Restoration photo

[CatherineL]

I have a friend who asked me to fix this photo that will be printed on a banner to be hung outside on a lamp post. I took in into ACR and adjusted the noise and played with the levels in PS. Any suggestions on where to go next? Or what can actually be done to make it better? I have never done this type of work before so I also don't mind referring her to a pro retoucher for this type of project. She reached out to be because they told her it would just come out as a black blob.

[Damien Symonds]

Did you scan it yourself?

[CatherineL]

No, she emailed me the file.

[Damien Symonds]

Oh rats.  No chance of you getting the photo to scan it?

[CatherineL]

I'll ask her if she has it.

[CatherineL]

Yes, she has it and can get it to me later today.

[Damien Symonds]

Oh, hooray!!!!

https://www.damiensymonds.net/scanning-guidelines-for-old-photo-restoration.html

[CatherineL]

These are the options I have when scanning a photo with my printer. Should I photograph it instead?

[Damien Symonds]

Yes.

[CatherineL]

Ok well the original is glued to a bulletin board and cannot be removed so I guess I'll have to work with what I've got.

[Damien Symonds]

Oh darn

Ok, well your next step is to clone out that vertical crease down the photo, yeah?

[CatherineL]

Yes, I can try it. Sad to admit, I didn't even see it. Is photo restoration a service you offer?  

[Damien Symonds]

Of course, best in the world.  But you've come this far, maybe you should try it, at least?

[CatherineL]

I gave it a go.

[Damien Symonds]

Gosh, good job!

Now add an overall Channel Mixer layer, hit the "Monochrome" box, and enter +100/0/0/0 for the values.

[CatherineL]

Really? Wow, ok. Thank you

[CatherineL]

Wow. Mind blown. Thank you so much! Does it look a little dark to you? I did a levels layer to the second one.

[Damien Symonds]

2 minutes ago, CatherineL said:

Wow. Mind blown.

There's lots of mind-blowing stuff in the Channel Mixer class.

2 minutes ago, CatherineL said:

Does it look a little dark to you? I did a levels layer to the second one.

The second one is definitely better.  But of course it's not finished yet.  Go ahead and commence your normal Levels work on it, the same way you'd do for any black-and-white photo.