I have discovered a family photo from 1944. Grandfather; Grandmother; Uncle (left); Aunt; and my father (right).

The photo is not in very good condition. I think it was folded for a long time (assumed). Very fine minor scratches, a bit "washed out" and a touch "noisy".

I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have.

regards

J

I feel your pain.

I would suggest duplicating the image layer and working on the copy. This would allow you to compare your work to the original simply by clicking the "eye" icon in the layer dialog to turn your copy off and on.

The fine scratches and minor folds can often be covered using the clone tool= , blur tool= , or smudge tool=

The big vertical crease will be the most time consuming, because you will have to literally rebuild the missing parts of the image, obviously. Use the eyedropper tool= to select colors from the image to use with the paintbrush= and pencil and adjust the brush and pencil to a small diameter and zoom in so that you can put the colors in where you want them. Where the crease passes through background areas or zones of low detail, you could use the clone tool. Since the picture seems to be a bit fuzzy, you can use that to your advantage by blurring and smudging your repairs into the surrounding image.

I have a picture that is somewhat similar but worse. A section of the picture was torn off then taped back into place. My first go at it wasn't too bad, but when I went to try again the dried out cellotape gave way and the piece came loose. I won't try again until I can securely mount it to a backing material and line everything back up. I'm sure the heavy cardboard-type material the picture is printed on was great a hundred years ago, but it makes it difficult to properly align and scan.

Ahh one thing we do we shouldn't is fold our pictures up and stuff them in our pockets!
This looks like a job for GIMP's clone, level, and curves tools.
You will need to take your time and go very slowly with this image.
Take areas that are bad that match areas that look okay and duplicate them as selections, like the girls eye and right cheek.Also the older mans right side can be duplicated from the left and flipped.

Make sure to create a duplicate of the image before working on it so you do not destroy the original.
Open the image in GIMP, duplicate the layer, and turn the original layer off (click the eye next to the layer)
Now work only on the duplicate. This way you can check to see your progress.

I did this with a lot of clones of opposite sides, and facial parts.
Work like this takes a lot of time, but it's well worth the effort. I love old pictures like this.

Before


After

Wow, Rod! That's great.

I ran the High Pass filter on it using the default values then set the high pass layer to Grain Merge. It sharpened it up a little. You can fiddle with the controls in the filter to change the results. Rod, you did all the hard work. The High Pass Filter was a quick click.

High Pass Filter Plugin Filters > Generic > High Pass Filter

Thanks O, i really like doing this kind of stuff.

Hey Guys,

That looks great! Many, many, many thanx.

Did not expect you guys to do the work. (in less than a day!!! Impressed.)

Now the hard part. I would like to try this myself. Anyone feel up to a "step-by-step" procedure?

Regards

J

the image is really washed out but strecth the contrast enhance all kind of artfacts

spending time on each images will be possible fix here i only try to recover at best the faces, bodies and BG would need a different approach (and so some masking may be needed )

anyway here my attempt for the faces :


well 3 on 5 are good,in the the woman in the center most details were lost so looks weird,

Johnno56 http://www.retouchpro.com specialises in this type of problem. Although I am a member I am not active there. The site has tutorials for photorestoration and this type of problem with old photos is covered extensively.
Although the site is not Gimp orientated , the methods used in the tutorials easily translate into Gimp methods.

As i was saying before, doing this type of work takes a lot of time and dedication.
That one took me about 5 hours give or take. (and it still isn't really finished)
Make a pot of coffee and grab your GIMP
The best way to tackle an image like this is to look at the original and -
First grab the healing tool and go over the small imperfections
Next grab the clone tool for larger imperfections, and grab areas very close to the pixels you are going to cover.
Next see what can be duplicated and flipped. (the girls eye for instance)
I actually copied the left eye to another layer, and flipped it horizontally to get the other eye.
You should also pay attention to what features each person has, -- does the girl have her Dads lips? chin, cheekbones? Many of these things can be selected with the free select tool flipped and or rotated , and then re-colored to match with the curves, and level tools.
Many people do not realize when you open curves you can use the eyedropper in there to select a color on the image you want to re-color.Select it then just move the curve line to suit the color
(up is brighter and down is darker usually) - This type of touch-up works best on the layer with the selected part (before it's merged into another layer, like the original)

I should have kept the layer i merged so you could get an example of what i mean.
Oh well maybe next time.

Simply awesome work! You did a pro-quality job, reconstructing the missing image pieces in the folded area. Kudos!!

One thing no one touched on is that before starting on a restoration such as this one, scan the image at the best possible setting (contrast, saturation, and hue), and the highest permissible resolution. Make sure the platen is lint free. Use a photo lens cleaning cloth to do so (never use paper towels, including kleenex, or regular hand towels).

300ppi is satisfactory, but 600 or higher is better. The upside to doing so is, it allows more detail reconstruction and repairing, particularly around rips, folds, and tears. The downside is larger resolution files require a lot of memory and processing, so a powerful PC is a must. (A good excuse to have the significant other, or anyone agreeable to your hobbies, purchase a more powerful computer)

Then when you go to print or have a digital photo remade, you'll be glad you did.

PhotoComix,

Great job with the faces. Gives a lot more depth. Almost a 3D feel. Well done!

Wbool63,

As soon as I can I will check out that website you recommended. Many thanx.

Rod,

Thanx for the tips. Good thing I love coffee! I have more photos that I can "experiment" on.....

Mahvin,

Thanx for the scanner advice. I use a Canon MP240 scanner/printer but the software that comes with it limits to 600dpi max. If you know of a program that will scan higher than 600dpi..... Memory or CPU power is not an issue. Normally, I edit with Linux, as I feel Gimp performs better because the system is not burdened by all the "junk" Windows loads at bootup. (IMHO)

Thanx again guys. Looks like I have come to the right place for help. Much appreciated.

Regards

J

Is your scanner running via Sane backend? Some scanners, particularly Canon models, can be extended beyond the standard max of 600 ppi resolution using the backend. My wife's Canon scanner is one such model that benefits from that perk, now scanning at 1200 ppi.

Mahvin,

Not sure. The scanner app in the "Control Panel" does not incorporate dpi adjustment. I will fire up Linux and get back to you.

Regards

J

Mahvin,

Linux has xsane built in and allows up to 1200 dpi.

Regards

J

I love it when our members all team up and offer help. What a great group of members we have here. I love this place.
Johnno you've given good info, too. You've been assimilated. I love it when a plan comes together.

PS I love your avatar. Mr. Spock rocks!

I just had to give it a go. Definitely a 5 hour job. As mentioned before a better scan would be beneficial.
I am unhappy with the person in the middle. I think there is a ribbon in her hair. The blob in her lips are in the original and I did not want to take it away as I think it is part of the original undamaged photo. However if it was my photo I would reduce it. This is done in "bare" Gimp (no plug-ins) .

Great job, wbool!!

I believe there is a ribbon in her hair also, and her hair line goes back farther.On the left side of the image.

Rod has already done an excellent job of restoring it for you. Here is a technique from http://brainbyproduct.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/even-better-healing-without-the-magic-tool/that I have used for blemishes. Basically,

Duplicate layer -> Enhance -> despeckle with parameters (no adaptive, no recursive, black point = -1, white point = 256). For the radius, gentle nudge higher till the largest blemish disappears. Set the layer mode to grain extract. Then copy visible and paste as new layer. Since this image is grayscale, use the clone tool to remove the white spots.

Now, set the middle layer mode to "Normal" and the upper layer mode to "Grain Merge". If you are happy, merge down and then get down to real the work like Rod said.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Partha