scan0001-1_filtered.jpg
 
krazy_horse said:
I hope you don't mind but i had a little play too, i decided that what was letting the pic down was the creases, so i have ironed his uniform for him:

Hero.jpg


Let me know if you want me to remove it...

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Best edit so far .. :clap:

Still needs a bit of work on his face.
 
Here you go - I've done the face for you which is the hardest bit. As if I haven't got enough of these things already. :D

2743046012_93206e73a8_o.jpg
 
Wow, there is some talent on here!

Krazy Horse, how the hell did you get the uniform like that?! Thanks people

EDIT- Ah, its someone elses uniform?
 
krazy_horse said:
I hope you don't mind but i had a little play too, i decided that what was letting the pic down was the creases, so i have ironed his uniform for him:

Hero.jpg


Let me know if you want me to remove it...

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Nice edit but you should clone out the badges as eagle eyed military will know their from 2 different regs
 
When the face is damaged and part of the features are lost as here, you need to be very careful and proceed slowly. Once you've changed the appearance of the person it just isn't him anymore, and the customer would be far better off with the battered original, bad as it is. Sometimes, if it's particularly bad, you just need to be firm and say it isn't do-able if you can't retain the likeness. All you'll achieve, no matter how much work you've done, is to get yourself a rep as a crap restorer if the likeness is lost. You might not notice if you lose the likeness ever so slightly, and why should you, you don't know what the guy looked like, but the customer will notice instantly and their disappointment will be obvious. Better sometimes just to be honest and turn the job down.

This one is do-able with care. The biggest problem is that crack running down the right side of his face. What you might think is a shadow on the right of his face is actually damage from dust and airborne pollutants which have worked their way under the emulsion where it's lifted from the backing paper. The right side of his nose is actually destroyed by the crack and the only solution is to try to paint it back in or it wont look right.

Some good efforts here though. (y) Don't forget the name of the game is restoration -you want to keep the aged look of the photo and do the minimum of work. I'd change the uniform only as a last resort, and as has been pointed out, he's been transferred from the Royal Artillery to a different outfit.:D Also his uniform has been changed from WW1 to WW2 style. What you could do though is nick bits of the new uniform - pockets etc., and blend them into the original uniform.

If I was going to have a serious go at this I'd convert it to greyscale - do the work, and then convert it to sepia tone..like so....

2743065927_175eff55ab_o.jpg


Have fun! If yoiu really want to get into this stuff, the only way is keep plugging.
 
I had a try with this, but with so much damage I found it very hard to match up the tunic,


copy1.jpg
 
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