Removing background & otherwise "fixing" a photo

[unfaithfulsfan]

I've been asked to try to create something out of essentially nothing. Specifically, to create a head shot similar to the ones I've done in the past (photo #1) using photo #2 which came from photo #3. There is no other picture of this Fireman and this one is not the greatest quality for what I need to do.

I'm trying out a trial of X9. Photo #4 is the result of the Magic Eraser, which I thought turned out pretty darn neat! But back to reality, the purpose of all this is that the Chief is making plaques with individual members' head shots. The one in question is now the oldest firefighter in the department so it's kind of a surprise. The group photo was taken by a professional photographer in 2011.

I really don't think that I can do much with it because the image, at 100%, is already pixelated. I know I am not proficient enough with this software or PhotoShop, etc., if it's even possible to clean up the image enough to enlarge it.

Do y'all have any suggestions? I'm to the point that I'm thinking he's just going to have to use the cropped image on the plaque. Even if I could remove the background, the image quality is so poor it wouldn't match any background into which I tried to place it.

Thanks for your help.

Photo #1	Photo #2	Photo #3	Photo #4

[Fred C]

Your photo #2 was cropped from photo #3; is that correct? Do you have access to a copy of photo #3 larger than the 800 x 488 jpeg you've shown?

[unfaithfulsfan]

Hi Fred C! Thanks for the fast response. Yes that's correct, #2 came from #3. The copy of the group photo he sent me is 3000 x 1830 & 2.94 MB.

The Chief sent me an email that he thinks he has some other pics of this man. He's going to try to find and send them to me.

[Scotty]

Hi,
Here is my version.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Wow! Holy Moley!! Thanks to you both! Nice job, Scotty!

[unfaithfulsfan]

I'm not quite done yet but, my gosh!, how much simpler that is than the way I've been working on it!! Thanks,Gary!

Doofus as it sounds, I keep forgetting about all the information and tutorials available in the archives of Xara Xone. The problem is that I don't do this kind of work on a regular basis. With everything else going on I don't get to really spend the time learning, much less perfecting, these techniques until it's "do or die", like now.

I'm going to make a conscious effort to spend at least a two or three hours a week going through some of the tutorials, especially the basics and the things I know I'm going to have to do eventually. The 2014 Inspection is coming up in a couple of months and I need to prepare for that.

Thanks again!

[gwpriester]

Glad I could point you in the right direction.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Here's the final specimen. I don't know what I did wrong but I just could not get the hang of cleaning up the insignia and hat band.

But I'll tell you guys one thing: Thanks to all 3 of you, especially gwpriester, I did in about 3.5 hours what I could not get done in 3.5 days. It's not the greatest but hopefully it'll be good enough to make the plaque.

I'll see what Al thinks and go from there.

Thank you all very, very much!!

[Fred C]

You did a pretty good job on 'Magic erasing' the flag background and you could probably get a good result if you crop the needed shot from the larger 3000 x 1830 image. Make a copy of the original to work on Emphasis>>don't work on the original and since you want a clear background on the head shot use a .png not a .jpg.

If you get a better pic from the Chief, all the better, but it seems you'll still need to erase a background. Do a search here for tutorials on background erasing. Good luck!

[unfaithfulsfan]

Thanks!! I'll do that!