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Hi All,

I've been trying to fix up an old photo of my fathers mom (the only picture of her existence) and was wanting some suggestions on how to improve, and or any critiques. Since it's the only photo of her, I want to make it really good for my dad. Here is what i've done so far.





Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

Cheers
Geoff

Looks like a great job, especially on those tears in the paper. Is the "spotty" white stuff in the right hand upper quarter light coming through the trees or blemishes that haven't been retouched yet?

What decade was the photo taken?

I'm sure your dad will be very pleased with the restoration and it will be treasured by him and the family.

shakey wrote:Looks like a great job, especially on those tears in the paper. Is the "spotty" white stuff in the right hand upper quarter light coming through the trees or blemishes that haven't been retouched yet?

What decade was the photo taken?

I'm sure your dad will be very pleased with the restoration and it will be treasured by him and the family.

I am pretty sure the white stuff is light coming through the trees. It didn't look the same as the other white pixels I touched up.

I think the photo was taken in the late 30's to early 40's. She was murdered sometime during WW2 in a concentration camp.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I'm thinking of adding a touch of sepia to the photo to re-add a bit of age but i'm not sure yet. Still thinking about it.

You have done a great job so far. It's very hard to do this well. I wonder if it's worth cropping the bits around her so the focus is more on her - or are you keen to keep it exactly the same as the original? How tragic that your grandmother was murdered in WW2 - she doesn't look very old.

Marvin wrote:You have done a great job so far. It's very hard to do this well. I wonder if it's worth cropping the bits around her so the focus is more on her - or are you keen to keep it exactly the same as the original? How tragic that your grandmother was murdered in WW2 - she doesn't look very old.

I think what I'll do is have multiple images. One will be the full photo touched up eg. what i've already done. Then i'll experiment with cropping and framing to give better focus as you suggested.

I thought this image was going to be a nightmare but with my Cintiq, I did it in about 2 hours. I'm having a ball doing it though. I think I may have just found a new hobby Perhaps if I get good at it I can start charging for it in the future hehe

Ok.. I've done some changes. I've darkened the top left trees, cropped the frame, added sepia, sharpened, and added a bit of contrast.

How's it look now?

Geoff,

I'm amazed at the difference it makes from the original. It really looks good. Just one thing that is bugging me and you might have done it on purpose or just missed it and that is to right hand side at the bottom of the hedge and top of pathway there are some black spots. Not sure if it's from the age of the original photo or something else. Might me worth cloning them.

Otherwise I think you have done an excellent job. Well Done

Regards,
Bill

Ok.. here is the final image. I've removed those black dots I think.. assuming it's the same ones I saw. I think they were part of the photo but I doubt anyone would notice I've also darkened the footpath slightly, and the top right hand corner, and got rid of a few more bits of light dots.. at closer imspection they may not have light through the trees.



Geoff

Don't know if it's just me but top right where it would have been framed by the tear still looks slightly lighter than the rest of the image... perhaps even just a smidgen of feathering to make the seam a little less visible?

SileNceR_RH wrote:Don't know if it's just me but top right where it would have been framed by the tear still looks slightly lighter than the rest of the image... perhaps even just a smidgen of feathering to make the seam a little less visible?

Hmmm.. I personally think it look fine. What do others think?

I can see that the top right section is definitely a little lighter on my monitor. You've done a great job though. I do restoration as part of my business, and when I'm not busy I'll have a go at the image if you give me permission

sunnylass wrote:I can see that the top right section is definitely a little lighter on my monitor. You've done a great job though. I do restoration as part of my business, and when I'm not busy I'll have a go at the image if you give me permission

Go for it

If anyone has any damaged old photos that I can experiment with and get some practice, please message me. I want to get some practice. No guarantees i'll be able to improve it but i'd love to try.

Geoff,

I reckon you've done a great job here, and for a first effort, you should be thrilled.

I too lost a lot of my family in similar circumstances to what you've described, and it's a blessing that you have an image as good as this to work with and continue the memory of someone whom you didn't even know.

gstark wrote:Geoff,

I reckon you've done a great job here, and for a first effort, you should be thrilled.

I too lost a lot of my family in similar circumstances to what you've described, and it's a blessing that you have an image as good as this to work with and continue the memory of someone whom you didn't even know.

Thanks Gary,

I'm rather stoked at the fact I was able to fix it up. I did another photo of my dad as a small child the other day and it worked pretty well and when I saw this photo I thought there's no way i'll be able to fix it. 2 hours later on my Cintiq (I knew there was a good reason for buying it) I had the above to show for it. I wish we had more photo's to work with but at least i've been able to get the one of my grandmother fixed.

Here are the two photo's side by side again. This time, it's the original and the final version.

Good job Geoff, just one querie, is the line going across her shoulder supposed to be there or is it some sort of crease on the original?

beautiful restoration, how special indeed!

inspired me to do same with my ancestors pics. nice work. have you done a print yet?

One other thing of interest in this image is the informality of it. In the period when this image would have been made, the taking of photos was a rather formal occasion; in fact, pretty well an occasion all of itself, yet this is a remarkably informal shot.

This simple fact makes this a rather stand-out image as well.

phillipb wrote:Good job Geoff, just one querie, is the line going across her shoulder supposed to be there or is it some sort of crease on the original?

I think that's part of the shirt. If you look really closely on the other shoulder, you can barely see a part of a line on the same part of her shoulder so I think it's supposed to be there. I figured I'd keep it to minimalize the changes.

Oz_Beachside wrote:beautiful restoration, how special indeed!

inspired me to do same with my ancestors pics. nice work. have you done a print yet?

We haven't tried printing yet, but the image isn't big enough to really warrant it I don't think. My dad might do it, but I haven't asked him.

I sent it this morning to him via email. He was pretty stoked. Obviously hard to see his face though since he's a thousand kilometers away but he seemed happy. He got on the phone to my sister in canada almost right away. Not sure if that was related though

Thanks everyone for your vote of confidence, it's much appreciated. It's inspired me to continue and do others.

Removed

Geoff, you ended up doing a fabulous job. I started to do my family pictures about a year and a half ago, intending to do a family history book to give my mother for Christmas. Well, that came and went and so did her 60th birthday and her 40th wedding anniversary and I still haven't finished. It takes ages! So glad that your dad was happy with it. Well done!

Really great job you've done for sure

Out of curiosity, what is a 'Cintiq'?

You've done a great job with a very meaningful photograph and should be very proud!

Pehpsi wrote:Really great job you've done for sure

Out of curiosity, what is a 'Cintiq'?

This is a cintiq

http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

Geoff, I think you have done a remarkable job with the image of your grandmother, for not only you repaired the imperfections but enhanced the constrast of the original image itself. Perhaps you could try in sepia to make it closer to the original.

Now, I have done something very similar in the past and I used the clone stamp and the healing brush, which as you would know is very labour instensive and I am wondering if there is a free filter that could make the task easier for I have a image of my dear mother that is a real challenge.

zafra52 wrote:Geoff, I think you have done a remarkable job with the image of your grandmother, for not only you repaired the imperfections but enhanced the constrast of the original image itself. Perhaps you could try in sepia to make it closer to the original.

Now, I have done something very similar in the past and I used the clone stamp and the healing brush, which as you would know is very labour instensive and I am wondering if there is a free filter that could make the task easier for I have a image of my dear mother that is a real challenge.

I don't know about any filters to make it easier, but having a Cintiq like I do makes that labour intensive task a breeze. I realise it's not something you're likely to go out and buy overnight though.. the Cintiq costs about 4k.

If you don't mind me having a go though, i'd love to try having a go with your photo. More for myself than anything else.

Incidently, there is already a bit of sepia in the photo which I think matches pretty well. Unless my laptop display is out of calibration