restoring an old photograph?

[e r y k]

Hello POTN,

Recently I acquired an old photograph I would like to restore, the scan wasnt the greatest, and I need to enlarge it to a 4x6.

The photograph has been through a lot of age and damage. A lot of cracks and crinkles, not just a few, virtually everywhere. In addition to that, there is a big stamp in the middle of it (i believe it was used as a passport photo at a time). Aside from using the usual clone stamp, are there any better ways of approaching this?

I cant seem to find any threads on photo restoration.
Any info would be appreciated,

Thanks

Eric

[Jon, The Elder]

Well, you don't have much going for you.
A) A small passport photo (2x2)?
B) Probably faded a bit
C) Poor scan
D) Probably soft in detail (the worst part)
E) You want to enlarge

I use the healing brush a lot.

Take it one step at a time, and use a lot of patience. Take snapshots often so you can step back when you have to.
You aren't going to be able to enlarge much more than 10% with decent results.
Bottom line, it is a lot of hard work. No one but you will ever appreciate it.

[davesrose]

Well this sounds like a lot of work....work that's a lot easier with a graphics tablet, and some illustration knowledge. As Jon said, the healing brush is your friend. Also don't be affraid to make new layers and spot paint in colors with a paintbrush (after sampling a color with the eyedropper that's next to the area you want to paint). If I want to keep a texture on what I'm painting over, I'll make sure my layer is in a blending mode (multiply, lighten, or overlay are the major ones I'm always working in).

[e r y k]

ill post the restoration after its done, im really regretting now having enough money for a wacom, its very hard to trace exact details out with a mouse.

[e r y k]

here we go

as promised...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/erykv1/restoration.jpg

the before picture is actual size (actually it was a bit smaller), and the after has been resized from the new 4x6. at full view, its not perfectly clear, but i didnt have a very good image to start with.

lets just say i wont be doing this for a loong time :P what a pain.

[DrPablo]

Looks very good. You might want to add a little bit of tone to it so that it's not pure grayscale. You might also consider using levels to brighten the highlights and increase contrast. Otherwise an admirable job.

Keep in mind that many old photographs, especially if shot with a polaroid, have enough resolution for you to enlarge considerably over capture size. Remember that Polaroids are effectively a contact print, i.e. the print is the same size as the recording medium, so you have abundant and excess resolution. I recently took a small 2x2 inch polaroid of my grandmother that had faded over about 40 years, restored it, and enlarged it to 5x7 and it looked wonderful. Even conventional photos that have been enlarged will generally have enough resolution for some degree of enlargement as long as you're starting from a relatively small initial print. The reason is that there is no such thing as DPI in an enlargement, so your enlargement is limited not by DPI but by the rote information content in the original print and by the structure of the paper. Going up by an enlargement size shouldn't be a big deal.