Restoring clothing in old photo

[bbq_bob]

I am a novice at restoring photos, but I've tried with my limited skills to bring some old family photos back to life. This is the scan that I was given by a distant cousin of an old photo.



This is what I've been able to make of it.



I don't know what to do next. The man's suit looks flat. The depth between his jacket and vest and pants has been lost in touching it up, perhaps from too much noise reduction or use of the healing tool. He looks like he is drawn-on since all of the folds and texture of the cloth are gone. What should be done to restore this? Is there a method to use another picture, perhaps from a clothing catalog, to restore the suit without outright replacing it with the other picture? I feel like the things I am trying from this point are making things worse. Any tips would be appreciated on either where to go from here or where I went wrong.

Thanks
Bob

 

[Paul]

Welcome to the site BB, firstly what you have is good, call it a great starting point to the end result shall we.

All i have done is found a jacket that as a similar shape to your images placed and moved around using the warp and liquify tools to cover the original jackets area, i then dropped opacity slightly as to show original areas like the shirt and the removed new layers shirt area, soft colouring to face and background just to give you an overall effect, try it.

 

[MikeMc]

In a restoration , changing things is verboten....nada....cannot do that.

I would start with a levels adjustment, working to get the blacks, greys, and whites balanced...Using spot healing, patch, and clone tools you will get better results.

Also in B/W images, by going into the "RGB' layers, you can work wonders in one or two colors...great for de spotting.

A good source for restoration tips is at OPR...operation photo rescue....lot of egos.......


http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/



I will do some playing when home...

 

[ALB68]

Make adjustments to your image using Image/Adjustments/Shadows-Highlights. Just move the sliders around until you find something that works. Here is one that is better as it brings out the lost details.

 

[MikeMc]

This one would take me a couple of hours of close detail work, using the healing brush, and the patch tool, a bit of painting in the missing details / cloning. I worked off your 2 nd image...

 

[Paul]

In a restoration , changing things is verboten....nada....cannot do that.

I would start with a levels adjustment, working to get the blacks, greys, and whites balanced...Using spot healing, patch, and clone tools you will get better results.

Also in B/W images, by going into the "RGB' layers, you can work wonders in one or two colors...great for de spotting.

A good source for restoration tips is at OPR...operation photo rescue....lot of egos.......


http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/



I will do some playing when home...

No rules in Photoshop mate, anything you can muster and works is acceptable and saying such things only goes to scaring some people away from the art.

 

[MikeMc]

No rules in Photoshop mate, anything you can muster and works is acceptable and saying such things only goes to scaring some people away from the art.

No scares...just facts "restoration" is just that...restore to original status.

That said your point is also valid, but what you are doing is a repair and update...We should all use the same terms

 

[Tom Mann]

The distinction in terminology that Mike is making is right on the mark and is considered standard terminology.

T

 

[MikeMc]

The distinction in terminology that Mike is making is right on the mark and is considered standard terminology.

T

I learned that the hard way.....:banghead:

 

[bbq_bob]

Thank you all for the the tips. Based on these ideas, here is where I landed:



I did want to keep the photo close to the original rather than replacing the suit with another image. Even after cloning/healing and playing with the levels a lot, there were a number of areas where detail information was missing, but at the same, other areas showed some faint spots in which I could see the lines or the collar and vest. (I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do with looking at the R G B channels separately.)

My hand drawing skills are pretty poor, so here is what I did. I found a suit of a similar style and warped and liquified it to match the lines that I could see in the original photo. I then used the shadows and light from the new suit on the original by turning down the opacity and fill and changing the blending to soft light. I think the outcome looks better. I am not sure whether this puts it in the restore or "repair and update" camp. Since I am the client, it doesn't really matter. Although since the client is me, he keeps spotting all the imperfections and mistakes in my work. I am not entirely happy with the arm on the right. This is where much of the image was lost completely so there wasn't much of anything to follow.

Any other further tips on what should be done?

 

[MikeMc]

I learned when doing these that working with a highly magnified image is a major trick...% depends on where the image really pixelates...you can work like that for pixel by pixel reconstruction...just takes forever. Also working in areas on different layers can help. Your getting there, the more time and patience you spend will make the "client" happier !