Photo restoration attempt #1...what do you see?

Alright, I'm getting into some restoration work, and I thought I would test a photo out on you guys. I will post the final photo, and I would like anything that looks abnormal to you pointed out. I'm trying to see what things I need to readdress if any. After a little while, I will post the original scan to compare to. That way you can see how good you are:D

 

I could be wrong, but here were a couple things I saw...

1- A slight shade discrepency, could be in the original though
2- Seems like part of the boy's head is missing to me (maybe his hair is funny), the angle & width of the siding is slightly off
3- Angle & width of siding seem off above the girls head.

 

Well I don't notice too many things. Can you get the head of the boy to turn out a little better? Just to see the full outline of it. and is the boy's hand supposed to be visible or is it between his legs?

 

Good eye, Fitz. Still some shading issues in this one, and the siding lines were somewhat distorted in this original photo, but I went back and adjusted some things.

JHuff, could catch on the hand. I was looking back at it, and originally left it in thinking it was his hand and motion blur that you were seeing, but I cloned it out, and tightened up the edge where his jeans meets his arm to give it the appearance the arm is behind the jeans.

The face is recovered as much as I can. You can't recover clipped highlights unless it's a RAW file (and this file is VERY clipped in spots).

 

Here's the original in case anyone is interested.

 

The biggest and most difficult thing for me is the eyes. As you increase contrast and adjust levels to pick up some of the over exposed areas, you darken the eyes. They look almost like black holes and lose their softness. I saw a tutorial on preventing this before, but I can't find it now.

Any ideas?

 

Sure. A little rearrangement and some masking. Like this?

 

That looks better, IMO.

Keep in mind I'm just a hack.

 

the ruffles around her shoulders look artificial to me, seems like they should be muted some to show contrast

 

Seems like touching up the siding above the head without touching up the head seems to bring attention to it, seems like something is missing. Great job though.

 

I heard Dan can offer some great tips on improving photos. The photographer that took this photo obviously knows nothing about cameras.