For this otherwise beautiful photograph, the worst of the damage was in what is almost always the most difficult place to repair; the face.
As with most photos that require restoration and repair, for this picture the ability to work with layers was absolutely essential. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3.
To restore this photograph, the first step I took was to repair the largest of the scratches, which with this piece was the most difficult part, as the scratch covered most of one eye. Lucky me, huh? In case you didn't know, the eye is most likely the most difficult part of a photograph to repair. That is, unless you have something clear to use as a reference point. Again, lucky me. Only this time it's not sarcastic.
I used the primarily undamaged eye as a model while working on the other. After that, I took care of the rest of the tears, dust particles, and age spots. Once this was finished I worked on the contrast and saturation (though this may look like a Black & White, the final photo is actually in color, as many of the greatest "Black and Whites" are). After that the only thing left was to get rid of some of the noise and burn in a few shadows.
Some of the damaged parts of this photograph are not visible here, but can be seen the larger example of this image in the Restoration and General Enhancements section of www.GinisMagic.com.
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