This is a picture of my father-in-law. He was 18 in this picture. He is of the Ponca-Otoe Missouria tribe. His father was Ponca and Mother was Otoe Missouria. Remembering and capturing his complextion was the hardest part.

I prefer black and white, but keep my hand in colorization, too.

Wanted to share the original, but RetouchPRO says that I have posted it before and I did but removed it but RetouchPRO won't let me place it on here again....Hmmmm. Wish you could have seen that one, too.

Ask me if you want the original and I'll send it.

Hi Candice,

whenever you do something for yourself, I think it's only a matter of personal taste ... If 10 people will post here, you might get 10 (or more) different interpretations ... tons of very good tips and suggestions about what you could try to make your picture look better ... but, at the end, as long as you like it .. it's just perfect!

That said, here is my opinion ...although it's difficult to say anything without the comparison with the original... from my 'restoration' point of view, your picture looks really nice and clean ... :happy: ... Part of he whites contain no details, but that could have been so already in the original ....

From my 'colorizing' point of view, I'm sure you captured his complexion very well and I take you left the background B&W on purpose. But some parts haven't been coloured accurately (his hands, the lower right (his right) part of his neck...) or not coloured at all... (his hair..)... The colours are nice and soft ... but a bit 'flat'...

In my opinion, the colorizing procedure must be very, very accurate and exact independently from the very personal choice of colours... Here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=93421&postcount=8) are a few of Vikki's excellent tips on colorizing.

Hope this helps...

P.S. RetouchPRO says that I have posted it before and I did but removed it but RetouchPRO won't let me place it on here again...Happened to me too once ... If I remember right, logging off RetouchPRO and then on again had taken care of the problem and I could upload my picture ... otherwise you can always rename the image and try again...

Hi Klassylady25

Just wondered if you cannot get detail back from an original, maybe you could blend some detail in as I did with his shirt. I also added a little texture to the firehouses.

As for the background I heard somewhere, do not know if it is true, but...you should not leave anything gray even if it means applying a small amount of sepia tone.. but what do I know.... :tongue:

Photoshop good job with the picture and frame.


Butch

Is that supposed to be a US Navy uniform? If so about when was the image taken?

And the Year was 1942.

It looks to me that the entire photo is too light. When I was in the Navy in the late 1950's, the ships were a much darker shade of gray, the fire hose's were also a shade of gray, not white.

The dungaree work uniform he is wearing has a much darker blue pants and the shirts were a very light blue, not white. I notice that the shirt and the hat are not the same color, so I am wondering if indeed that shirt should be a light blue????

I also realize that uniforms do change so I may be wrong about the shirt, but I do know that "Navy Haze Gray Paint" is darker than what you are showing! :grin:

To me, the one on the right is much closer to what I would expect to see in the background of a photo shot on a ship.

Ship board life is truley a gray event :happy: