Image restoration help please.

[Trishanne]

Here is my attempt at the 2nd photo. Unfortunately with all the faces scribbled on, it was not easy to pick up features.  As I have a very simple photoshop version, I basically use just the clone tool.
Pat

[Mike Morrell]

Restoring photos with biro scribbled across faces/eyes is a difficult challenge, at least for me. I hope the faces in my attempt are still recognizable at a distance but I haven't been able to restore the original quality of the faces, at least not without spending much more time on it. Feel free to improve on this!

I started learning about photo restoration about 6 months back - with a lot of help from other restorers here. I don't have much time for it at the moment but I'm sure I'll pick it up again soon.

There's a Rootschat 'how to' subforum with useful tips and links at http://www.rootschat.com/forum/resources-tips-tutorials/. It's also a good place to post any questions you have.

You can find (via Google) some useful video's on Youtube that show basic restoration techniques (patching, cloning, scratch/spot removal, etc.).

If you're willing to pay for tutorials, take a look at what Lynda.com has to offer: https://www.lynda.com/Restoration-training-tutorials/1358-0.html?previousCategory=70
You can subscribe to Lynda.com on a monthly basis.

There also some books (and e-books) on restoration. One of the most comprehensive is 'Digital Restoration from Start to Finish' by Ctein. It's 450 page step-by-step guide on pretty much all aspects of photo restoration. The author is a professional restorer and he/she goes into some 'advanced techniques' using selections, masks, filters, etc. to minimize the 'manual work'. It's probably best to be comfortable using the basic techniques before delving into the advanced ones!

But there's no substitute for 'learning by doing'. And for looking at the great results here and figuring out how they were achieved - and by asking the restorers. Different restorers work in different ways and most types of damage can be corrected using different tools. So there's never just one way of restoring a photo. It's good to try out different tools and learn what works best for in each situation.

While learning how to restore photos, I also learned a whole more about how to use Photoshop too!

Good luck!
Mike

[Treetotal]

Some good advice from Mike but I bought the book he recommends and I felt that I had wasted my money £25 at the time...even as a restorer with over 10 years experience, I found this book to be too technical and biased towards the full Photoshop rather than Elements which is what I use. It was also very repetitive and padded out. It's a great hobby but as  with all hobbies, it takes a lot of practise and patience.
Enjoy the experience and have fun.
Carol 

[Gadget]

Agree about the Ctein book, Carol. I think it's a waste of money, even with the full CS version.  I much  prefer Katrin Eismann's books and online instructions, although I've not looked at it for a long time - bought it when Photoshop was CS3. I now use help, if necessary, on my CC 2015.5 version.

Best thing to do is practise (as we all have over the many years we've been here and before!) and pick up tips from as many sources as possible 

PS - I am attempting the second one but it might take me a while - I only do one hour at a time 

Added - the Grab below shows how far I've got - trying to build the faces up bit by bit.


Gadget

[jc26red]

one from me too

Jenny

a little rusty but it must be over 6 years since I did my last restore.

[MrMDstreet]

I can't believe how awesome everyone has been with this. Each attempt has been fantastic! Completely forgot that I had uploaded the torn corner version of the second photo but what has been accomplished has been pretty cool.

Thank you to everyone who has given pointers etc. I will get a bit more practice in but you have all far surpassed my expectations. I have been dabbling in photo restoration on and off for about 5 years. I was given these pictures by my mum about 4 years ago after her dad had passed away. She will be very happy with the results.

Again thank you all.

[Gadget]

I did say that I'd be a while 

[Gadget]

and one with a bit of texture and a more selenium tone.

[MrMDstreet]

Thank you for your hard work, it is greatly appreciated. Wasn't really expecting this much time and effort to be put in by people.