Voting will run from 24 September to 30 September 2006. Only those with entries may vote. Deadline for votes is 6pm GMT 30 September 2006.

Only those that entered the contest may vote. All other votes will be deleted. If you did not enter, but would like to comment on an entry, please post your comments to the June 06 Discussion Thread.

Vote for the 5 best entries in order.

Note you cannot vote for your own image. If you do, your votes will be deleted.

Example Vote:
Pick the top five contest entries and list in order...

1. Entry X (First Place)
2. Entry A (Second Place and so on)
3. Entry Q
4. Entry S
5. Entry P

This thread will remain closed until it's time to vote.

And as always, when you vote try to include some things you especially liked about your choices…what made them stand out, what impressed you, etc. This is a learning experience!

Contest FAQs (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13446)

Contest Discussion (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14477)

Contest Entries (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14476)

Looks like I'm going to be the first voter :grin:

Here goes:
1st place - soleah (http://www.renbrand.net/September%2006/soleah_a.jpg)
Gotta love the angry facial expression of "hollowman" as I named him while trying to restore his face (he's the second person from left to right). The face of the little kid with the hat is nicely restored too.
2nd place - lurch (http://www.renbrand.net/September%2006/lurch.jpg)
The faces of the two girls in the right are a bit too bright, but overall it's a very nice work. I like the restoration of the staircase rail :thumbsup:
3rd place - Peter S (http://www.renbrand.net/September%2006/peter-s-.jpg)
The background is extremly bright, almost glowing, and distracts the viewer's eyes from the people. But the faces are restored very well. Also, great job on the pants of the man in the front - I couldn't guess the model :/
4th place - Doug Colwell (http://www.renbrand.net/September%2006/dougcolwell3.jpg)
Very nice "colors" (grey shades) and overall restoration! The only reason I didn't put this entry higher in the ranking is the overpaint on hollowman's and hatkid's faces.
5th place - CathyH (http://www.renbrand.net/September%2006/CathyH-sept-06.jpg)
Photo is a bit too dark, but nice work removing the scratches and dust :thumbsup:

In conclusion - hooray for all contestants! It was an extremly difficult photo to work on, but everyone did a great job :thumbsup:

See you in the next contest :wink:

tough judging here.

1st: doug colwell. excellent job. this was an easy 1st place pick.

2nd: soleah. a good job on keeping integrity on the faces. would have liked to have seen the background on the camera right darkened and brought out a bit more but good job on 'do no damage', which shld be the restorer's motto.

3rd: cazubi. very similar to soleah's. could have gone the other way very easily and a similar critique. the only real difference and why i chose soleah's over yours was, soleah's had a bit more of a natural photo look to it.

4th: jaime. also a good job. i think you missed a bit on three faces, the camera left, front row guy, the guy behind him and the woman in the 2nd row. i do like that you brought out the background more and that you fixed the blur/smudge on the boy in the back's face.

5th: ying. a little too dark in places, especially a couple of the faces. didnt bring the boy in back row's face out. i also thought i detected a couple of clone/heal marks. some of the faces were quite good, others you left in shadow, particularly the eyes, like on the shorter girl in the front, the barefoot girl in the front and the woman in the 2nd row. the house and wood look pretty good and i like that you gave the background some shading/tone. didnt like that you left the port rails blurred/fuzzy.

overall, this really was a stinker! i commend each of you for entering. the lighting here was one where you really werent going to get away with simple fixes. over-exposed on one side and under-exposed on the other. fuzzy stuff all over... not an easy pic at all.

i also give honorable mention to shalford. you got just beat out by a hair in my vote.

thanks, flora, for a most interesting piece of bang-your-head-on-a-wall :) was fun :)

craig

All in all I think everyone did an admirable job with a very frustrating picture. I first looked at it and thought no sweat, ha ha, I was wrong. I had half convinced myself that the two people with dark faces were coal miners and that to lighten their faces would be wrong (not to mention a whole heck of a lot easier).

I was looking for entries that avoided a glowy look around the black areas from using dodge and burn - something I aspired to but was unable to achieve completely - and faces that still looked like photo faces after restoration. Anyhoo, based on that criteria here is my voting...

1. Soleah - As soon as I clicked on your entry I said, clearly number 1. You did a great job on this one and I aspire towards your skill. I think for blowing everyone else out of the water you should be forced to write a lengthy step-by-step tutorial of how you accomplished your result. :P

2. Solitear - You also did a fabulous job on this that I am terribly jealous of. The only thing that took away from your beautiful job for me (and this is only personal taste) was the amount of noise added in. I agree with the addition, as early photos were definitely not crystal clear, I just would have liked a smaller percentage. Otherwise I would be flipping a coin between you and Soleah.

3. PeterS - I think you did a pretty nifty job of getting the pants to look like pants and stand out from the blackness of the crawl space under the house. I also thing you did a pretty good job of bringing the boy's face back, you were able to achieve a nice smooth skin tone.

4. Cazubi - I think you did a terrific job on the two faces that were shrouded in black. I am most impressed by the father's face.

5. ChrisHoggy - Although your entry is a little dark (mine is too) I think the work you did on the two dark faces is really true to what is actually there.

1 - Doug Colwell

2 - soleah

3 - ying

4 - Peter S

5 - printmeister

1 Dougcolwell
2 Shalford
3 Soleah
4 Leanansi
6 Jaime


And also everbody else of course

And I thought the picture was difficult......... it was nothing compared to voting on the pictures..... truly, there was something "best" in each restoration submitted whether the hidden man's face, the pointy headed woman, or blurry faced little boy ..... which made it so hard to choose but I tried to go for a broad scheme of things choice:

1. Doug Colwell - I liked your tones.... the little guy's face was very believable and the overall look was very balanced with no glaring highs or lows.

2. Cazubi - Your tones were dark but believably so..... they looked like the workers I'm guessing they were.... you made the blurred places work with the blurred background and it looked natural.

3. Jaime - I liked the even look of your picture..... you pulled details out of the bluriness across the little guy's face and made the whole thing more balanced.

4. Soleah - Their faces were very believable and more true to the actual shadows and highlights of the original photo. Very good job.

5. Chrishoggy - You, too, were able to overcome the bluiness surrounding the little guy's face and, even though dark in places, it looked real...

Everyone who submitted a pictures needs to stand up and take a bow!!!

1. doug colwell - great restoration! brought out the details on the old woman's face. took care of the glaring highlights, balanced the overall tone.
2. peter-s
3. cazubi
4. ying
5. chrishoggy

Congratulations to everyone for tackling this job!
:thumbsup:

And to Retouchpro for coming up with a different challenge month after month. Thanks for bringing out the best in us!

1. Doug Colwell
2. Soleah
3. Peter S
4. irshgrlkc
5. Ying

Tough contest but, in my opinion, Doug's entry wins by a country mile!
Well done to everyone.

1. Soleah
2. Ying
3. Cazubi
4. Peter S
5. Lurch

This was a hard list to pin down. Great work everbody!

1. Soleah
2. PeteS
3. Cazubi
4. Doug Colwell
5. Ying

Everyone did a great job.

1. Dougcolwell
2. Peter-s
3. Soleah
4. Ying
5. Chrishoggy

Well Done to everyone who took part.

This was a very tough contest, and I commend everyone on the great work that was put into each entry. Here are my votes:

1. Dougcolwell
2. Soleah
3 Ying
4. Lurch
5. Chrisshoggy

Well done everyone.

Cathy

Voting was as hard as the restoration - everyone had strong points and all did a bang-up job . . .

1. Doug Colwell
2. Cazubi
3. chrishoggy
4. Jamie
5. Shalford

Sorry for late Vote and no comments, will add comments in discussion thread.
1. Soleah
2. Cazubi
3. Doug Colwell
4. Peter S
5. Ying

Well done to all, as this was a pig of an image to fix.

Thanks Flora for selecting this challenging picture and for the help of gallery. Here are my votes:

1. Doug Colwell. Your work on the faces are remarkable and you have preserved all the details available.

2. Chishoggy. Although your picture is a little bit dark, I like the overall restoration you have done with this difficult image.

3. Ying. With the exception to solve the blurriness, your restoration is also great.

4. Cazubi.

5. Lurch.

Congratulations to all the participants.

First off congratulations to ALL that tackled this difficult challenge!!!

And the winner is....Doug Colwell

The Prize:

Backdrop Designer donated by Digital Anarchy (http://www.digitalanarchy.com/backdrop/backdrop_main.html)

Top 5:

Doug Colwell - 57
soleah - 49
Cazubi - 28
Peter S - 27
Ying - 21