Restoring a Black and White photo

[Glory]

Hi I am wanting some help restoring a black and white photo. Its got a big white flash mark in it. I don't know where to begin. Not sure if there is anything I can do.
I have attached the photo so you can see what I mean.
Thank you so much in advance.
Glory

[dubaiphil]

It would have been a lot easier if you shot in RAW

[Destructor]

Glory,

If I am not mistaken, the only way to restore the photo is to draw missing parts. Most probably, you will have to find an artist in order to restore it. Flare has completely ruined colour information and there is no way except drawing. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Pavel

[pnodrog]

The faces should be able to be improved significantly provided you do a good scan and the original is at least a 6"x4". If it is one of those very small prints that used to be done you will have a very difficult time restoring it successfully. Some of the flare is very low and could possibly just be cropped out.

[William W]

It needs to be rebuilt.

If you are not skilled at this and the Photograph means something to you: then the best advice would be to take the Negative (i.e. the FILM NEGATIVE) and the PRINT or PRINTS to a Professional Photo Restorer. That's what I would want - the negative and any multiple prints of it.

The small (digital) image you posted has very little information with which to work.

***

Below is a ROUGH indicative of the about the WORST CASE a Professional Restorer could do – remembering that this example is a ROUGH - I did it in five minutes and the rebuild is from a very small digital file:


I’d charge about AUS $50.00 to repair it - properly - to a postcard size print.

I am not touting for business: I don’t want to restore it. I have enough restoration work already – I am just giving you an indicative cost of a professional job.

On the other hand – you could (high quality) scan the neg (or print) and begin rebuilding it yourself, digitally.



WW


On a technical note:
PS - I don't think that is "flare" - it is a light leak.
The 'tell' is the hard lines and the geometric shape of the overexposure on the negative.

[Glory]

Thank you for your advice and help. Thank you Bill for having a go at fixing the photo. I will leave it for the time being as I cant get a good scan of it done just yet.
Much appreciated
Glory