what tools / areas do I need to learn to make corrections to this photo?

[dmgatwork]

This is the best picture we have of this group and I need to make adjustments to make a better picture.  Can someone tell me what areas, Affinity tools to learn to make the appropriate corrections?  I don't know where to start.  Thanks

[IanSG]

I'm viewing the picture on a small tablet, so it's not obvious what you think is wrong with it or how it could be improved.  Even if I could though, there's no guarantee that we'd agree!  If you start by listing the issues it would help us provide more specific advice and it's a good exercise for you in breaking the task down into manageable chunks.

 

There are some excellent tutorials available on YouTube, but if you're starting from scratch have a look at the ones posted by "drippy cat" - they're very simple and reassuring!

[Polygonius]

No magicWOW, just a 3 minute work:

 

Filter > noise > reduce noise

Filter > dust

Filter > sharpen > clear

Adjustment > curves 

(very moderate settings of all) 

 

A little bit play with the "colors" in BW-adjustment.

 

And some very fast healing/impanting brush work in the upper left area. As said, no WOW, but a good startpoint for further developes. 

For all this tools there are videos on YT, also for restauration old photos.

 

 

[dmgatwork]

Thanks everyone, this is what I needed to know and will look and follow these steps.  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. 

[carl123]

11 hours ago, dmgatwork said:

This is the best picture we have of this group and I need to make adjustments to make a better picture........

It depends on what you mean by "make a better picture".  If you want to maintain the look and feel of the original there are many image restoration techniques you can find on Youtube etc to do that.

But if you just need a clearer image as an information source (e.g. for a school reunion flyer/poster) there are other ways to do that.

 

[dmgatwork]

The second option, a cleaner image is exactly what I am trying to learn to do. Would you mind listing the steps so I can find tutorials to learn how to do this, I sure would appreciate it. Thanks so much.  I see you replaced Jim in the photo. 

Edited March 4, 2018 by dmgatwork
additional details

[carl123]

Sorry dmgatwork, I did not see your edited text, if you edit a post I do not get updated, if you had posted a new post I would have seen it

I will list the steps later today for you

[firstdefence]

I find it weird how people look like their era and how easy it is to spot a sneaky addition. The Legend lol!

 

[carl123]

OK

Basically the way I did it was just to concentrate on the pictures rather than worrying about the text or the background, so I needed to first separate them into a new document

Part 1: (PIC1)
Start by adding an eclipse to the first picture, change opacity of the eclipse to 50% and adjust it to just cover the first picture. Then duplicate the eclipse and move the duplicate to cover the 2nd picture, and repeat to add an eclipse on all the other pictures.  (switching snapping OFF helps, as it just gets in the way when switched on)

Part  2: (PIC2)
Select All Eclipses in the Layers panel
Use Layer > Geometry > Add to create one Curve layer with all the pictures in it
Now CTRL + Click the Curve Layer's Thumbnail in the Layers panel to create a selection of all the eclipses
Select the background layer in the Layers panel
Edit > Copy
then
File > New from Clipboard
This will create a new document with just the pictures in it

Part 3: (PIC3)
In the new document you just created
Add a Fill Layer (Layer > New Fill Layer)
Move the Fill layer to the bottom in the Layers Panel (make it a very light grey colour)
On the background layer (the pictures) I added some adjustments/filters to try to further enhance the pictures
You can see these in the attached afphoto file

Now you can add the names to the pictures
I used Arial 6.9pt Bold Italic which seemed to match the original

 

That's about it, post back if you get stuck or need help further on in the process

pictures.afphoto

[Alfred]

20 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Start by adding an eclipse to the first picture

 

Ah, the Brexit Effect strikes again!

 

[toltec]

Yes, a solution from the dark side, it is.

 

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

Ah, the Brexit Effect strikes again!

 

It's not my fault if the spell checker is brooken, they need to get that fixed

[dmgatwork]

Thanks so much Carl, This will help me a lot to know the steps and process.   Have a lot to learn now.