Help: restore photo of my mom please

LimuHead · Post by **LimuHead** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:00 pm

My mom unexpectedly died recently (Jan. 2008) at the age of 70.

While my siblings and I were going through her old photographs we came across this one and I instantly fell in love with it.

http://www.4shared.com/file/36893225/e8 ... rsUke.html

I've tried to do some photo editing to restore the picture as much as possible but I'm just a beginner and am not happy with the results. Here's what I've been able to do:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/5583348/54dc83d7

I know some of you are good at this sort of thing, and I don't really care if it's done in PhotoShop or not (I used ACDsee from Pentax).

I'm trying to get rid of the splotches, and fix the contrast to make the photo as crisp as possible. I hope to share it with my dad and siblings.

Anyone willing to give it a try?

Thank you!
Aldon

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:34 am

I don't know anything about editing photos yet, so I'm no help....
But I wanted to comment on what a lovely picture that is. Sorry to hear about the loss of your mom.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:25 pm

Limuhead, I'll have a crack at it. I've downloaded the edited image on the PC at home. I'll need to download the original, but I'll put that on my laptop. It'll be the weekend before I get to do any serious tinkering with it. I hope that's okay. I'm no expert, but I've tinkered with some of my own family pictures.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:51 pm

I don't know if this is much improvement. See what you think.

taity · Post by **taity** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:11 pm

she sure was bonnie god rest her soul

LimuHead · Post by **LimuHead** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:46 pm

Innocent Bystander wrote:I don't know if this is much improvement. See what you think.

I've found I can get rid of the spots with the 'healing' mode in ACDsee, and even bring out the details in the background by messing with the contrast, but I can't figure out how to make things like her arm and the uke headstock not wash out in to the grass.

I did get a PM from a board member with some suggestions that I will try.

Thanks. If you're still willing to mess with it I'd love to see what you're able to do.

Aldon

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:51 pm

Do you still have the original photo available? The best restorations start with a good scan at maximum dpi. If you try to restore from a bum scan, you are just spinning your wheels. If you have the original pic available, it looks like a doable project.

LimuHead · Post by **LimuHead** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:52 pm

Thank you Caroluna and Taity.

My mom really was a gorgeous lady. In some of the other photos we found she's stunningly beautiful.

This picture would have captured my heart even if it wasn't a picture of my mom.

LimuHead · Post by **LimuHead** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:58 pm

Ronbo wrote:Do you still have the original photo available? The best restorations start with a good scan at maximum dpi. If you try to restore from a bum scan, you are just spinning your wheels. If you have the original pic available, it looks like a doable project.

D'oh!

I didn't even consider that. The image I'm working with is one we scanned for the funeral and no, it wasn't scanned at maximum dpi.

The original is still in Hawaii and I'm in California now, but I'm going to make some calls and try to get it scanned at the highest dpi.

Thanks for the suggestion!

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:07 pm

That picture is simply charming just as it is. If you fix it too much, you may lose some of that "moment in time" quality that the picture has. I'd say enjoy it just as it is. Your Mom was a lovely lady.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:18 pm

So sorry to hear of your loss.

She was indeed a beauty! I have no skills to offer on the retouching. I know that Walgreens offers restoration services, and their example looks great. I have had them make copies of old family photos for me, and they did a good job on that.

Good luck with it.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:11 pm

I am very sorry for your loss.

That is a wonderful picture. I'm kinda like brewerpaul- I like the original.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:56 am

I know nothing at all about restoring photographs, but I just want to add my condolences.

You know, I don't know if you realize this, but the look on your mom's face in that photo is almost exactly like the look on your face when you're playing. The lady's legacy lives on.

Redwolf

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:36 am

It's a sweet picture.

I have a photo of my husband at age 15, in an action pole-vaulting shot. He dragged it out of a box of old stuff he had in the basement. It was wrinkled, and had a thimble-sized hole ripped right out of the middle. (luckily just sky, and a bit of the bar.)

I'd post it, but it's not here right now because--feeling completely inadequate to the task--I took it to the local photo shop to have them restore it. Probably going to cost me $100. I bet I could have asked for Chiff help on that one!

But it was important to me, as our 3rd daughter is a pole-vaulter, and her dad's health status changes unpredictably, so I like to collect mementos of all the stuff he's done in his life when we find them.

BoneQuint · Post by **BoneQuint** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:51 pm

I love this picture too. My mom played cello when she was young, but I've never seen or heard of a picture of her playing -- too bad.

I started editing the picture a bit, and before I knew what happened, a hour passed! I'd be willing to try again on a higher-resolution image. You might be able to get away with a tolerable 4x6 print from the 1024x768 resolution you have, but at least double in each direction would be better, and double it again for 8 x 10.

http://photos.JeffLeff.com/YoungAnnieSandersUke2.jpg