I have been struggling with this photo for a year now, trying my best to clean it up for a friend. My buddy, Roger, is 73 years old, and in this photo are his grandmother's older sister and his great-grandmother. Judging from what I know, the original image is at least 125 years old. Roger happened to find a very old copy of the original print that is well worn out. After attempting to clean up the scan as best he could, he asked me if I would give it a shot. He has since misplaced the print copy and wants to make a new one.
After much trial and error, this is the best I can do. I had worked on this image for numerous hours, each time failing horribly, thus throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I recently picked the project back up, since roger has some older relatives he wants to send the picture to before they expire. This is the best I can get the image to look, as Roger wants it to have its original "charm," as in no digital sterilization or heavy modification to the scene.
The top image is the scanned original, the bottom is my final output. Did I do an acceptable job or should I just give up? Any additional pointers or tips will helpful but are not required. Thanks.
[screenshot]http://www.acliffhanger.com/images/rgr_homey_small.png[/screenshot]
[screenshot]http://www.acliffhanger.com/images/rgr_homey_redux_small.png[/screenshot]