Restoration Advice

[Douglas Walker]

The attached family photo is of extremely poor quality. I would optimally like to improve it and then print it out as about a 3X5 picture. Miracles not expected. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[Ellen]

Hi Douglas, do you have a bigger version of your photo? if so try posting at pixentral http://www.pixentral.com/ your attachment was awfully small to see what info is there.

[Douglas Walker]

Unfortunately, this is all that I have. It is a 50KB file, not much to work with. I've had it for a few years and haven't been able to do anything with it. The gentleman is my mother's grandfather. It may have to remain as it is, on my computer, rather than on my wall.

[Diana]

Hi Douglas,

The small image didn't have a lot to work with, but I took a try at it. I posted it in pixentral at a high resolution which will, hopefully, look better when saved and printed at approx. 3 x 5.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1hhqMG6lVLvQUAGNb9Yt7r5wyI5yCw1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1hhqMG6lVLvQUAGNb9Yt7r5wyI5yCw1)

Diana

[Douglas Walker]

Diana, that is terrific. I have experimented with the photo for some time, and never got anything close to what you accomplished. If you don't mind me asking, what steps did you take?

Thank you, I had about given up.

P.S. I printed it out and it is better than I ever expected. Thank you again so much!

[Diana]

Hi Douglas,

After copying the small image and opening it as a new image from the clipboard in Elements, I changed the resolution to 300 by resampling with Image > Resize >Image Size. Then enlarged it by increments of 10% which helps keeps the pixelization to a minimum. I did this from Image > Resize >Image Size, under Document Size changing the dropdown to percent, then entering 110 for width. With Constrain Proportions checked, the height will automatically change to 110 as well. I think I had to do that 4 times to get it a little larger than 3x5.

I then selected the background, copied it to a new layer, and played around with it. I think I first applied Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches, then applied some Gaussian blur but that didn't quite do the job. So I added a new blank layer above the selected background layer, and with the selection still active, I applied a black to white gradient diagonal from the upper right corner, then changed the gradient layer mode to multiply which let some of the original background show through.

On the clothing, beard and hair I just did quit a lot of cloning and smudging and I don't remember what all to get the color to look less splotchy. I might have started out with selecting parts and applying Dust & Scratches filter before cloning.

I didn't do much to the face because there weren't many features to work with. Unfortunately the resampling gave the face kind of a paint by numbers look which I used a light blur tool on to help even out the shades a little.

And I think that's about it, at least the steps that I can remember.

Diana

[Wendy]

Hi Diana ...

Oh that looks really good !! :)

Wendy

[kroberts]

Diana, Great work on the photo! :)

I know there are others who might also give other tips, so my reply will bump this post up. (It might have been missed last night since it was posted later.)

[Diana]

Thanks for your nice comments.

Diana

[msbrad]

Just found this now.
Diana, great job with the photo!! /wow.

Douglas, welcome here, and if you wish to work on more restorations, I highly recommend Matt's book.
m

[Douglas Walker]

I hate to reveal my ignorance, but better to ask than get the wrong book I suppose. There are 2 books on the Shop/Books page of this site by Matt Kloskowsky, one called "The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book," and the other "The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book (pet)." Not sure what (pet) means. Photoshop elements (something) I guess. Anyone know for sure?

[Wendy]

Hi Douglas ...

PET is just the short name of this site Photoshop Elements Techniques :) ... and there is only one book by Matt.

Wendy