Restoration of WW2 Soldier photo.

[raid2506]

Here is an image I restored of a WW2 soldier.
It was studio shot in the 1940's and the print was hand coloured in the 50's.
The artist seems to have omitted the buttons and it suffered water damage sometime thereafter.

I struggled to get a workflow or any kind of sensible process going with this one and found myself jumping around the image and re-starting several times.



Fix minor damage, remove background, clone and paint, adjust colours, add new background.

Am not happy with the severity of the dark areas on the face or the harsh edges around the head and would spend more time softening and blending now that I know how.

Quite pleased with the background, it's not an exact copy but I think it is sympathetic to the original.
I hadn't done a background like this before so it was a good learning process and I have made several more like it since.

Feedback welcomed so feel free...

 

[iDad]

looks good, I would remove the rainbow look in the background though, unless color is going to be added to the man, try putting the background layer in saturation mode or B&W Adjustment touch? It may softenup the edges with a feathering of about 1.5 to 3 px on man selected, then inverse selection and delete once or twice............ critiquing not my favorite thing to do because everybody has their own taste, but as you asked, so here is my idea.

 

[raid2506]

Have not had a chance to try your suggestion yet but I will get around to it later hopefully.

Am always open to suggestions.

As you said everybody has their own taste and it will improve my restorations to know what other people would prefer. At the moment I am only doing what I would like to see and that's kind of limiting.

Cheers.