Hi All,
I uploaded several before and after examples of some of my restoration work in the hopes that you all might follow suit. I thought it would be nice to see what we've done outside of the challenges in the restoration work.
These photos range from my very first efforts to my latest works. (Not in any order) So if you are interested check them out here (http://community.webshots.com/user/dj_dubovsky)
Give me your critiques, thoughts etc. I can use all the help I can get. :)
DJ

Very nice. I especially liked 'man at the bar' and 'two women restored'.

You seem to have a particular knack at pulling out details from shadow areas. Maybe you could share your technique?

The closest thing I could have for criticism is that sometimes the saturation levels don't match (see 'fire truck colored') and edges can be a bit abrupt (see 'scene manipulation'). But I'm trying really hard to find something to criticize. They're really quite great! :)

Way to go Debbie! I especially liked the "two women restored". You did a great job on that.

I hope you have a signed release for "muscles". I surely don't remember signing it. :)

Ed

Hey DJ,

What beautiful work you have done!! Outstanding!!!

It's obvious you enjoy the colorization as you put a lot of feeling into getting the right colors for the era.

I particularly liked the sleepy boy and pup...very nice effect.

I also tried to find critisizm...but wasn't able to see any immediate problems.

I do have a question for you though, have you received any colorization jobs where there were trees and all their many leaves involved? I received a request from a customer and cringed when I saw the trees. Maybe that might be a good challenge to colorize a very detailed black and white. It's one thing to do portrait type pictures but one with a lot of detail like your stereoscope is really quite difficult..at least to me it is..lol.

Cudos for all the time you spent in setting up your webshots pics, I'll have to try out webshots as I haven't seen that site before.

Again, beautiful work!

what a great way to start my day. i love your stuff, dj. i really liked the two sisters combined. as usual, much of it pulled @ the heart strings and made me want to know the rest of the story; that is one extra special benefit of this work. the way the goat popped out was really cool. and i love the face on that little girl who was you. where were you?and how clever of you to get ed to model, we have all wondered what he looked like. just like i thought. ;)

Excellent work Dj!!!! I am enthralled with the WW 1 soilder. Great job!!!! Tom

Thank you all. You are a real encouragement to someone's efforts. I can't wait to see all yours. Hint Hint :)

Doug-
I realized how drastically hard edges show up by printing that "scene manipulation" I have since learned to blur my selections more. Good catch. Incidently, that was my son in that picture after he fell face first in the sand. As for the firetruck, I could never quite see what the problem was with that one, mostly because when you work on something so long, you don't always see it like someone else does. You are right about the saturation on the truck but I just couldn't see until you said it. I bet that's why it didn't print so nice. Thanks, that was a good observation and a learning experience for me.

As for the shadow details maybe I will post a tip in the tips section. I hated how scanners get the white detail at the expense of the darks and vise versa so I have been trying to get around that.

The 2 women restored was a job I had that at first I was only going to do the upper bodies. I just couldn't do that. I thought the photo was better in it's entirety so I cloned the legs of the older woman and slimmed them down on her daughter then cloned the rest of the area to fill in the floors and curtains.

The man at the bar had sooooo much damage since the guy had been sitting on it for 40 years. It looked like it was crunched up fine and ironed out. That was a nasty one. There was no skin detail it was all cracks. I blew it up and used the dodge tool and a small brush to lighten all the webwork cracking. Then cloned hair from another photo he had. I still had to shadow and highlight to get his face to have some definition. It became a painting more than a photo. What a job!

Ed- Muscles is now in his late 70s and is an exact model of the big belly Buddah. That's his nickname even. Blew me away when I saw him after working on that photo and his bar scene photo.

Tom - the WWI soldier was my first PAYING job. I was thrilled to be able to give them back a piece of thier history. Guess that's what gave me the encouragement to pursue this line of work.

Kathleen- The little boy with the goat was my son Jason at 4 years old. Yeah I'm the little kid (about 12) on the horse if that was the one you were mentioning.

Thanks again guys for all your wonderful comments. Encourgagement and constuctive help are priceless to someone who's not always sure of themselves.
DJ

The legs was one of the reasons I liked it. Great touch.

Doug,
I just figured since they were mother and daughter there parts were interchangeable. Guess it worked. The client loved it.:)
DJ

Debbie,

You said "The man at the bar had sooooo much damage since the guy had been sitting on it
for 40 years". If I had been sitting on a bar for 40 years, I'd have a lot of damage too! Sorry, just had to get that one in :) .

I'm on my way to check out your web site. The part I missed, that is.

Ed

I thought that you did an excellent job with those photos.It is very helpful to view the before and after side by side . I was particularly impressed with the man by the bar. I like the "painterly" effect and have been trying to do more along that line. I sometimes combine photographs and art backgrounds. I'll try to post an example in the near future.The only thing that I might consider changing was the composite of the two sisters. I would have reversed the order so that the sister looking to the right is looking at the other sister. But maybe you did so and it didn't look right. I had the thought that since the feet always seem to be a problem area that we should make up a leg and shoe archive. Maybe we can start going around with our digital camera snapping legs and feet... my neighbors would really start thinking that the heat's gotten me! Isn't this hot, humid weather a great excuse to stay inside and work on our photographs. Paulette

Hi Paulette,
Thank you for your comments. I never even thought about trying to face the sisters or at least the one looking to one side. The client wanted them in the vertical 5x7 position and since they were so different in shadowing etc I aggreed that they wouldn't look right side by side. The only reason I put the lower one down was that she was actually darker and the top photo had a natural progression to darker at the bottom so they blended easier. I guess I could have moved her to the other side and she would have been facing in the direction of her sister. I never even thought of it. Good point. :)

Yeah here in Florida you could take pictures of bare legs all year for cloning purposes. :D Good idea. I've had a few times when I needed some good shoes or legs for a photo. I was just lucky that one had one.

Look forward to seeing your work. Glad I got someone eager to upload some of her work. Thanks again Paulette
DJ

Hi DJ

Everyone, I had the pleasure of meeting DJ, we found out we are practically neighbors!!! Small world. I saw her work and WOW very very impressive. It's hard to see the quality online, I was really amazed at how she got all the detail. I showed her my work and she was very encouraging about my "butcher" job of my wedding photo restoration. LOL LOL. I am trying and learning so much from this forum. You all have helped me soooooooo much. Thanks:)

Wow, my little board helped make some new in-person friends

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy...

I need a hug :)

:)

Okay...here's a huge hug for Doug...lol.

Okay all,

Here's some examples I've put on the webshots...hope I did it right..lol.

http://community.webshots.com/user/ladybelle76885

I'm not real sure if this will work and I just put up some quick samples and I'll add more as I can get some time.

Please view them and let me know any feedback as I appreciate any help I can get.

Chris, Excellent work, especially "Wedding" and "Granddad". Wish I had your eye for color! Tom

Thank you Chris for getting this parade started.

I am impressed!!! Your work is beautiful!! I loved how you got Grandma Moses to look lifelike again. That was a tough one. Don't you just love those ones that bring out the painter in you? :)

Grand-dad seems to pop right out of that picture. Your eyes are drawn right to him especially against that monotone background.

Loved them all but the wedding and Grand-dad really caught my eye.

I was hesitant at first to start this thread but now that it's going I am thrilled. It gives you so many ideas on how to approach your future restoration projects. We tend to work in a certain style. I think when we see other works we get insite to other ways of doing things and we are able to expand ourselves.
DJ

Thanks so much Tom and DJ.

Okay you two, need to have any tips or suggestions on the ones that don't pop out...lol. One thing I've noticed on the colorization it does help a lot when your original is in very good condition. The grand-dad and wedding both were in excellent shape and had obviously been very well taken care of.

Need some ideas though on improving the not quite so "poppy" ones...lol.

Thanks again for checking them out.

Chris
You may have just answered your own question. You probably hit it on the head when you said alot depends on the condition of the photo you scanned from. Your work is still exceptional "poping out" or not. :)
DJ

And I'm just up the road a spell in Stuart! DJ- isn't there a photographic center in Delray Beach where they offer courses and have exhibits.We're still somewhat of a backwater up here culturally speaking but with great Photoshop courses at our local community college I'm staring to meet other folks in the community who are into digital imaging. There is a strong MAC users group here which meets monthly in the library and I sometimes go to one of their workshops if they have something of interest.Must leave now for something but I'll post later.( My friends think I need more face-to -face human contact in my life!)PC

hey chris-

that's some good work. i have to agree with the majority on preferences, granddad and wedding were mine, too. the saddle in granddad made me want to touch it; i felt like somebody could just jump on any minute. and boy would i love to see the brides outfit face to face; i love to look @ the detail and craftsmanship on vintage clothes, you have featured it admirably.

i wonder how old that one of grandma moses is. and i wonder how old she was in it. i'm 51, and i'll bet she was in that ballpark. i have noticed that before in old pictures, how people my age look a lot older. (altho i may be kidding myself) wonder if a few generations hence, they will be saying that about me.

and your grandparents both have such kind faces, that's really neat what you were able to give your mom. precious. good job.

Thanks Kathleen,

I wish I could show you the original in real life as I've never seen anything quite like it.

I'm just not sure what was done as I said it isn't any kind of a photo but more like maybe a sketching perhaps. Very different looking.

It was on paper versus photo type paper and very brittle so needless to say I held my breath throughout the scanning process.

Thanks again for the input all.

Debbie, great work! My favorie is "Muscles" You really did an excellent job on that.

Chris W. - great job too. I especially like your coloring of the wedding photo, beautiful job.

I also have a portfolio online atwww.lifetimephoto.com (http://www.lifetimephoto.com)

Chris,

Nice colorization jobs. I like the “grandparents” photo where you combined them both into a computer-generated frame. Nice touch. My only criticism there is that her hair looks a little hard. Need a few of those whispies that get lost when you cut out a person from their original background.

I really like the “grand-dad” photo. It’s nicely colored and just an overall neat photo. I also agree with everyone else that the “wedding” and “grand-dad” photos are so attractive because you made the people stand out from their backgrounds. Great job!!!

DJ,

Nice work. The “man at the bar” restoration was very impressive. I bet that took a while to restore. I also like the
“sisters custom” photo. The results look like the two had their photo taken together verses you combining two separate photos. Great job.

Thanks Vikki and T for the nice comments. Yes a few of those were real hair raising experiences.
DJ

Thanks T,

You're right on the hair and that is something I have been trying to work on...getting all the whispies when I crop. It's a tough one but I'll get it sooner or later with practice.

hey vikki-

i had come across your site sometime in the past (before i found this one), and i was then, and am now, endlessly impressed. love your work.

i looked at each and every one, the one that stands out the most in my mind is the watercolor dog. i think if you didn't know it was a photo, you wouldn't know it was a photo.

actually should prob have posted this under "our favorite business sites", because it qualifies. you inspired me early on and still. thanks kc

Vikki,

I had also visited your site some time back and am very impressed.

I have a picture somewhat like the man in front of the house where I assume light had leaked in the camera or the film was not totally rewound when it was opened...anyway, there is a large red blotch across the front of the picture...to this day I still try different methods to get it fixed but no luck yet. The good parts of the picture are very dark so maybe that's what the problem is...I'm still trying different things to get it restored.

Very nice work and a large applause to you.

Kathleen & Chris, thanks for the postivie feedback.
I love the dog painting too. I used several Photoshop filters, and another plugin called Fantastic Machine's Paint Engine. The effects were applied globally. The I used to achieve the effects don't always produce the same results, but I'm working on it.

Re: the man on the porch. If I remember correctly, that was a tough one. I probably used CMKY channel mixing, plus masking, and burn and doge. I was totally amazed by the results. I looked at the original as a challenge, and never expected it to turn out so well.

Wow, Vikki - I LOVE your work! (Yes, I looked at every picture too.) I can only hope to be that good someday. Knowing how many hours I've spent working on my grandparents' wedding photo, I'm having a hard time imagining how long it took you to do some of those restorations. If you don't mind, can you share how long it took you to do that one of the group of children on the corner? I'm just amazed at what you were able to do with that one.

And the woman on the sidewalk in the white dress with tape down the length of her - can you share how did you do that?

And the man in the front of the house where you removed the discoloration! I really have to study that one and try some of your tips because I've got a few photos like that that I need to work on!

Thanks for sharing, Jeanie

Working backwards...

Chris, I vote the same as everyone else - the wedding photo and grandfather are spectacular!

The one of your grandparents is really neat. I might steal the idea for my great aunt. You asked what would make "the others" pop out like the wedding and grandfather photos. I'm not sure with this one, but I wonder about where the eyes are looking and the perspective of the two photos. Could you make the eyes such that they are looking in the same direction? Also, your grandmother's photo is cropped right at her neck - if it were me, I might try to reconstruct a little of the shoulders to match your grandfather's photo. Then soften the background - perhaps a soft, mottled hue rather than the solid light yellow. That might help to make your grandparents "pop out" more. (I have NO experience with any of these suggestions - just things that I might try if it were me.)

Grandma Moses looks like a tough one. One thing that I notice right away is that the bonnet and bow seem too white (for my eyes) in the restored photo. Perhaps try making two scans - one to "expose" Grandma correctly, the other to expose the bow correctly - then combine the best parts of each picture. Also, the rest of the picture doesn't have much contrast. I would look at the levels (histogram) to improve that. I think Grandma will pop out quite a bit after you increase the contrast. I love the mat you put around the oval - it creates a beautiful overall effect! Again, I have very little experience with this - it's just what hit me when I looked at the photo.

Thanks for sharing - your work is beautiful!

Jeanie

DJ, sorry to take so long to pick up on this thread. Thanks for starting it - I love looking at everyone's work. Unfortunately, I don't have much to share - you've all seen the two photos I've seriously worked on.

I love your work because you're so creative. E.g., the man at the bar turns into a painting, the boy montage, sleepy pup, etc. Seems like you're really good at thinking outside the box. "Two women restored" is a masterpiece - and I LOVE the vibrant colors of the stereoscope!

The ONLY thing that I can see that I might have done differently is the HE111 plane. It looks a little too yellow to my eyes. I think I would have gone to grayscale (then created a duotone if that looked too harsh) before going back to RGB (or CMYK) for the coloring. The foreground and highlights on the plane are a different tone than I would have chosen. But, given that I don't have much experience, that feedback might not hold much weight.

Thanks again for starting this thread. I've discovered a lot of possibilities for what may come my way in the future.

Jeanie

Thanks Jeanie!
I don't keep track of my time, so it's hard to say how long I spend on something. I work sporadically I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, so I will spend how ever long it takes to get it done to my satisfation. Some days everything just clicks, and it's a quick job, other days, I could work from dawn to dusk. Obviously, I can't charge by the hour and so I have a fixed rate. I just don't think it's fair to charge someone for my crazy work style. (Each of the ones you mentioned would be $75).

Photoshop: The beauty of working at home, for yourself.....I don't like being on a timeclock. For me, it's stifling and inhibiting. I don't measure my work by how long it takes, just the final result.

TECHNIQUE: I pretty much use the same old steps on everything (with the exception of photos like the porch photo). In most cases, 90% of my work is done with the clone tool. I also use the technique of blurring, adding a little noise, taking a SNAPSHOT, and cloning from that. More recently, I've been working with the CMYK channels to fix problems before I get started on the details.

I'll tell you what I DON"T use (and I see this mistake a lot). The SMUDGE tool. I highly recommend that people steer clear of that, it's just not natural and produces a "painted" appearance.
I also never use the DUST & SCRATCHES tool - I don't get enough control.

My big tip would be - work in very small, light steps.

I problably said more than you wanted, but sometimes I get carried away. I hope some of this was helpful!

Thanks Jeanie for the encouraging comments on my work. I will have to look into your idea of using duotone to color the plane. I have never worked with duotone so it will be a new technique for me. Thanks again
DJ

Originally posted by Vikki
I problably said more than you wanted, but sometimes I get carried away.No, no, no! You definitely did NOT say more than I wanted! (I often worry that I say too much - please anyone feel free to tell me if that's the case.) Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

It helped me to hear that you work sporadically AND are a perfectionist. ME TOO! I'm afraid that my perfectionism will be my downfall in this business though. (I think I'll start another thread on that in the business section, as it's a real concern for me.)

Also, thanks for the tips on technique. It really helps to hear from someone who's obviously been doing it a while. :)

Jeanie