Looking for critique and possibly help with an old photo facial restoration

[openforum2011]

Hey everybody... I'm new here, and look forward to being active in this forum. I'm fairly new with Photoshop, but I've become adapt to it quite quickly. I've been working on a very difficult old photo restoration over the last few weeks, and was wondering if I could get some feedback/critique/help with it.

Here's the original photo:



And here's my work so far:

WITH MORE EYE SHADOWING


WITH LESS EYE SHADOWING


Thanks for checking it out guys, and I look forward to being a member here.

 

[Paul]

Welcome to the mad house mate, enjoy your stay here a great opening image transformation too.

 

[Tom Mann]

Ditto everything Paul said. +1

Tom M

 

[openforum2011]

Thanks guys for the quick warm welcome and compliments—I look forward to spending time on the forum. Any tips on improving the final product here? There probably isn't much else that can be done with so much of the original texture and definition missing..

 

[Paul]

Maybe drop a sepia toned overlay on to it, and i would also pull back on the eyes and drawn features as good as they are, just a bit over powering.

 

[openforum2011]

Thanks for the advice, I've gone back to the original damage-stained eyes and tried just shading it pixel by pixel to give a more natural non-artificial look, and also added a Sepia Tone to it. Definitely seems improved, thanks again.

 

[chrisdesign]

Welcome to the forum.
This is an excellent restoration, done patiently and with great care.
Hard to beat your result, even for a lot of experienced people in this forum.
BTW, the sepia tone looks really great.

 

[Hybrus]

Looking at it, for me it was a impossible restoration, even though I don't have experience restoring one.
excellent job by the way and welcome.