Photograph Restoration.

[Grandpappy]

I'm about,I think, to start on the restoration of a badly damaged,but treasured,103 year old family photograph. Parts are faded or stained and the right eye of one person has a tear through the middle. I'm not sure how to start this process and what the various steps should be . I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 5.7.- any suggestions please; apart from sending it off to a proper restorer?
Many thanks .

[Buenchico]

There are loads of tutorials on the web but many are either too simplistic or, at the other extreme, best left to those who want to learn how to do the job for a living. This, though, seems to be detailed enough to be useful but not too terrifying either!
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/01/18/restore-old-photos-how-to-rescue-vintage-prints-and-family-pictures/
(I'd like to insert a step 3a hough, adjusting the curves after adjusting the levels).

[Grandpappy]

Many thanks Buenchico,
This seems to be a great start. Why do these tutorials never seem to contain photographs as bad as the one I have?
But,as I say,thank you for setting me off in the right direction.
(I'd like to insert a step 3a hough, adjusting the curves after adjusting the levels).?? Could you explain,please?

Cheers

[Buenchico]

The first thing I do with any image in Photoshop is always to adjust the levels (as per the link) and then the curves. (That's possibly more important with a colour image than a mono one but I'd still advise it).

With my version of Photoshop (6.0), I get to the relevant option via Image > Adjust > Curves, but pressing Ctrl and M together also works. That brings up this:
http://pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com/photo-editing/levels-curves/photoshop-cs2-curves.gif
Most images are improved by 'grabbing' the line (= click & drag) to change it to a gentle 'S' shape, possibly like this:
http://www.kenstone6.net/fcp_homepage/images_photoshop_elements_9_stone/photoshop_elements_9_stone_72.jpg
(although what's shown there might be an excessive level of adjustment for many images).

In some cases though pulling the middle of the curve up and to the left (to create a wide 'C' shape) is what's needed, whereas sometimes the reverse (pulling the middle of the curve down and to the right) produces the best result.

I've been doing it for so many years that I can simply look at most images and intuitively know what's needed for any particular one but (as I did at first) you'll just have to experiment a bit!

[Zacs-Master]

All that's doing is altering the brightness and contrast tho Chris, which can be done much more simply.

[Buenchico]

Each to their own, Z-M, but I find that by altering the two variables together (via the 'curves' feature) I can get a good result far quicker (and more accurately) than by tweaking one and then the other.

[bhg481]

I think "each to their own" sums it up nicely, the message being that Grandpappy should try both methods and see which suits his brain best. I use Photoshop Elements 11; I couldn't get on with Lightroom but other people rave about it. Elements has many automatic features which, often, are a good starting point for making adjustments. ctrl+z and ctrl+y (undo and redo) are two very useful features to give a traight comparison between "before" and "after".

[SlackAlice]

The only additional comment I can think is always work from a copy of the original and ' save' as you go along. If you then make a mistake you've still got the original file.

[jomifl]

'Save as' otherwise you will overwrite earlier versions

[jomifl]

If patching up with similar bits found elswhere on the image isn't sufficient you can always do a pixel by pixel rebuild of the damaged area.

[Grandpappy]

Thanks to all of you for your submissions,sorry I'm late responding but I've been 'locked-out' of my AnswerBank account for 2days now; I've just disabled my Kaspersky AV and just got through!!! Don't know what caused that 'glitch' but it was a proper ****.
And jomifl,that's a very good point-'save as' is probably the most valuable tip to remember;save a lot of swearing.
Many thanks guys and cheers

[anotheoldgit]

I once used a site where one could send their photo and a group of enthusiasts would restore it for you free of charge, the only trouble is that I have now lost the web address.

Anyone out there who knows of this site?

[TonyV]

Found this but not used them personally
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=461254.0

[woofgang]

Yes tutorials are excellent but what you cannot beat is practice. The first few pics will take you ages but you will speed up. I make it a rule to make the scans at as high a res as I can and then save those on an external drive. When I want to work on a photo, I take a copy off that drive then remove the drive from the computer. Keep a copy of the work you are editing in the program format so you have the possibility of moving from layer to layer and undoing, save a copy of this version before you merge all the layers and save in your final format. This means that at any time, you have got three copies of your finished work, the original scan, the work in progress that can be edited, and the final copy for sharing.

[anotheoldgit]

TonyV

That's the one Tony, always been pleased with the results myself.

Different enthusiasts will tackle the restorations and one then has the choice which one they think is the best.

[Grandpappy]

Which one was that?anotheoldgit? that you said to TonyV-that site is not of the subject under discussion!

[Grandpappy]

Sorry,I made a mistake on my last posting! I should have continued reading the various headings and then I would have seen the section that Tony V was referring to-my apologies.