For all things there is a beginning. This is the start of another restoration.

my goodness, girl, you are masochistic. i love it :)

craig

You really do find em Candy, good luck with it.

This is a real hard one, Good job.

There are some changes to the shape of the face, so I hope you don't mind some suggestions. In the original photo he is lit from the side some. in the retouch he is flat, lit from the front with no highlights. Also, I think the shape of his jaw on our right side is too low, but I can't say for sure without working on the image ...

There is a tendency in a restoration this extensive to focus on the damage instead of the good areas ... keep the original image in the background layer so you can judge the art work 'as you go' ... then turn on and off the art work layers ... while doing this, instead of focusing your attention on the damaged areas focus you the areas that are good to see if they change. In this case I think the culprit is in the changing of the highlights and shadows.

Another hint is that as you are retouching, even if you have to get into a real tiny brush, only retouch the spots you know are damage for sure. The shape of the face sometimes 'comes to life' and you discover the face hidden among the damage as you work.

I worked on it a little to see what other ideas I came up with, I found myself using lighten and darken mode with the clone and healing brush. I also found myself creating a curves adjustment layer on top of the retouch layer, I grabed the midtone and pulled it way dark to accentuate the shape of the face which is hard to see when it is so light. Then I did my retouch on the art work layer making sure that the 'sample all layers' is not checked in the the brush options. The channel wth the most detail that shows the original shape of the face the best is the green chaennel.

When using lighten and darken mode work from the side of the damage that will cause the least amount of change. In other words if you are using lighten mode sample from the darker side, the more obvious damage will disappear and it becomes easier to see the shapes that should be there.

I just roughed in what I thought the face originally looked like on just part of the face and it did take a little bit of time, so I do sympathise with the retouch;)

Some of this you may be a wiz at, I hope there is something that is a help.

Regards,
Roger

Evidentally you've had more training in this than I have. Mine has all been read a book, try and try again and a lot of late night practice. For 2 years I've been trying to learn this but there must be something that I'm missing after seeing your picture. Perhaps you need to finish it and send it on to OPR. BTW, why aren't you a volunteer for Operation Photo Rescue? You could do so much good with your skill level.

I have to admit that I've come a very long way from where I was but am not, nor may I ever have your skills. I've read and reread your information and you'd be suprised at how many thing I have tried based on what others have said, but Flora once said that it's all subjective. When I placed the last one on the board I was pleased with its outcome, Now, I don't feel well about the way he turned out. :depressed

I'll keep trying....

Hi klassy,

I am sorry, the last thing I want to do is discourage you! My experience is 14 years printing in a black & white darkroom and then 19 years owning a photo studio (family photography, weddings, copy & restoration, etc. ... ). So, I guess my skill is the 'eye' I have developed and years of practice. I had a tough time figuring out the left eye that I worked on - so no matter what the experience, it does not mean that it is easy.

Flora is right that it is subjective, and her work often mekes me feel like a beginner so I know how you feel. What I really wanted was not to make you feel bad, but just to help. You did such a great job on the art work minus the lighting / shape issues so I was hoping to share that side of it. This is such a hard one that, beleive me, I understand the problems.

Regarding OPR, since I do this stuff all day at work I probably won't want to do too much outside of work, but I will take a look at it. I am more than happy to share anything I might know though.

Best Regards,
Roger

If I want to continue what I'm doing that is to be expected. I will continue to work on this until it's right.

Hugz

Hey Candy,

I looked at OPR, quite impressive - I will definently keep it in mind.

I saw your post over there about this restoration and saw the interim stage where you had a total blur where the skin is ... I think that might be part of the challenge. I would have a hell of a time painting in a new face to match the original, which is what you end up having to do when you lose the shape in the retouching process. For me, keeping the shape is the first priority, second is the damage ... ;)

Best of luck,
Roger

Let me know how it's coming along now? Background is generic so I could post not the one I will use....

Hi Candy,

Good shape on the nose and great job on the eyes! I think you are right to go with one highlight in the eyes to mimic the light source. My guess on the eyebrows (because of how faint they are on the areas between the damage) is that this is a blonde gentleman with lighter eyebrows (just my guess).

The only thing that I see that is changing the shape of the face so far is the jaw line on the left - I think it is out a little and the face has lost the shading along the 'jaw line / left side of the face' that makes the face narrower.

Good work,
Roger

Hi Candy,

ok, so now I don't feel so tagged ... ;)

1st screen shot:

I played with this some more, and I found the green channel to be the one with detail that showed the most original face shape. I used apply image to paste the green channel into a new layer and then levels to adjust the tone.

2nd screen shot:

I had a hell of a time seeing where the changes wer, so I pasted in the blue channel (cause it was the most dramatic for seeing the face shape and created reference points with the guides

3 is the image with the neck a little bigger on the left and jaw shape adjusted.

Roger

:idea: Tis food for thought :idea:

candy,

i see you're in the thick of it again. fun, isnt it :)

if you dont mind, i'm going to post a series of pictures of steps of working on this image. i do hope this is ok. it's probably the easiest way i can help.

first, i work in rgb as much as possible. i usually dont work on single channels and i really dont think you have to here from what i see so far. i'll also mention that if you're using photoshop, any version, their clone is a bit clumsy, at least to me. i'm using Paint Shop Pro 9 (my main computer is in the shop with psp 10 and this is windows 98se so i cant install 10 on this machine). psp's clone is simple, right click to set the start point and left click to clone. so, it's all on the mouse for ease of use. and yes, there are other settings along the top tool bar for opacity and all that.

with this image i decided it would be best just to get rid of some of the clutter. there is nothing in the background worth saving so i just cloned it all over with a bit of decent background i found near his jaw on the camera left of his face.

my workflow is simple: duplicate the original layer and then also make a new blank layer and set the clone to 'use all layers'. i set the clone tool to 90% opacity to do the background. this is fast, just roughing things out, type of work. the 'hardness' of the tool is set to 50. this setting allows a sort of feathered cloning and is very forgiving, which is why i like it.

so, with the blank layer highlighted i just start where i indicated above and move around the man's head till i've got a mostly clean area. i'm not even really trying to get up close and really clean edges at this point. i just want to get rid of some of the distracting area of the background so that things are a little cleaner.

and that's it, stage one complete.

craig

ok, this is stage two. again, all i'm trying to do here is clean up the rough stuff so that i can better see the good stuff. this time i took the coat and hat. the brush is still at 90% opacity and 50% hardness. i may have missed on his collar on the camera right side but i can fill that back in later from a similar image if i did.

notice i purposely left a little texture and whiteness in the coat. i dont want a perfectly monotone color here. i'll do more with that later.

i did nothing on the face but i did go around a few edges and get them closer.

oh, and this was all done on yet another blank layer, not the same layer i used in stage one. there is an advantage in doing this this way. if you find out you really messed something up in one of the stage it's a whole lot easier to deal with that one layer than to try and go back 500 or even 1000 steps in the history. i've even deleted whole layers and just done them over and that's again, a whole lot easier than just starting from scratch.

so, stage two, done.

craig

stage three. now, these stages are all pretty arbitrary. it's just i get to a certain point or maybe a certain area and look at things and go, 'ok, that's good so far'. they are just sort of break points in the workflow.

on this one, i'm still all clone, but i've changed the opacity down to 60% now. i'm still at 50% hardness, though. it starts to get a bit trickier now. i've also lowered the brush size for closer work.

here i'm going to start cleaning up the face a bit, but again, this is mostly to just sort of generally clean things up; no fine detail work yet, at least not on the face. and since my motto on these is always 'do no damage', i'm staying away from the eyes for now. i do handle the chin and jaw line on the camera right side a bit. i also do a little more on the uniform and hat and some of the outer edges of the head.

basically, i'm just doing those areas that wont hurt things too much at this brush size and this opacity and i'm still staying away, mostly, from the critical edges like eyes and lips, though i do do some on the ears now. it also gets more important to start watching the shading, so the stuff directly under the brim of the hat has to be watched and around the jaw where the jaw shades the neck and so on. i work from many directions to the same point often, picking up the shade from one area and then the other, blending them into each other to make a smoother transition. i also take out the major mar across the face/nose area while defining the nose a bit more in the process.

this is also where it starts to become important in knowing how the human anatomy looks close up. at various points i might also put a contrast/brighness adjustment layer up for a bit to bring out more detail so i can see where the edge lines are. but i dont leave this up when i clone. this is just for checking my lines.

ok, i didnt do a lot on this stage and that tends to be the case. as you get into more and more detail, i like to make new blank layers to work with for each area, minimizing the amount of flaws on one layer.

and that's it for this stage.

craig

And I just made the popcorn!

Now you know how much I'm going to have to read and reread, don't you?
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh but you can bet your boots that this masocitic gal, I recall you calling someone, will get the job done and boy do I appreciate all the help. That is what learning is about.

Hugs!!! ;)

candy, :)

next stage. this is actually two small stages, another clone at 40% opacity but i moved the hardness down to 35% because i also made the brush smaller, and another stage (and new layer) for some airbrushing.

with clone i worked on the ears, the neck and edges with clone. also some on the cap getting lines better. also moved some shading with clone and smoothed out some earlier clone marks and transitions.

with the airbrush i added in some shading on the face and a bit of texture on the neck and took out some of the red on the cap. i also smoothed out some noise with the airbrush.

one thing to watch out for is to keep clone layers separate from airbrush layers and if you use smudge, keep that on a separate layer also.

also, though i havent done it on this airbrush layer, you can sometimes do a gausian blur on that layer to get a better look. just sort of depends.

also, i've decided to leave the research on the uniform up to you. so, i'm pretty much done with that part. you need to find where the collars are and the tie, though the tie seems pretty defined. and you also want to know if there are any more insignia anywhere on the collar. i think there is one visible.

and i probably shld have said this earlier....save often :)

craig

Excellent steps and tutorial Craig, Congratulations :bigthmb:

Hi everybody,

this restoration is really becoming excellent!! :bigthmb: :bigthmb:

Roger, Craig,

excellent job!! It would be very nice to see your clear and very detailed explanations in published Tutorials!!

Unfortunately, such great step-by-step descriptions tend to get 'lost/buried' as the number of Threads and Posts increases .. :o:
How often I'm looking for tips I know I've seen here at RetouchPRO, but can't find them anymore ...

Candice,

I really admire you ... Not scared of tackling very difficult restoration problems just for the sake of helping and learning!! ... Simply great!!! :bigthmb:

As for the 'subjective' part, [keeping in mind that restoring (opposed to retouching) should help bringing something (photo, painting, etc.) back to its initial 'glory' remaining as close as possible to the original..], it refers to the ways you follow to get to the required/desired result...

Here is a list of tips on the topic I collected:


If dealing with portraits or picture of people, never change the 'identity' of the subject/s ... meaning don't change eyes, mouths, noses and don't reposition these features in the face ... It might look nicer to you, but satisfy your taste isn't what matters ... you are dealing with people's memories and people want to remember/recognize the subject/s of the pictures as they were!!! (Reconstruction of missing details is another topic)


Keep in mind that old pictures rarely had a very strong contrast, so, go easy when adjusting contrast and exposure, a well balanced picture still has visible details in both darkest and lightest areas ...


The same goes for colours ... bright coloured pictures are the product of a much closer past ... so, don't go splashing strong colours on your image just for the sake of impact and, maybe, even for drawing attention from 'uncorrected' or badly corrected areas .... ;) Be very careful to soften the edges and really blend the colours when colorizing ... badly coloured pictures tend to look like a kid's experiment on a Colouring Book!
Here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=93421&postcount=8) are some very useful colouring Tips.


Unless specifically asked, be it by customers or friends/family, don't change a photograph into a painting or a very personal artistic interpretation .... It surely makes everything easier as 'artistic' procedures tend to 'hide' scratches/imperfections much quicker ... but, sometimes, these procedures tend to transform a face into a nearly unrecognizable 'blob' :o:


Go very easy with 'denoising' procedures ... (no matter what software and method you use) ... an 'overdenoised' subject migh look like a plastic doll making everything look very unnatural!


Go very easy with sharpening too, as strong sharpening can create unwanted, unnatural 'haloes' around a subject.


Finally, when making corrections, any kind of correction, start very softly ... you can 'build up' gradually until you are satisfied with the result.


Hope these tips can help you like they helped me!!!

As I sit and read and reread, I've made another bowl of popcorn (not really). It's all excellent and one thing that caught my eye was the sharpening and the halo... I didn't know that but see pics with it around them all the time.

Kraelin, no need to remind me to save often, one of the documents that I worked on was just about done when a storm passed through ...... GUESS who had to do things that had been done, all over again! :wink:

Insignia - I will have to look closer, for I did not see one. The cover emblem is well out dated and have not found one in any of the archives so I have to work with that one. Navy made some changes along the way. Attached is an emblem that began to show up in later WWII to present day, so keeping the definition of the other is very important.

I really do wish I could sit with one of my teachers and watch. I'm a very visual/hands on learner. My reading is excellent but then I have to translate it to the actual work. LOL We all have ways of learning: visual, auditory, and kinestetic. ...... I had to learn which way each of my kids learned when homeschooling, but enough of that...... You are also using Photoshop 10 and I'm still using Photoshop 7, minor translation of terms thus is needed and perhaps Photoshop 7 is not as advanced, but none the less it is the tool I must use.

You all are great! I'm excited because I believe that it can be done and won't quite until it is. That spark is what makes this keep me from pulling out ALL of my hair! lol I'll keep you posted. I'm to a place where I will share where I am and have used many of the things shared.

I was able to bring out the emblem more, bring his face into place by copying the area, creating a layer, pasting and rotating it over the area of damage. I guess you could say that I slipped it back into place. Next I brought the shirt to where I thought it would belong and cleaned up the lapels. No, I've not worried about blending yet, because I'm just reconstructing the things you see. Also, Instead of B/W I made a pattern of a clean spot of background so that I could work with a better representation of the original. It helped me... I'm not to savvy with how to blend the layers without changing what I've worked on.... Anyhow, now you can see where I've gotten to this morning. Now off to work I go!! Hi Ho Hi Ho!

:classic:

candy,

that's a huge improvement on the face. and yes, i think that's the cap insignia. but, if you look real closely i think you'll see that there are two down on his collar/lapel. they are badly damaged and i figured if i were doing this fully i would just those up and just clone in new ones.

i particularly like the eyes. i did up another stage and added eyes also, but frankly, i like yours better. so if i go any further with this i'm going to go back and redo mine.

here's another little tip: while working in clone layers (blank layers you clone into), 'flip' the layers on and off so that you can see the original showing. this gives you the before and after and tells you pretty obviously if you're 'staying within the lines'. just click on the 'eye' on the layer and turn it rapidly on and off to see the before and after.

and you'll notice from my posting dates that i stop every once in while. take a break. walk away from it. it's very easy to get 'work blind' on this stuff. that's what i call when you get so interiorized into the work that you sort of lose track of objectivity and perspective and so on. this is a very common thing in retouching and restoring. you zoom in and build up so many mental image pictures that the whole thing sort of blurs as to where you started, where you are and where you're going. so, walk away once in a while. take a walk and look at the daisys or go play in the snow or something along those lines. and it's best, truly, if you can get outdoors in wide open spaces and realize the world isnt all sitting on a small monitor :)

i'm going to let you do this for a while on your own now. please, keep posting. i can already see big improvements and that just does my old heart good; makes me proud of myself and of you and that's a win-win situation :)

craig

:blush: You do a gals heart good.

I agree about walking away from the puzzle. That's what I've been doing and as you can see I see new things - evidentally not the insignias. Could you be so kind as to point an arrow and I'll do the rest.

I think I'll work a little now while cooling down from work.

candy,

in all honesty i'm not real sure about the other insignia. it might be buttons too. way down at the bottom of the picture, camera right of the tie, in the black area... looks like a round button or patch with something in it. damage is pretty steep there, so again, not real sure. if you've got a full blown uniform that shld tell you what is or isnt there.

craig

I spotted that and according to other pics, that is a button. :nod: Under the circumstances and the damage, if it was an insignia the damage is to great to start guessing now.

Also, attached is the next step of the project. Let me know what you see.

ok, it's a bit rough around the edges yet and you've done something to the face. i liked the last version better...seemed closer to true in the face. i do like the collar. the irises and pupils seem ok. that camera left ear is a bit rough. what i did on that ear is to make a copy of the other ear, lighten it and mirror it and then paste it back in. a little clone, push and/or airbrush to blend it in better.

the overall face seems a bit over cloned. think of the clone tool as a paint brush. that's really what it is. and then think 'fine art'. when i start getting into more critical areas that's exactly how i treat this, as if i'm painting. i use all sorts of strokes. sometimes i hold the mouse down and paint a whole line, especially along edges to clean them up. sometimes i airbrush on one layer and then clone the airbrushing around. sometimes i use a sort of nibbling stroke where i set my clone mark and then move the cursor half way out of that mark, but still half way in too. that gives you an almost exact copy of something very near to the area you're working on and, as you move along in dabs or nibbles you are picking up a smaller percentage of the original each time you dab. you lay down a dab with clone at 60% and then as you move the mouse cursor a tiny bit, you pick up part of what you just laid down but since you're still at 60% you're basically picking up 60% of 60% and this gives you a gradient fade out of where you original set your mark. this is great for transitioning from one shade value to another. if you also set your mark in different locations around your target area from time to time, you can then blend with this dabbing technique quite effectively, keeping proper shading transitions and color transitions.

cloning is an art. and reconstruction and restoration is probably the hardest area of graphics work there is. high fashion is a breeze compared to rebuilding a flood damaged, time worn, sunlight faded, poorly taken photograph. it's probably also the hardest on the artist. you want to make it 'look like new' or to 'look like a photograph' again and often, it's just not possible within a given time frame or financially feasible and that's hard on the artist that's striving for something really good. so, you have to find your own level of acceptance on these. when is good, good enough? i'm saying all this because i'm particularly demanding of myself in this regard. i doubt i could charge what is really invested. nobody would pay it :) so, you have to set your own standards here.

i was watching 'the antiques roadshow' on tv tonight and they had a woman on that had an original illustration art piece from an old cover of the 'saturday evening post'. she paid $1000 to have it cleaned and restored. the painting was appraised on the show for something like $3000. i'll guarantee that you'll put just as much care and time in on some photos as that restorer did but you wont make $1000 off it :)

anyways, keep at it and dont be afraid to throw out what you dont like and start again. stay true to yourself. and keeping things on layers will help in that regard ;)

craig

If I had a waste paper basket it would have been full many times over. I've closed the book for a day or two to think and clear my head before starting again......

You're a sweety Craig and such an encouragement.

yes, digital trash cans are very useful :)

and thank you :) trust me, i know how frustrating this stuff can be. i'm still not where i want to be on restoring either and i have a bruised forehead to prove it ;)

here's another tip you might want to explore. before cloning or other actions like that, try enhancing detail on the overall image. thngs like contrast/brightness, curves, levels, clarify, shadows/midtones/highlights and so on can often help bring out more detail which in turn can make it easier to clone/push/smudge/airbrush.

and here's another tip, though i dont use this one often. instead of the normal procedure for cloning, turn off all layers except one blank layer on top and the original background layer. turn OFF 'use all layers'. highlight the background layer. set your clone mark/set point on a location on the background layer you wish to start from, but, before actually cloning, highlight the blank layer and set your clone cursor EXACTLY over your set mark. then, set your clone brush opacity at 100%, hardness around 60 to 80 and hold down your left button and clone an entire area onto the black layer in one pass. this shld put an exact copy of that area on the blank layer. this is sort of a quick way to select out specific areas to work on. it shld put that copy of that area exactly in the right spot. turn off the background layer so that only your new area copy is showing and work only on that area. from time to time, check how you're doing by turning on the background layer again and turning off the top layer. just toggle the top layer on and off to see before and after. this is a pretty good way to remove a LOT of distraction in a hurry and gives you a good way to check before and after and isolates one area to work on in case of mistakes.

as you finish one area, simply repeat the process for another area and clean that one up. so, you might have one layer that is the background, one that is the cap, one the face/neck, one the uniform and so on. this also lets you go back and work on an earlier layer without damaging anything else.

there's lots of little things like this to try. you might try the last tip but only set your clone to 50% and try a blending mode after fixing things up. because this image is primarily black and white, a blend of luninance might work.

you might also try that last tip but only clone in the best areas, the least damaged and then use that to fill the damaged areas you didnt clone in.

clone is a very versatile and very powerful tool.

craig

I've taken time to copy and paste your words. When I need them next, which will be soon, I will read them over again and again.

Tonight I have finished the picture that started this thread and will soon send it on to Operation Photo Rescue. I've worked very hard on it and at this point feel that it's satisfactory to return.

Don't go far Craig, because you never know when I'll need you again. More than that, I'd miss you if you did go far.

Thank you and all for your suggestions...

okie dokie. good job :)

i'll be here and you're welcome :)

craig

Hi Candy.

You seem to be doing just fine with this.But I am not sure OPR will welcome the change of background. From what I remember of their rules this is not allowed.

I hope you don’t mind but I had a go at it. I will post the method if you want it But you seem to be getting along just fine. :pleased:

Enjoy the Popcorn.

Ken.

Hey all,
This is my first restoration ( on someone else's pic). I didnt read through all the replies before I started, so I am sure there's some easy stuff that I missed. I did a lot of cloning, used gaussian blur and used the history brush. And I put a little eyeliner on the right eye :p Finally, to reduce the size, I converted to lab color, did a greyscale on lightness channel and adjusted contrast and brightness. Thanks for looking...
Fatima

with no background...... and though I sent both, it should be the owners choice. I did finish cleaning up a bit more around the ears before sending it off, but left the "before ear job" up.

And that is the END to this story

candy,

looks good :)

for future reference, here's a tip on edges, like the edge line of his uniform where it meets the background. you can take the smudge or push (in Paint Shop Pro) tool and set it along the edge. left click once, then move the brush down the edge a ways and hit and hold down the shift key and left click again. this will 'draw a smudge' along that line from where you first clicked to where you shift-clicked.

you can only do this along straight edges. it wont follow a curve. your brush shld be relatively small. your opacity shld be medium to light in most cases but experimenting will tell you the best setting for this. where you set your cursor for the first click can also vary. sometimes i'll do this along the inner edge and sometimes the outer and sometimes right on the transition line.

in your case, on this picture, with the black of the uniform as the inner edge and the white of the background as the outer edge, i would probably try putting the cursor mostly on the white, outer part and let the smudge line erase a small part of the black uniform to give a more straight line there to the uniform.

i'm not suggesting you shld re-do this picture. this is just for future work, a new technique, tip. it's a good way to define edges like this and clean them up. i often use this near the end of the job to put a final, clean edge on transitions like this.

and, if you have a long line like the uniform line from his neck down to his shoulder and it has a slight curve to it like this one does, you can do many of these along that line, segment by segment to get the whole thing looking better. you dont have to do just one long smudge line.

i definitely see an improvement from the last image you did. so, yer doin fine :) just practice, practice, practice and in no time you'll be giving me tips and showing me how to improve mine :)

craig

and here's another tip, though i dont use this one often. instead of the normal procedure for cloning, turn off all layers except one blank layer on top and the original background layer. turn OFF 'use all layers'. highlight the background layer. set your clone mark/set point on a location on the background layer you wish to start from, but, before actually cloning, highlight the blank layer and set your clone cursor EXACTLY over your set mark. then, set your clone brush opacity at 100%, hardness around 60 to 80 and hold down your left button and clone an entire area onto the black layer in one pass. this shld put an exact copy of that area on the blank layer.

Craig
you have some really great tips, but with this one wouldn't it be easier to lasso the bit your interested in, and then "New layer via copy", no messing about getting lined up exactly. Then work on that layer till satisfied.

Peter

Why don't you finish the picture and let me see the final works. I've sent mine in and was satisfied at this point. I always have access to the high resolution print, and can work on it but I needed to come to a conclusion. Art, of any form, can be infinate.........

peter,

in paint shop pro, you get two cursors with clone, one the set mark where you're cloning from, and the second is the click cursor where you're cloning to. each of these is a circle and each circle size is based on the brush size. so, it's very easy to simply put the set cursor on one layer and the click cursor on another and line them up perfectly, since they both show at all times.

candy,

well, like i said, i didnt really do the uniform because of lack of a model. i also didnt do the braid on the cap, pretty much for the same reason, but also because i just wanted to show the face. so, here we go.

also, i notice most folks that posted pics here missed on the eyes. the eyes are not looking at the camera in the original.

craig

well, candy, you asked me to post it, so, what'cha think?

craig