Restore old photos

[theantiquetiger]

My mother got some scans of old photographs from her dad's side of our family (including her senior photo that she doesn't have). I have never done this before, but she wanted me to re-work them. Now remember, I am working from a scan of a (poorly done) scan of the original

Mom's original senior portrait (she hated the shadow on her upper lip
https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5555/31111237192_7e100be23a_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PpcdVf)mom2 (https://flic.kr/p/PpcdVf) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

I know her skin looks plastic, but thats all I could do to get rid of the massive dots from the poor scan that was done
https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5600/31140498981_ef95637610_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PrMcqR)mom (https://flic.kr/p/PrMcqR) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

My great great grandmother (standing) and her sister (original)
https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5472/31111236702_f1b2ef5901_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PpcdLN)mom4 (https://flic.kr/p/PpcdLN) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5796/31140498811_75ffbc7383_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PrMcnV)mom3 (https://flic.kr/p/PrMcnV) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

My Great Grandmother (daughter of the lady above) on my mother's dad side
https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5801/31122877062_feed871484_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PqdT3E)mom6 (https://flic.kr/p/PqdT3E) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5722/31122877402_cdc388275f_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PqdT9w)mom5 (https://flic.kr/p/PqdT9w) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

My Grandfather (on the right) and his father. I believe this is actually two different photos taped together. I tried but could not get the WB correct, so I just went B/W
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5650/30469997233_0cf0af330d_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/NqwGBT)mom7 (https://flic.kr/p/NqwGBT) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5556/31277748825_727999e5a8_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/PDUD2t)mom8 (https://flic.kr/p/PDUD2t) by Chris Campbell (https://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

[Runmonty]

good job AT. I see what you mean about looking plastic.

Out of interest - Do you mind me asking what tools you used for this? I think a noise removal tool such as dfine will remove a lot of the "texture" without sacrificing too much detail

I find the "spot healing brush" tool works really well in removing the dust and other spots. There are still few spots (especially in her hair) that could benefit from the use of this tool as well

I can do a real quick 2 min edit of the first one to show you if you like?? Let me know

the second one looks like it tough with all that cracking.

[theantiquetiger]

Feel free to do as you please. What sucks about the first one is I scanned a print out of a scan that looks like it was printed on a dot matrix printer. As for detail, most of the detail is already missing in the second one.

I did all of this work in Lightroom.

[Runmonty]

I only spent a couple of minutes on it.

all I did was use dfine on default settings and then spot healing brush on some of the dust and top lip. Then a little bit of sharpening to the eyes (or I could have masked the dfine layer)

20884

[theantiquetiger]

I like the edit but I think I like the "plastic" skin more than the Dot-Matrix lines on her face. Unfortunately, one of those two things will have to be sacrificed, either lines on the face or plastic skin.

[theantiquetiger]

Another set of images added to the first post

[theantiquetiger]

and the last restoration was added to the original post

[Marko]

This is tough stuff AT - you've done a decent job for sure. They flatter without going overboard.
Restore set 2 is the only one I'd replay with.

[theantiquetiger]

This is tough stuff AT - you've done a decent job for sure. They flatter without going overboard.
Restore set 2 is the only one I'd replay with.

#2 is near impossible because of all the cracking and loss of detail in the faces.

[RobMat]

Good job! Which photo was the most difficult to edit? I bet it's the second one! As I can see it's a bit scratched.
I also tried my hand at restoring old photos following this instruction https://macphun.com/blog/how-to-restore-old-photosThey suggest improving cracks with clone stamp tool, maybe you'd also like apply it. And also dehaze tool to make an image sharper.