radiojohn

Here's the backstory on why I wonder if any of you have all the newer magic-gee-whiz app stuff that does wonders with crummy photos.

I took this photo of my high school friends late in 1965 with one of those little tin "Hit" cameras with tiny spools of 16mm film. I processed it myself. I carried the photo in my wallet while in the Army from 1966-1969 and after in college. The tall guy, Otis, died at 21 from the flu, just after we had gotten together for New Year's Eve. He had serious egg allergies. The guy with the glasses, Henry, was my pal since 6th grade. He's gone too, in his 40's. Cheri, on the left were friends and later dated, but went our ways while was in the Army. Oddly she also got into broadcasting and we almost crossed paths in Texas. She wrote to me once in a while and then it just stopped. Early onset Alzheimer's. Gone at 67 after a tough decline. [The other young lady was in a class after us.] I have better photos of these people, but this one has a special meaning of happy days together.
If one of you wants to take a shot at it, I'd be curious to see what you come up with. If not, at least you got to see a real photo taken with one of those cheap little cameras. Thanks!

Stardust Loc: Central Illinois

First thing you need to do is attach the photo so it is downloadable and can see what to work with or definitely won't have any takers.

User ID

If this much is just my In-Phone editing, working from a downloaded original in a real editor ahold work pretty well.

(Download)

R.G. Loc: Scotland

With this file size I wouldn't try much more than just a general clean-up. If you want the best results you'll have to scan at a higher resolution somehow. This is my very un-expert attempt at a tidy-up.

PS - Since there's an image in the first post in this thread it'll probably be automatically shifted somewhere else - probably the Photo Gallery.
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Iron Sight Loc: Utah

Good Job on restoration!

Ruthlessrider

Nice job RG. Watch out you may have 10,000 photos heading your way.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thanks. I think I might have to give that a miss. Waaaaay too time-consuming .

sgt hop Loc: baltimore md,now in salisbury md

looks good.....nice work....and nice of you to do it.......

smilex3md

You didn't say what you wanted with restoration, but given how special this photograph is, I like the original very much.

User ID

Thank you.

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

RG, what program did you use to restore this with, or did you just use your mad skills. Nice job
Ron

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thank you Ron. Just two runs through Lightroom 6, lots of cloning and lots of brushwork on top of some basic editing.

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

Skills! Thank you RG

BebuLamar

Restore??? I think the image was bad when it first printed.

Nicholas J DeSciose

There’s no magic to restoring. Just hard work