Help please with this important Picture

[steve-pressman]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, feel free to move to the correct forum.

I have attached a picture of my father back in his hey day, sadly the colour and quality are quite bad. I was wondering if any of you Graphic Guru's could work some magic on it and try to improve it for me, I would be most grateful as this picture has only recent resurfaced after about 35 years and it would be great to have a decent copy of it.


Many thanks in advance


Steve

 

[mitchell65]

Am looking at this one for you Steve. Perhaps a mod could move it to "Music, Pictures and Video"

 

[Arc]

is it any good Steve ? Though Nick or Dom may do it better

 

[boohbah]

this is a toughy best i can do at present

 

[Dom]

I've tried...

Not sure if its any better though

 

[LittleMiss]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, feel free to move to the correct forum.

I have attached a picture of my father back in his hey day, sadly the colour and quality are quite bad. I was wondering if any of you Graphic Guru's could work some magic on it and try to improve it for me, I would be most grateful as this picture has only recent resurfaced after about 35 years and it would be great to have a decent copy of it.


Many thanks in advance


Steve

If i may so bold as to ask what medals he has and the distinction of his red coat?

 

[steve-pressman]

The medals I only know are what he won during the World War 2 as to the red coat it is a Toastmaster's uniform info here


Toastmaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.toastmastersguild.org.uk/

Steve

 

[mitchell65]

Well I have had a quick go and to explain. I noticed that at the two sides and the top there was a distinct darker line. Rather than try to make this match the surroundings I cropped it off! I then used a couple of effects with color adjustment and levels then the very slightest unsharp mask. Have posted the result below with a before and after shot. Hope nobody ask which is which
I am going to have a further go at the RGB adjust, but will leave that till tomorrow as I find nowadays I need a fresh pair of eyes for this sort of thing and it is better done at the beginning of the day.
I guess the original has been scanned Steve. Do you know if you can scan to a PNG or preferably a Tif file. If so I will come back to you as when you scan and save to a JPEG you immediately compress the image thereby loosing a little quality and with an older photo like this that has has UV light to it we can't afford to loose any quality at all. A tif will be a bigger file but it will be uncompressed.
All fun here innit!

View attachment 94522

 

[noyb]

It would help if you could attach a higher resolution Scan ...
326 pixels wide isn't much to work with.
300DPI would be nice .. 600DPI if it's a small picture.

 

[johnwillyums]

Problem is that the Azo dyes have faded with time and also changed colour and spread.
Therefore there isn't much info to play with in the image. How about these:

 

[Dwarf]

My effort:

 

[johnwillyums]

That's good Dwarf. You managed to cool it down a bit

 

[whs]

Touch job. I think Arc's attempt looks best.

 

[Dwarf]

We've tried our best, given the quality of the image you supplied. If you want something a bit better, can you help us by providing a better image to work with? Scan it again, this time using the highest resolution that your scanner supports. Use PNG format. A full-colour, gray-scale and black & white scan would also help (at the same DPI - use the highest DPI setting that is common to all types).

 

[boohbah]

please excuse my flippancy but i felt it could do with a Wahole/Boohbah touch

 

[johnwillyums]

How about that?

 

[johnwillyums]

Further to Dwarf's post about rescanning it. If you take it into a proper photographic shop they will have a much better scanner than most of us have at home.
I don't think they would charge much at all to scan it for you. J

 

[steve-pressman]

Thanks guys for all your effort it is much appreciated, sadly I do not have the original photo. I believe my Brother in the States has it but I am not sure as I was sent the picture in the mail this morning from my Sister. I have emailed him to ask him if he can scan it again at better quality with your tips I will see what he comes up with.

Once again many thanks.


Steve

 

[LittleMiss]

The medals I only know are what he won during the World War 2 as to the red coat it is a Toastmaster's uniform info here


Toastmaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toastmasters Guild

Steve

That is wonderful
Us Uncouth Yanks (Montanans) need their skills

 

[steve-pressman]

The medals I only know are what he won during the World War 2 as to the red coat it is a Toastmaster's uniform info here


Toastmaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toastmasters Guild

Steve

That is wonderful
Us Uncouth Yanks (Montanans) need their skills

He was really impressive back in the day when he was working and one of the best in the Country back then


Steve