Opium pipe restoration

[SamuraiZenU]

I found this picture in a house I'm renting, it is obviously pretty old and degraded after having been stored in a garage in Florida for who knows how long. There were missing areas around the edges and some small missing spots here and there. Also there was a lot of dirt and flyspecking.

I took a picture with my p & s and loaded it in the PC. All restoration work done with GIMP. This is really my first attempt at this kind of project.

Camera: Canon PowerShot A720 IS
Exposure: 0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 80

Used clone and smudging tools to repair missing areas. I lightened and adjusted contrast with curves. I desaturated some due to heavy yellowing (could have been sepia tone to begin with, but I took it down a notch or three). Also used unsharp mask to tighten up the focus a bit.

Criticisms and opinions welcomed.

[ocnsprt]

That is really neat, good work with the repair, it looks very natural yet you have effectively saved the shot... Excelent work

[Xavarion]

Good job fixing the missing pieces, but once you are at it might as well go a step further and improve the photo overall.

By that I mean adding for feel to it, cause it is looking a bit flat.

For example,

- I think that is a barrel right? but it looks very flat.
- Try getting a bit more detail in his coat,
- Face expressions can be slightly enhanced also.

Picture looks nice and authentic though, good job.

[skm.sa100]

Pretty good restoration job.
I recently found a website who do the exact job commercially. If you have an old family picture etc in a bad shape, just scan it and upload it to their website and they'll restore it for a fee.
And I agree. The restoration itself is pretty successful. Can you infuse some more life into the picture? It's flat. Maybe you can stretch the levels with the levels tool and sharpen it a little bit and bring out the contrasts.
And a high-five to a fellow Gimper!
Sashi

[Wooglah]

I think you did great work on restoring that photo. You should be proud of yourself, and if you decide to go even further, that will be bonus on top of this.

[SamuraiZenU]

Thanks everyone for your constructive comments! After reading them I went back to the drawing board and adjusted levels, rendering a much better result in keeping with the original. As it is obviously a sunny day it needed to snap and was too flat as some commented.

I came up with a new sepia tone version but file was too big to load onto free flickr account so..... here's the straight black and white compared to the original before initial restoration.

[Wooglah]

Oh, even better, this is great result now! (even if it is a little bit flat)

[windrider86]

I think the black and white version is wonderful just the way it is