[jnoonan22]

I've checked out numerous tutorials and such regarding old photo restoration techniques but I've never been able to find something that can help me figure out how to repair this photo I've been working on. It's a pic of mi madre with her parents on her wedding, and is the last one she has of all three of them together since they both passed away shortly afterwards. Anyways, her b-day is coming up at the end of july and if i could finally get this pic restored, I could get it professionally printed and matted for her. Here's a compressed version of the pic in need of serious work:

[img]http://sites.google.com/site/jnoonan22pictures/Home [/img]

Obviously, the colors have faded significantly and in some cases oversaturated the overall image. The contrast also appears to have suffered. My achille's heel with this photo has been the fade lines that were formed by the picture frame and the line from where the sun hit and then was cutoff. I cannot figure out how to go about restoring this photo so that I can get rid of the fades and lines. I've played around with masking, tweaking individual channels, etc and can't figure it out. Should I start the correction process somewhere else before tackling the lines? Please somebody help me!!

[Sky115]

That's a very nice idea for a birthday present.

I'll try some stuff. I'm still learning PS but I have some ideas. I think you will definitely get some results from someone here, we've got some great and very skilled people, and you should have something by the end of July.

What size are you hoping to have the picture in? Like dimensions.

[jnoonan22]

Well the original print I scanned in was roughly an 8" X 10" so I was hoping to maintain that size, though I'm definitely willing to crop and reduce the overall size if better results can be achieved that way. I'm glad you like the idea. I think she will like it.

[Isick]

I would be honored to do it, but I can't seem to open the file. Photoshop is saying it is an invalid jpg... never had that happen before so I don't know how to fix it.

perchance, did you rename it as jpg when it was originally saved as something else?

[Johnathan]

I was able to open it ok in CS3 Ext, didn't have time to do much to it, I was just trying some things on it, made a bit of a difference but not really noticible unless placed beside the original.

[rexburg22re]

If the photo is something you cherish, it's worth paying someone (preferably on this forum -> me ) to spend quality/focused time to restore it - most of us on here just "play around" with stuff until we get bored with it, because we've got other things we HAVE to do... to feed out families.

BUT, If you don't mind waiting - someone will probably end up giving it a shot.

... just so you know what to expect.

[Isick]

I re downloaded it and now it works fine - must have been something weird when I first downloaded it.

I will get right on retouching it.

[jnoonan22]

Thanks you all for the interest/help. I've thought about having it professionally restored but I don't know of many places around here in lex, ky that do that (I'm sure there are people, I just don't know who or where). If anybody is playing around and figures out some tricks or methods that can make a big difference, I'm definitely interested. I know that a full-on restoration could take a long time of dedicated work. I've spent a lot of time myself trying just to get a little progress. Thanks again for the help and advice!

[Isick]

Well I hate saying "this is the best I could do", because I am sure there is always more that can be done, but after playing around with it for the past 15 20 minutes nothing I did seemed to make it any better. So, without anymore ideas on how to improve it, this is what I give you.


Click on the image to view it at its original size

If you are satisfied with the job I did PM me your e-mail address and I will send you the full version as I have no where to upload it... (its 15mb since I saved it as highest quality JPG)

If you want to pay someone to do it you can - they may end up doing a better job than I, but that's a decision only you can make.

[jnoonan22]

Thanks again you guys for the effort. It makes me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one find this thing kind of difficult. I will look around and see who offers pro-restoration and how much it costs.

[macfan6]

This is a good website. People on this website are really good at retouching photos:

http://www.retouchpro.com/

[buckhead210]

wish I knew about it earlier I can de. restore it to near original "since I don't know exactly what the original looked like"

I'll get back to you tommorow whats your email? I'll send it to you

[macfan6]