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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: HarryH on Thursday 24 August 17 12:28 BST (UK)

Title: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: HarryH on Thursday 24 August 17 12:28 BST (UK)
Attached photo which has become badly discoloured shows my grandmother Betsy Whitehead (lady on left) taken about 1940. I've no idea where it was taken or who the young girl is. Is it possible it can be improved? - it's the only photo we have of her.
Many thanks,
Harry.
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: Mike Morrell (NL) on Thursday 24 August 17 17:34 BST (UK)
Even with adjustments, there seems to be quite a bit of 'blocking' in this photo (see attachment). The file is also small (72 KB). Checking the file info, it looks like it was scanned at a high resolution (600 dpi). I'm not sure why there's so much blocking but this sometimes happens with high'JPEG compression' (= a low JPEG quality setting). It depends a lot on the photo.

Could it be that you made the JPEG file smaller than was necessary? If you're able to post a larger JPEG file (best quality or close to) you may get a lot more detail in the faces and a much smoother results overall.

If I've got this wrong, other restorers please correct!

Mike
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: japeflakes on Thursday 24 August 17 17:52 BST (UK)
Not much I could do . Sorry
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: jloy326 on Thursday 24 August 17 19:42 BST (UK)
Another. Blurred the background to make them stick out a bit more. 
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: Trishanne on Thursday 24 August 17 19:55 BST (UK)
Here's one with the two of them and one of Betsy on her own
Pat
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: Trishanne on Thursday 24 August 17 20:05 BST (UK)
I've given her a bit of colour too
Pat
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: ymfoster on Thursday 24 August 17 23:23 BST (UK)
My effort,  :)

Yvonne
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: McGroger on Friday 25 August 17 11:50 BST (UK)
My try.
Harry, could the girl be a granddaughter? (Edit: Or even a daughter/niece - Betsy doesn't look all that old when tidied up.) I think there is a marked family resemblance, and either Betsy was quite short or the girl was very tall for her age (of about 10 in the photo, I'd say).
Cheers, Peter.
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: westfield48 on Friday 25 August 17 21:21 BST (UK)
Here's another...!
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: loord74 on Saturday 26 August 17 09:54 BST (UK)
a try
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: rsinbad on Sunday 27 August 17 08:51 BST (UK)
Had a go
Title: Re: Photo restoration Betsy Whitehead
Post by: HarryH on Tuesday 29 August 17 17:33 BST (UK)
Many thanks to all for your time and patience in improving Betsy's photo. The results are far better than I'd expected given that the original photo was about the same size as a passport photo and almost black!

Thanks once again for your help, it's much appreciated.

Harry.