Year 2 (level 5) - Photoshop restoration

Over the summer break I was asked to do some restorations for a family friend, I made the mistake with this one of getting way too involved for the price that I had quoted. Once I had started I saw it as a challenge to see how much I could push myself with Photoshop and I’m glad that I did as the end result is something I’m really proud of.

As a rule I usually work in a non-destructive way in Photoshop but for some reason had never done this for restorations. Previous attempts have always been no more than a few layers, with only minor scratches and blemishes.
Before starting the task I watched a video on Youtube about restorations where the tutor broke the whole process down into sections that could easily be erased or adjusted later on because each section of the image was edited on separate layers. I decided to use this method myself as it seems very logistical.

1 - This is the image as it was scanned in, using a mediocre scanner from a photograph that was roughly 4x6.

2 - I decided to focus on the deepest scratches & folds in the image before focussing on areas of the face.






3 3 & 4 - Before and after images from one of the labelled layers. They show just how close I needed to look at the image to rid it of the smallest dust marks and other blemishes.



4 – Due to most of the big blemishes being at the bottom of the photo I decided to completely rebuild the jacket using the best areas of the original image.
This is where using different layers became very useful. This is because I tried to retouch the jacket on a few different occasions due to the colour mismatch but couldn’t quite get it right.



5 – The hardest area to correct was the mouth area as it looked like someone had tried to carve its complete outline with a pin.
As you can see from the final image it is not perfect but overall the completed image is pretty believable and I’ve gained valuable knowledge from taking on the job.
The client is very happy with their fresh print of a loved one restored to former glory.