Restoring old photos from DISC film

[wildcat018]

Hey everyone. One more question for you all. I am still working on restoring some old photos, and this one has stumped me. I have several rolls that look like this and I have tried and tried and can't get this any better. The help you all gave me last time on the adjustment layers was extremely helpful, so I thought I would try again. Once again I am using CS5. Anything you can tell me to help would be great! I am posting the original picture. Thank you in advance!!

 

[iDad]

Wow. sometimes a picture is lost without painting it. try duplicating layer then top layer mode in "liner burn" for starts that should give you more definition to go from as a start........ a challenge indeed good luck

 

[hawkeye]

You might get something barely usable converting to B&W but as for color, there is nothing in the green channel to recover.

 

[smalltrees]

as mentioned before... you need to start with a higher res. scan...
just not enough pixels to deal with...
duplicated about six times, using the multiply blend mode...
increased contrast, opened mid-tones with levels... removed color...
you could start "repainting" color from here...
again... detail is lost, because of the scan resolution being too low...

 

[Steve]

Your file is way to small at 37kb.
Post the largest possible file this forum allows to help our members, help you.

That can be a 20MB PSD file.
You can upload JPG's up to 1920x1280 pixels.

Take advantage of that.
The effort by our members is the same if you post a low or high quality image.
The quality you get back is a night and day difference.

 

[wildcat018]

I am not sure if it is the resolution on the scanner, or just a really bad picture to begin with. The scanner I am using is 4800 x 9600, but the print itself is that blurry. I don't think the disc film this came from was very good quality. If you have any suggestions on scanning it in better, let me know. Thanks for all the advice =)

 

[iDad]

scan it in b&W see if that helps
with higher resolution

 

[smalltrees]

are you scanning a print? or... scanning the film?
when you say disc film, are you referring to the pinwheel type film?
if, so, that film was smaller than 110 film...

 

[iDad]

not to be a wise guy but "sometimes a picture is lost without painting it" paint it, increase the size and get busy with the brushes is the only hope I see unless you prefer it as is

 

[iDad]

okay I was wrong...... last post.


This image bugged me I had to take a stab at it

there may be hope yet........... here is the psd with layers used (not all I didn't think to save all before merging) by looking at layers and modes you get an idea of what I did......View attachment 2364
heres the colors I pulled out or added, with just solid layers of different colors
before

after

 

[Steve]

I worked off of iDad's shot.

 

[iDad]

better resolution would do the trick I was surprised to get it that good. looks good Steve

 

[wildcat018]

Idad, Thank you so very much. I am going to keep working on it! I know my mom lost a lot of memories, so its worth trying to do whatever I can.

Smalltrees, I have both the film and the prints and they are both about the same. Yes the really old disc film, I think you are correct, I think it was smaller than 110.

 

[wildcat018]

Steve, that is soooo much better. What did you do??

 

[Steve]

Steve, that is soooo much better. What did you do??

The real question is what did iDad do.
I can't duplicate his results, I tried.

Without his image I had no place to start.
Here's the PSD, you can see the corrections I made.

The top layer, Layer 1, is just a combination of all the other layers.
I did that because the last step I did was run the image through Neat Image.

Turn that off and toggle the adjustments on and off to see how they effect the image.



Norm, what did you do?

 

[iDad]

oh boy...........lets see I
duplicated > usedGaussian Blur at about .5px on dup layer >merged> I think a few times then used another dup layer in linear burn mode merged > then used a few solidcolor layers in overlay and I think pinlight merged> then I did a linear burn again and those colors in the psd I posted, I may have forgotten a step or 2 it was more of an experiment I i should have saved history... but if I did that with everything I'd be saving to much junk lol

 

[wildcat018]

Well, Thank you both very much! I truly appreciate it, you have no idea. =)