Photo Restoration

[Skunkboy]

Well well... I finally came across a photo that my software isn't good enough for. I've been fighting with a washed out photo for quite some time but haven't had any luck. I was hoping I could get a little bit of improvement but nothing so far.

If anybody can restore this photo, it would be greatly appreciated. The image itself is fairly large and I would like to keep it that way if at all possible. In particular, I'm wanting the boy in the foreground fixed (the one in red. I would've gone through and done physical touchups on the photo but didn't want anything looking funny... I was wanting to get the color back before going through with the simple stuff like that. The picture was in a box which wasn't kept safe so yeah, I'm not too thrilled with the condition.

I've got pictures from other years and if need be, I can drop them in e-mail to use as comparison. Unfortunately I've got a few other pictures from the same day as the one I'm wishing to be fixed but they are all washed out the same. *wish I would've taken them... the person was too close with a flash turned on*

url: http://skunkboy.net/zachproject/
size: 222,073 bytes
Dimensions: 1296 x 1024

note - in the end, I may decide to square crop the picture to cut out the other two people so detail elsewhere isn't "as" important.

[paulselhi]

well what exactly do you want to be done to this? there seem to be no major blemishes or scratches or tears so i assume you want the image "brightened up" am i correct ?

if you let me know exactly what you want i will have a go

[Skunkboy]

Zach, the one in the foreground (in red) is what I want out of the photo. I've tried putting color back into him but haven't had any luck. It was taken as a picture of Christopher (the one in back with the books) but I'm wanting to, in the end, crop out everything except Zach. I've tried black & white to color but can't get a decent job. I've tinkered with a few other programs trying to put color back in him but to no avail as well.

[Pig]

not much I could do. :(

http://www.webhead.cc/c/images/zach.jpg

[Skunkboy]

thanks for the try... your crop almost matched exactly with where I had cut the copy I was working with. Thanks for the try. I need to get another copy of black and white to color and try tinkering with it. I messed with it a bit in the past but didn't like what I was doing. I'm not good enough at it.

That picture is actually of my brother from back in 1994 and of the photos I could find, that's the only decent one left (pretty pathetic but I didn't live there... I would've had photos in albums - not a box that got thrown around.


Anybody else trying? :D thanks for everything

[paulselhi]

i will have a go at coloring zach tommorrow

[muijefr]

http://www.the-ebiz.net/Smilies/hapy0007.gif

I just turned up the red hue and turn down the brightness.

Skunk Boy Edited Pic (http://www.the-ebiz.net/forum/SkunkBoy.html)

[Skunkboy]

I like it, I like it.

I'll leave details and life out of the forum but in short... he's a biological brother and I was adopted out pretty much at birth because of abuse from my father. Just in October I had found the family and all of the kids (I'm the oldest) except the one that is with a different father were taken by the state. My bio-mom wanted all of her kids back and needless to say, my two sisters were found but want nothing to do with her and then myself, I found my bio-mom and youngest brother (now 14) and every time I try to do anything with him, she waits till the last minute and then keeps him from doing anything. So, the last time I was there, I went through the house and snagged every photo of him I could find. Because of their condition, I wanted to scan them before they got worse.

All of the photos are very important and I was able to fix most of them but there's something about this one in particular that I like; I want to try fixing it as best as I can. Thank you to everybody.

I guess this means I owe everybody again; so, to receive your payback in appreciation for help:
Please take a number. :p lol

thank you

[muijefr]

Very interesting.
http://www.the-ebiz.net/Smilies/hapy0007.gif
When scanning, use the highest scanner settings possible. Usually 600dpi. This will create a huge digital image but the more pixels available the better the sampling to resize(or print). I did very little editing so you might want to take your original, refurbish, and then retone as I mentioned.

Thanks for sharing!

[Croc Hunter]

Heh... My Version (http://www.streetsie.com/images/zach.jpg)

[Ironcleaver]

here's my version.. it's a tough image because of the flash.. the differance is slight.. but if you open up this image side-by-side the work image, the differance can be seen..

http://www.legendandlore.net/temp/photo.jpg

sorry i couldnt help more :(

[Skunkboy]

Originally posted by Croc Hunter
Heh... My Version (http://www.streetsie.com/images/zach.jpg)

grrrrr

[YvetteKuhns]

Croc, I have a picture of my sister you can edit! :D

She is my evil twin! When I dated Don, now my husband, Don and I would wear matching clothes so the people at the car shows would know he was with me!

[Jade Dragon]

Well I gave it a shot. A little touch up was needed on the face, and sleeves.

http://jadeadragon.com/shared/photos/skunkboy.jpg
(840k)
I upped the resolution to get better image results, thus the size of the file is now bigger.

I could do much better with a better scanned image.

=)
Jade

[Skunkboy]

I could get a higher resolution scan but the original was only a 3x5 and is washed out from the flash. If you would, I can scan at 1200 but either way.... I like what I've seen. Thank you. What a great thing to see after having had another fight just trying to see him - and ending unsuccessful.

Thanks to all.

[evilistics]

heres my attempt at restoration. still a little bit washed out but not as much as it was before.

http://watarush.com/restore.jpg