Save My Shot Saturday - October 10, 2009

This is actually a "restore", not a "save"!

I scanned this old photo (nearly 100 years old!) for my friend Priscilla. It's a photo of her father that was in pretty bad shape. I edited it in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

ORIGINAL

RESTORED

I decided that most of the work was going to be Cloning, Spot Healing Brush, and Patch Tool.

I made a new layer copy of the original image by using CTRL-J (you can also drag the image onto the "New Layer" icon), and renamed it "Copy".

I then added a blank layer by clicking the "Add New Layer" icon in the Layers Palette. I renamed this layer "Clone".

I tend to jump around when cloning or using the Spot Healing and Patch tool, just working on whatever catches my eye. In this case I started working on the coat where the worst damage was. I started at the part below the belt mostly using Clone tool. I checked "Aligned" and set the "Sample" to "All Layers" so that it would sample the actual image.

I then spent some time with the Spot Healing brush cleaning up small spots throughout the image, occasionally also using the Patch tool.

I went back to work on the coat, cloning the sleeve and side of the coat as far up as the lapel area. I then went back to the "Copy" layer and made a loose selection around the other lapel of the coat, and hit CTRL-J which put the lapel on it's own layer, and renamed it "Lapel".

I then moved the lapel to the general area that I needed it to cover, and using Transform (CTRL-T, or Edit->Transform->Scale) I flipped the selection of the lapel to conform to approximately what I needed for the missing lapel. Still in Transform, I rotated the lapel, and slightly resized it until it looked like it fit nearly perfectly.

Once that was in place, I then put a mask on the selection using the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Using a small, soft brush I began to paint the outer edges of selection with black (BLACK CONCEALS, WHITE REVEALS) to hide the parts of the selection that I didn't want to show. Once I got those parts hidden, I then lowered the opacity of the brush and painted the remaining edges of the lapel selection to "feather" it into the coat so that it looked like it was part of it.

I also replaced some of the buttons using the same method as described for the lapel.

Now it was time to go over the entire image again for small spots, cracks and tears and stains. I used the Spot Healing Brush and Clone tool for most of this, and occasionally the Patch Tool when warranted. Once I was pretty happy with it, I moved on to the border.

I made a selection around the edge of the image (not the outside edge, but the edge of the image itself), using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. I dragged the selection out until it was right at the edge of the image, all the way around. I then inverted the selection (Select->Inverse), and using the brush with color set to white, I painted the border, cleaning it all up.

I really didn't like the way the sepia tone looked so decided to make it black & white. There are so many ways to convert to black & white, but I did it using Image->Adjustments->Black & White.

I then used a Curves Adjustment Layer (Create a new fill or adjustment layer icon at bottom of Layer Palette), and adjusted the curves to adjust the dark/light tones in the image.

Next, I made a merged copy of the image at the top of my layers by using CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-E. This will keep layers intact, but will create a merged copy at the top of the layer palette. I then sharpened this layer using High Pass Sharpen.

High Pass Sharpen-create a layer copy of the image (CTRL-J), then go to Filter->Other->High Pass. When the high pass dialog box opens, I slide the Radius slider up until I can see some detail in the image. Once I think I see enough detail, I change the Blend Mode (top of the Layers Palette where it say "Normal") to Overlay. You can also try it in Soft Light blend mode. I then adjust the opacity of the layer to adjust the effect.

The restoration is now (mostly - *see below) complete.

*If you think that there is still a large dark "stain" on the right side of the image behind him and on the coat, I agree with you. I have not been able to determine how to fix this. I have tried quite a few things, but nothing looks quite right yet. I will continue to work with it and will update if I find a fix.

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