Restoration challenge. You knew it was coming.

[alfredo]

This one has a lot of nasty little problems. You can decide it you want to just restore, or maybe take the shadow of the photographer out of the image. Be sure to reduce the size of the finished product so us dial up people will not grow old waiting for the thread to load.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Nice shot, Alfredo

Unfortunately, I know nothing about restoration, although I wish I did because I've got a whole box full of late '40s and early '50s photos that my dad took and developed in his darkroom. Their nostalgia value is overwhelming, but I'm afraid some of them are in pretty bad shape.

[alfredo]

3. What software do you have? maybe what you

have can be put into service. Restoration is trial and error until you find what works. If you have photoshop, the healing brush is a life saver. I don' t know if Photoshop Elements has that feature, (the bandaid), but if it does, you're half way home.

You might be able to do some work in GIMP, a free graphics program.

All this challenge is about is learning to use the software you have.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I've been playing with the new PaintShopPro X

which is a really great program. Maybe if I get a few minutes later this week, I'll see what it can do here.

[alfredo]

11. yeah, just play with it, trying different filters, and getting

to know what tool there are. Read the manual when you find a tool you don't understand, or happen to like.

[Ms. Toad]

13. I use an earlier version

for my restoration work. Version 5.0 is what got me back into photography - after restoring some old photos for my parents.

I've graduated to version 8.0, but I see another upgrade in my future :peers_into_crystalball_smilie:

[China_cat]

2. Here's a quickstart

I've been restoring a lot of old family photos lately. (This one has been run through a compression algorithm so it won't be so large online. If you want the full resolution, send me an email address)

[alfredo]

4. What tools did you use, and how did you remove the

shadow.

Nice work.

I'm going to start on mine today to see what I can do, and what I can learn.

[China_cat]

5. Paint Shop Pro X

Adjust brightness/contrast (don't remember the settings) then I used the lighten/darken tool to remove the shadow...with it set on lighten at about 70% opacity and 80% density. Clone tool to clean up some of the specks and to remove the shadow from the coats. Used KPT6 equalizer to sharpen it up a bit.

[China_cat]

6. This will give you an idea of what I've been up against

with some pictures that are close to 100 years old.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Wonderful job. That's beautiful.

[alfredo]

9. Good repari job.

A few years ago I had to replace a guy's ear. I copied his other ear, then pasted it in place of the missing ear. It looked OK. You did a great job on the girl's face.

[China_cat]

10. Thank you

That was the piece that was really wanted...it's a picture of my aunt in first grade (one room schoolhouse...that was the full roster of students in that picture.) On a worse crack in the only picture of my mother with my 2 sisters that ran right through Mom's face, I finally had to give up because it couldn't be rebuilt. I took another picture of her at about the same age, added some heavy noise to match the other photo and blended in the alternate face. It didn't change the attitude of the pose and my sisters agreed that since it was still Mom and about the same age that it was acceptable.

[alfredo]

12. That's even better than cloning a new ear. Creases are fun to

fix. Your solution was very inventive.

[alfredo]

14. Here's my effort

The roof on the left was tough for me, same with the bricks on the bottom left. Not as happy with them as they are, but the more you mess with it, the worse it gets.

Mostly I used the healing brush, lasso tool, burn, blur and Gaussian blur. I just darkened the bottom of the dress on the lady on the right. I lassoed the background off to the side of the dress and lightened it a bit, I then used the blur to soften the transition. I burned the shed to the right, as I did with the other background buildings.

[Ms. Toad]

15. Goodie Goodie

More things to keep my mind off what I should be doing...

Here's my quick version. I'd spend more time fixing scratches if I were restoring this for something other than fun.



The background was difficult to fix and distracting so I removed most of it. Didn't quite get my frame placed properly - again, if this weren't just fo fun I'd redo it.

Did a fair amount of dodging and burning to even out the dresses, remove the photographer's shadow, and restore what appear to be fringes on the dark dress.

Selected and enhanced the contrast of the faces and the left sleeve on the dark dress.

[ConsAreLiars]

16. Good job!

Using a frsme like that to get rid of some of the junk was a good idea. Someone may want to check with family members to see if the guy really had antlers growing out his head. It could be that the antlers were helpful in attracting mates, as suggested by the photo, and thus an important part of the family heritage and an important part of the original record.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Good point about the antlers...

They do seem to be serving their traditional function here, given the two beautiful women on his arms.

I thought about the antlers when I was pondering how to address the background - at that time I was thinking about enhancing the contrast to transform the antlers into a tree. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at my solution I had forgotten about the antlers. (A cranky spouse complaining about the computer still being on an hour after I said I was almost done late will do that :) )

[alfredo]

20. He was quite a Lothario.

He was blessed with physical attributes that made men jealous, and livestock nervous.

[alfredo]

21. That's great. Iet's see, you could make a new layer, draw the oval

put it over the image. Make a frame, draw a boarder and apply a bezel. Then apply a very small drop shadow.

I might try making an oval frame. Thanks for the idea.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. As you might expect from me, I went a different way

[Ms. Toad]

19. Does the lack of an image mean

that "a different way" was to delete it completely?

Or am I not seeing something I should see....

[alfredo]

22. Only us with faith can see the image.

Sorry about your lack of faith.

;)

[Ms. Toad]

24. Does that mean I can quit going to church?

That'll save me about 4 hours a week...:evilgrin:

[alfredo]

26. Yes

It also means you can get to Bob Evans before the after church crowd descends on it.

[Ms. Toad]

27. Actually,

Our church does soup together so we avoid the after church crowd at Bob Evans altogether (which is partly why it would save 4 hours not to go - that and a two hour round trip :)

[alfredo]

28. Cuts calories.

I sent the challenge image to my sister. She said she knows the woman in the dark dress. It turns out, she was ... how can I say this? I guess my sister's word was the best: she was a rounder.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

31. She plays baseball in the UK?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

23. No, I colorized it

then I deleted it because I hated it.

[Immad2]

25. Well, here's my attempt but I think Ms. Toad had the best idea with the

Frame

[F.Gordon]

29. I saved it to work on later. May be "much later"

Tough one. I'm thinkin' bout changing the background and that "blob" on the right side freaks me out a bit. Have to find a "period" background that I can make work.... not sure how to deal with that blob from outer space that invaded this photo. :crazy: Cloning in all those pavers.... major project.

I'll get to it.. just be patient.
:hi:

[alfredo]

30. Try the lasso tool on that blob, then work with the levels or

other related tools.

When you do that be careful of her dress. You might have to blur it a bit.

the healing brush is your friend.

[F.Gordon]

32. Gonna' have to do

I was more interested in putting this trio against a new background than "restoring" the original photograph. Twas a real challenge. Took a new snapshot I had laying around, cropped out a section, then blew out the highlights.

Had to find a background that had a light direction that worked with the people, then had to scale the people and background so both "fit" together. Used a soften brush on the people selection. Added fake film grain (twice) to try to make the background work.

Now that I've addressed the challenge of using backgrounds on old photos I still have to find a way to "blend" the two. I'll figure it out one of these days... hopefully get better at it.
:dunce:

[China_cat]

33. Your background is too sharp

when compared to the people. Add a bit of gaussian blur to it and some uniform noise.

[F.Gordon]

34. Eye Nose

Lots of boo-boos on it. I started working from right to left. Got worsier and worsier as I moved. Got so wrapped up with getting the perspective :eyes: correct and I was getting tired. Still looks like the copy and paste that it is. Tough. Will try this again some day.

[China_cat]

35. This is a lot better though

Now it looks like the background and the people belong together. Try zooming in real tight and using a 1 or 2 pixel soften on the edges of the people. If you've got it in layers, this should be easier, just time consuming.

[alfredo]

36. That is so cool I never thought to move to a new background.

The mind is reeling with the possibilities.

[F.Gordon]

37. A real "hack" job.... but thanks

I think I should have picked a less "complex" background for my first attempt at this. As noted... I should go zoom in like and do a pixie by pixie adjustment of the area surrounding the trio but as also noted.... this would be very time consuming.

Have a simple barn background I could use. Might try it again using that.

[alfredo]

38. What is important is what you learn in this process,

and what we can learn from each other. You threw a wonderful curve ball. It made me think in a different way.