Restore An Old Picture

[Trader]

Recently my wife's 17 year old cat died of a heart condition. When the cat was being shown to her championship title we had lots of pictures of her but they were all lost in a hurricane. We always talked about posing her for a nice formal shot but we just kept putting that off. So I scanned in an old picture I found of her.

Before:




After:



First thing I did was to cut the cat onto a layer. I did a levels adjustment on that layer to make the cat her true white color. Next using the liqufy tool I corrected her ruff and made the guard hairs the proper length. The levels adjustment left the blue markings washed out so on a seperate layer I airbrushed a darker gray color and lowered the opacity of that layer to 60%. On the next 5 layers I had to create the cats eyes. I actually made one eye and when I was satisfied with that eye, I flipped it and pasted a copy of it on the other side of her face. I'd say around 4 hours of work went into making the eyes, including the two catch lights I created. Yes, the cat did have true round blue eyes in real life.

Next I removed the background from from the window and replaced it with a picture from our front yard. I had to add a shadow to that image to have the light going in the same direction. I had to airbrush in the support under the shelf (just to the left of the cats head). The original was blown out and was distracting.

The final touch was to seperate some of the hairs on her tail giving the impression they were combed out for the picture. There is still some work I'd like to do on the side of the cat but for now I am done and have printed the image 8" x 12" to be matted and framed. This was by far the biggest project I have ever done. Hope you enjoy the after image.

[photographiczen]

I see lots of noise in this picture...the cat is just too bright, but she looks lovely and great job on the catch lights in her eyes. Also try to darken the background just a bit...It's a distraction from the cat, obviously it's her you are trying to display.

[foxor]

Well done on the cat, I can see you put tons of work into her, and she looks like she was a beautiful cat! (I don't know my cats too well, but was she a ragdoll by chance?)
I do find the background a bit distracting though. I think it would help if you darkened it a bit and/or blurred it a bit (the original seems to have a pretty soft background by comparison).

[Trader]

Thanks for the feedback, very good and valid points. I think your suggestions will improve the overall photo. I'll post the next copy when I finish with those suggestions.

The cat in this picture is a Birman, known as the sacred cat of Birma. They were one of the breeds of cat used to create the Rag Doll.

[Austin_HXC]

To be honest, I like the first picture better.
It seems more natural; the cat in the second shot is too light, and the background is too.
Nonetheless, the work on the eyes is amazing! Congrats on the outcome.

[Trader]

I toned down the brightness on both the background and the cat plus applied a blur filter. I think there is still room for improvement but this is the best I have so far.

[elvenprincessjo]

I love the newest version you posted! The first one was nice, too, but I think this one is even more beautiful!

[fireb0x]

The latest version you posted is fantastic. Great work and solid improvement.

[Avandria]

I actually really liked your first photo the best.



I hope you don't mind me using your photo. Feel free to get rid of my comment if you do. I reduced the dust and scratches, photoshopped the vase, what I had first thought was a chair on the left side of the window, and whatever the orange little thing was on the right side. I then added the eyes you did for your second photo and tried to blend them in a little. Lastly, I cropped it a bit to get rid of the white crooked border from you scanning it. I'm at work so I could only spend a few minutes photoshopping it, I'm sure with more time you could get the background and eyes to blend much better (specially the top right corner - I really started to rush there before my boss walked into my office. haha).

[Trader]

Avandria, I really like what you did with the original. Leaving the cat in the same background solves the problem with the outline of stray hairs on the left side of the cat (camera right). Thanks for your input.