Maigo
Junior Member
Registered: January 2003
Location: Southwest FLorida
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What a wonderful photograph. The faces were great, but it was the "hands" of all the children that really intrigued me.
My first step, save a duplicate of the original which I start to work on, then lighten the photo to see what detail was hidden, what was damage, and what was shadow. I spent a lot of time just looking at the original photograph.
Next, desaturate it, then on to the hard work.
I used my "effects" tools a lot, switching from one to the other, varying size, and amount. Mostly the "undither, brightness, blend" tools, the "clone" tool where it is needed, and I also make objects which I usually prefer to using the clone tool. When I use an object, I always "feather" it so it looks blended.
I don't have any set steps, I was all over the photo, first here, then there. I also use my zoom often, and go to both extremes, to see if what I last did was a good choice. My most valuable tool is the undo.
I mostly "enhanced" this one to bring out detail, but there is still a lot of roughness to it when enlarged, and because it was a back porch, there would of course have a lot of wear. The little boy gave me the most trouble, and I spent more time on him than anywhere else on the photo. I'm not really happy with him, but this was the "cutest" I could get him. There comes a time when you just have to stop sometimes.
Then looked for a tint that warmed it up.
On this photo I did make some changes. I thought that what the boy was sitting in front of was a post for the roof of the porch, so I extended the floor to show it off, and give it a little more depth. As I said, the hands intrigued me, and the little girl on the far left seemed to need a thumb. I rebuilt one for her, reversed the shadows, and a few other small things, but I tried to keep true to the original as much as I could.
I used Corel's Photo Paint 8.
Maigo
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