faded advertising on brick

[snowhill]

We have an old building in town with a faded advertisement or maybe two overlaying each other. We would like to restore one of them. So far we have not been able to find a postcard or old photo that shows the ad. I have tried shooting it with various filters but have had no luck in bringing out enough of the details to decipher it. I was wondering if infrared film might be worth a try or perhaps someone has another suggestion?

[Biko]

From time to time I have to decipher old faded documents watercolours etc, I shoot without any filters.

I experiment using PSP and photoshop. First thing I always do is put image into negative to see what is revealed, I sometimes find it helps if I change to grayscale.

I then experiment using posterize and solarize using varying degrees to see if I can reveal more. I go back to the original and begin the whole process each time trying a different combination.

Good luck