Fixing an old colored family picture

[suzan]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am just a beginner and this is the first time I am posting a question on this

site. I have scanned an old picture, which has me, my two brothers and my father

in it. I am trying to fix it using photoshop 7. This picture was taken when I

was 2 years old. I lost my father almost 6 months later, therefore I don't even

remember him. And unfortunately I lost my oldest brother 4 months ago at the age

of 44. This picture means a lot to me and it is the only copy I have. I would

like to fix it and frame it and give it as a gift to my other brother. I do not

know where to start from. I will appreciate your ideas and help on this project.

Thanks a lot.

 

Suzan<div></div>

[noreen]

What a thoughtful gift this would be, Suzan!

 

I spent less than five minutes playing with it in Photoshop, correcting the color, cloning

out the surface tears, adjusting the contrast., and sharpening. This is what I came up

with. I'm sure others (including you yourself) could do better, but it will show you what's

possible.<div></div>

[phule]

I started with straightening the image and cropping out the area outside the image. A Image --> Adjust --> Auto Levels gave me a decent color correction for a starting point.

 

Using the Clone tool (something that requires practice and more practice to master) I eliminated a number of (but not all) the scratches and marks.

 

I didn't touch the discoloration on the bottom of the image because that's an even more subtle bit of work.

[JeffOwen]

Less than 5 mins in PS with levels and the clone tool. I also reduced the stain by selecting the red cast area and adjusting levels. With a bit more time you could get most of the problems resloved.

[JeffOwen]

Oops forgot the picture.<div></div>

[phule]

Experimenting with the airbrush, airbrush mode, and with sampling colors from surrounding areas I came up with a second version

[evan_goulet]

<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/ofofhy/image.jpg"><P>If you're not married to the color, B&W will make it easier to correct some of the damage (off-colors/stains) on the bottom portion of the image. Cropped it to 5x7, but 4x6 will take away even more of the wall and will make the image abit more focused on the family. I would start with a better scan of the image too, the posted version is quite compressed.

[phule]

<<I would start with a better scan of the image too, the posted version is quite compressed.>>

 

A very valid point. The original does need to be rescanned.

[thomas_rutter]

Remove dust and scratches with clone tool. Apply slight sharpening.

 

Make a feathered mask around the pink stain and apply levels to match the rest of the picture.

 

Adjust overall levels of RGB channels separately to account for different fading on different channels.

 

Apply overall curves to account for fading removing some of the contrast.

 

Increase saturation (not sure why saturation is so low - old film?)

 

Correct colour cast using warm filter (Photo Filter control).

 

Apply overall curves to taste.<div></div>

[thomas_rutter]

Note: more care could be taken with the coloured stains on the bottom - a number of layers with different adjustments could be used rather than one.

[suzan]

Thanks for your ideas. I worked on the photo a little bit, but need to much more. I did not like the color I end up with. The bottom part of the picture is giving a lot of trouble. The original scanned picture is 9MB, I thought it will be a large picture to post on here, thats why I posted a compressed version of it.<div></div>

[jtk]

Some great variations on the theme! You might consider cropping out the soda can at the bottom...would result in unusual crop, but might be better than keeping the can. Just a fussy thought. Personally, I like the B&W version the best.