Restoring photos of The King

One of my passions that I recently discovered is restoring photos of Elvis, or rather bringing them up to scratch using computer software. I'm not talking colourisation of monochrome pictures, rather eliminating unwanted blemishes and scratches inherent from the original negatives etc.

I find that concert photos are the easiest to achieve the best results due to the nature of the background being dark or full on black. I use various computer software to bring such photos up to scratch; Microsoft Picture Manager for brightness and colour control, Microsoft Paint for eliminating unwanted marks, scratches or hairs-in-the-gate, and Gimp. I have also uploaded pictures to Photobucket and used the software there, as sometimes this can yield amazing results, especially with brightness controls.

If anyone here is into doing similar projects, then please feel free to add your own restored photos here.

I get pleasure from doing this, and also from sharing photos of Elvis with fellow fans, so please feel free to copy any of my restored pictures to add to your personal collections.

I hope you enjoy my resoration works.

Regards,
Andy

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (1).jpg

This photo as you can see, is heavily marked with scratches and hairs-in-the-gate. I use Microsoft Paint to eliminate these marks, simply by selecting the colours immediately adjacent to the marks to obtain a perfect match. This is a similar process that film restorers use on old footage.
Also, the picture is over-saturated and has unwanted purple hues. This can be eliminated using Microsoft Picture Manager, by adjusting the brightness down a couple of degrees, and also by bringing down saturation to achieve a more uniform colour of background. I do this prior to any application in Microsoft Paint, as it gives you more uniform colour to work with. Once all of the marks have been painted out, the saturation can be adjusted again to bring the colours forth once more.

Finished product...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (1_restored).jpg

Similarly, this photo from the same engagement suffers from the same over-bleed of colour...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (16).jpg

By using exactly the same technique I described above, I achieved the following result...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (16-restored).jpg

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Last edited by Polk Salad Andy on Sun Feb 10, 2013 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This photo also had too much colour over-bleed...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (21).jpg

I also cropped the original a fair deal, as there was a fair amount of unwanted blackness above the band. To achieve a result here, I had to bring the saturation right down prior to painting out unwanted marks. Once the marks were eliminated, I readjusted the saturation and hue to restore the full colour to the photo...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (21-restored).jpg

This next one didn't require much effort. As you can see, there is an unusual aurora around Elvis, which just should not be there...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (11-1).jpg

I eliminated this simply by adjusting brightness and contrast to get rid of the majority of the aurora. It could not be achieved totally, without making the photo too dark, and losing detail of Elvis' face. So the remnants were painted out in Microsoft Paint...

Indianapolis_Oct 5th_74 (11-1 _restored).jpg

I have many more to add here later, so please stay tuned.

Regards,
Andy

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This is one I restored for Karlos last month.

Karlos' original...

Red Flower Suit-'73.JPG

Note the rounded edges, the first thing I did here was to crop the image slightly and bring the edges up square. The photo has a couple of crease-style marks to the right and also some scrathes, especially around Elvis' head. Note also the scratch on Elvis' outstretched leg. Using the same techniques, I eliminated all of these in Microsoft Paint.
If you look closely at the restored photo, you can still make out remnants of the scratch on Elvis' leg. I have found that sometimes you cannot totally eliminate a blemish without it standing out, so you have to adopt a subtler approach by cleaning up as best you can by cleaning up the majority of the blemish. Basically, if you were unaware of the original flaw in the photo you probably would not even notice it...

red flower suit-'73 (Restored).jpg

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These two are my most proud work to date. I adore these two photos of Elvis taken at Graceland on 3rd Oct, 1976. Both of these restorations took around 90 mins each to complete, the second one almost two hours...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1).jpg

Note there are quite a few scratch marks to this picture, notably the ones appearing to the left on Elvis' shirt that makes it look as though he's spilt something while eating. There are also two scratches to the right of the photo, one near Elvis' ear and the other further out next to the shoulder.

Restored:

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1) Restored.jpg

The next one as I say took almost two hours to fully complete.

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2).jpg

There was an awful lot of work in this, due to the nature of the background. In order to fully eliminate the marks I had to sample two or three of the immediate surrounding colours to each mark, as using just one would have made the touch-ups more noticeable. Also, the most difficult part of the whole restoration was the thumb-print mark to the top right of the photo. This alone took almost an hour to eliminate, with sampling of colours difficult due to the limited availablity of original colours on the photo at this point. I have found finger-prints to be a real pain, especially when the background is as detailed as this photo.

Restored...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2) Restored.jpg

More to follow

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Brilliant Thread Andy - Ty for sharing -Lov em all-Speak Soon - TCE4Evr -

These two are my most proud work to date. I adore these two photos of Elvis taken at Graceland on 3rd Oct, 1976. Both of these restorations took around 90 mins each to complete, the second one almost two hours...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1).jpg

Note there are quite a few scratch marks to this picture, notably the ones appearing to the left on Elvis' shirt that makes it look as though he's spilt something while eating. There are also two scratches to the right of the photo, one near Elvis' ear and the other further out next to the shoulder.

Restored:

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1) Restored.jpg

The next one as I say took almost two hours to fully complete.

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2).jpg

There was an awful lot of work in this, due to the nature of the background. In order to fully eliminate the marks I had to sample two or three of the immediate surrounding colours to each mark, as using just one would have made the touch-ups more noticeable. Also, the most difficult part of the whole restoration was the thumb-print mark to the top right of the photo. This alone took almost an hour to eliminate, with sampling of colours difficult due to the limited availablity of original colours on the photo at this point. I have found finger-prints to be a real pain, especially when the background is as detailed as this photo.

Restored...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2) Restored.jpg

More to follow

Nice work on these.

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/candid- ... happy.html

Here are two I worked on

Thanks
Davide

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Very nice work with the pics. Appreciate your efforts.

rlj

This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

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Here is another before & after I just finished..

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These two are my most proud work to date. I adore these two photos of Elvis taken at Graceland on 3rd Oct, 1976. Both of these restorations took around 90 mins each to complete, the second one almost two hours...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1).jpg

Note there are quite a few scratch marks to this picture, notably the ones appearing to the left on Elvis' shirt that makes it look as though he's spilt something while eating. There are also two scratches to the right of the photo, one near Elvis' ear and the other further out next to the shoulder.

Restored:

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1) Restored.jpg

The next one as I say took almost two hours to fully complete.

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2).jpg

There was an awful lot of work in this, due to the nature of the background. In order to fully eliminate the marks I had to sample two or three of the immediate surrounding colours to each mark, as using just one would have made the touch-ups more noticeable. Also, the most difficult part of the whole restoration was the thumb-print mark to the top right of the photo. This alone took almost an hour to eliminate, with sampling of colours difficult due to the limited availablity of original colours on the photo at this point. I have found finger-prints to be a real pain, especially when the background is as detailed as this photo.

Restored...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2) Restored.jpg

More to follow

I have never believed this picture is from 1976. It looks more from 1974 or 75. I know there's a picture of him outside wearing this same outfit on Feb. 3rd 76 but there are differences. In the outside photo you can se the karate necklace around his neck which is not in the indoor photo. Also, his hair is different plus he appears much heavier in the outside photo.

:smt006
This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

Very well done Elvis Lady....great work.
The Flaming Star one looks great too
Would love to see more of your work.....restored and / or colored.
Keep up the great work.

These two are my most proud work to date. I adore these two photos of Elvis taken at Graceland on 3rd Oct, 1976. Both of these restorations took around 90 mins each to complete, the second one almost two hours...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1).jpg

Note there are quite a few scratch marks to this picture, notably the ones appearing to the left on Elvis' shirt that makes it look as though he's spilt something while eating. There are also two scratches to the right of the photo, one near Elvis' ear and the other further out next to the shoulder.

Restored:

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (1) Restored.jpg

The next one as I say took almost two hours to fully complete.

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2).jpg

There was an awful lot of work in this, due to the nature of the background. In order to fully eliminate the marks I had to sample two or three of the immediate surrounding colours to each mark, as using just one would have made the touch-ups more noticeable. Also, the most difficult part of the whole restoration was the thumb-print mark to the top right of the photo. This alone took almost an hour to eliminate, with sampling of colours difficult due to the limited availablity of original colours on the photo at this point. I have found finger-prints to be a real pain, especially when the background is as detailed as this photo.

Restored...

At Graceland_Feb 3rd_76 (2) Restored.jpg

More to follow

Nice work on these.

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/candid- ... happy.html

Thanks, Paul. And thank you very much for adding them into Candid Central... I am truly honoured

Here are two I worked on

Thanks
Davide

Great work there, Davide. Thank you for sharing. How long did you take on this?

Very nice work with the pics. Appreciate your efforts.

rlj

Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot. I like to share with fellow fans, and knowing that effort is appreciated is reward enough.

:smt006
This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

Your work here is amazing. That is one real tough crease to deal with! I can see this must have taken you a while to achieve the result. Thank you for sharing your restorations.

:smt006
This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

Your work here is amazing. That is one real tough crease to deal with! I can see this must have taken you a while to achieve the result. Thank you for sharing your restorations.

Nice work too Polk Salad....
Yeah, you're right....creases etc is hard to work on, it's like restoring a photo....creating a whole new "photo"
Would like to see more of the fixed photo's and Elvis Lady....do you have more restored photo's you can show us....

:smt006
This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

Your work here is amazing. That is one real tough crease to deal with! I can see this must have taken you a while to achieve the result. Thank you for sharing your restorations.

Nice work too Polk Salad....
Yeah, you're right....creases etc is hard to work on, it's like restoring a photo....creating a whole new "photo"
Would like to see more of the fixed photo's and Elvis Lady....do you have more restored photo's you can show us....

Yes indeed I would like to see other work by fellow fans, this was one of the reasons that prompted me to begin the thread. I do have other works done, but some of them I am having trouble locating the originals I worked on. I have them somewhere, I just need to find them.

Here is one I did recently from College Park, Sept 28 1974. I have found a lot of photos from this gig suffer with the same colour over-bleed. Elvis may not have looked his best that night, buy boy do I love that Blue Swirl suit

Before:

College Park_28 Sept 74 (9).jpg

After:

College Park_28 Sept 74 (9-Restored).jpg

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Photo restoration is something that few can do well, but those that have the knack certainly make a great contribution to the preservation of the Elvis Photo Archive.

:smt006
This is a sample of a before & after of my photo restoration work.. I work with 3 different programs at the moment.

Your work here is amazing. That is one real tough crease to deal with! I can see this must have taken you a while to achieve the result. Thank you for sharing your restorations.

Nice work too Polk Salad....
Yeah, you're right....creases etc is hard to work on, it's like restoring a photo....creating a whole new "photo"
Would like to see more of the fixed photo's and Elvis Lady....do you have more restored photo's you can show us....

Yes indeed I would like to see other work by fellow fans, this was one of the reasons that prompted me to begin the thread. I do have other works done, but some of them I am having trouble locating the originals I worked on. I have them somewhere, I just need to find them.




Here is one I did recently from College Park, Sept 28 1974. I have found a lot of photos from this gig suffer with the same colour over-bleed. Elvis may not have looked his best that night, buy boy do I love that Blue Swirl suit

Before:

College Park_28 Sept 74 (9).jpg

After:

College Park_28 Sept 74 (9-Restored).jpg

.............................................
..Brilliant work Polk Salad Andy -Lovn These from September 28th 74 At College Park - Ty Buddy for sharing em - Its One of my favorite eras -Ya work is so amzing -Keep up the good work buddy -

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Good work Polk salad Andy and Elvislady,thanks to both of you

Thanks for the complements everyone..I love the work presented here as well.. I'll post more of them that I will be working on very soon,, I have had other obsessions I have been working on alot.. I have been restoring photos for a few years now..here is one I recently did of Rudolph Valentino:

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A correct restoration of this photo should also have had corrections for Exposure levels and HDR Toning.

Note the depth and detail of the jacket in the corrected image below, and flesh tone enhancement , without loss of detail the background highlights.

BTW this took about 6 min in Photoshop CS6 X64.

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Nice work everyone, here is one that i done alittle work on.

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Hi Andy,

thanks so much for sharing your amazing restored photos!
I was wondering if you could kindly restore/clean 2 pictures as I don't have the software?

Would really appreciate it!

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