Help with very old picture

[Eressea]

Hello everyone!!

My mother and I are very busy right now making an album for my grandmom's 75th birthday. My grandmom loves pictures, but because she moved to a smaller appartment, she cannot have her pictures there, so we thought we'd take the best out of those thousands of pictures and make her two volumes of digital albums (it can't possibly fit in one, LOL). For those interested, we post our pictures online for other family members to check if the dates are right etc. and as a backup (some of the frames are still empty though). Of course almost everything is from Katie Pertiet or Anna Aspnes, since they have amazing vintage supplies!!!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/monique...eat=directlink

Anyway, we came across this really cool picture of my great-great-grandfather (not sure how to call that in English, in fact, I'm not even sure what it's called in Dutch), but it has this aweful tear in his face... I have been photoshopping it with the clone tool, but it just won't work... Does anyone know if this picture can be saved? If only his head were fixed, it'd be alright, the rest doesn't matter much.

Here is the picture:


And here is a link is the fullsize resolution (1,3 MB):
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...6/IMG_0499.jpg

[esther_a]

That is a tough one! If you were to repair the tear you would reconstruct so much of his face. It would be very hard to make it look natural and even harder to make it look like him. No wonder you are finding it hard. If it were me, I think I'd leave it as it is - and I've repaired many heritage photos.
What a brilliant project you are involved in. I love that you are sharing the photos and gathering everyone's information.
Your album looks stunning!! Thanks for sharing the link!

[carollee]

Fantastic project, but you know, I'd almost leave it like this, keep it authentic. Sure it would be great to have it pristine in the facial area, but I like this touch of real.

[Eressea]

Thank you so much for your replies! Yes, I already feared it couldn't be done - I've done quite a few retouches in my life, and this just wouldn't work... Well, so be it, it's too great a picture to leave it out, and yes, it sure has a feel of authentic Just why couldn't they fold his arm instead of his head... :P And thank you for your compliments!!

[way2bizzy]

Do you have another photo with his face? If so you may be able to pull portions of that photo over into this one and blend it in to match.

[digigrandma]

Your pages look wonderful! What a cool project! Thanks for showing us.

I would do as Esther suggests and leave that photo as is and if you have any other photos of him, include them on the same page as this photo. At the very least identify him and include whatever information you have about him. It's still a neat photo.

[Eressea]

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I'm going to try it with the other picture we have, though there is an age difference of 60 years. If this works, I'm gonna include the picture with the tear anyway, it's the original after all. I've made a really cool selection of this picture and made my own dropshadow to make it look like it really lies on the page, and I really love the result!

[esther_a]

I hope you will share some of your pages in the gallery. We'd all love to see them!