Mr and Mrs. Frankenpicture?

well, how patient are you guys? i think most retouchers have to be patient, so i here draw a deep breath and put this one back on the table.

i didn't participate in either of the challenges on them (and felt mighty sheepish about it, and am eternally grateful to those who did) because i already had too much time logged in 8 bit to switch (although i ultimately did start all over again)

when started all over again, i was provided with a little more data - photo of him from 5 or so years earlier - head providentially @ same angle. and, ironically it is him that has proven most troublesome even with the additional head.

The children have all seen it and some of them think something's not right about him, but aren't really sure what, beyond maybe his "head looks too little" (i'm pretty sure i didn't change the size of the original head)

if i remember right i completely got his eyes from the new photo, have umpteen blended layers of new and old heads and am still unhappy with his skin.

i am almost ready to be done with this, there is some clean up i see i need to do around him, but i wanted to put it up one more time and see if yall have any final suggestions. couldn't bear to start all over again, don't think.

also had another soggy wedding shot from which i was able to retrieve enough veil detail to make the headpiece, but that original burned with my hard drive and that layer deleted from final copy

thank you little buddies

Good solution to the problem of the Gentlemans head. I would suggest perhaps mask his featues and add a small amount of monochrome gaussian noise( perhaps around 1.5 to start). Deselect and then convert the image to duotone use black as first tint and Pantone coated 2758cvc or 2768 cvc as the secondary, then adjust curves/levels to suit. Just some thoughts... Tom

Kathleen,

You know this is coming from a real rookie, and that's important! From viewing the image on my monitor, I can see places around both of them where it looks like you blurred the image to make it blend better with the background. I'm not sure if this is contibuting to "something not looking quite right with his head", but since it appears closer to his eyes than hers, it might be more easily noticeable on his side since your eye goes to the eyes of the subjects. They might not realize that's what they are seeing, but it could make them think that the head is not quite right. I could be completely wrong, but that's all I see.

Ed

Tom,

thanks for input

i don't know if this is different in 5.5, but when i try to enter that number where it says Key# on the custom colors, when i type 2, it puts in 021; when i type 7 in puts in 072 . . . anyway, i don't seem to be able to enter that #

what am i doing wrong?

Ed

they have both been blurred and noised within an inch of their respective lives. i do remember trying to burn him some new eye sockets but don't think i ever succeeded, lending credence to your thought that it's around the eyes where the problem lies. one more hour. that's all it gets.

Kathleen,

This may too late and coming from a rookie too, so perhaps not too useful. But... If you still have his head in a separate layer, have you tried making it just a little bigger to see how it looks? I do think the head looks a little small compared to his shoulders. If it were me, I'd experiment for a little while to see if a different size looks better or not. Might not be possible with all of the blending layers you mentioned though. :(

Also, the shadow looks a little harsh to me. I might try softening it a bit by widening it, i.e. playing around with the distance & size variables in the drop shadow options (PS - don't know about PSP).

Jeanie

jeanie

i'll try givin him the big head and see if the daughter i have access to thinks it's right. should have thought of that myself

i'm glad you mentioned the shadow; i have had misgivings about it - guess i'll show her a less shadow version too.

thanx

Try this: convert to duotone. Select duotone from drop down menu. Click in the 2nd box from top, in the window that appears click on {picker} ; at bottom of screen that opens there is a box with "#" in front of it. Delete the number in that box and type in { 05073F} that will get you to the correct swatch. Then press {custom} and then click OK. At the duotone window, you can click {save} and give the color a descriptive name for future use, then click{OK} and your done with that part. Then play with the levels and curve routines. I have a huge collection of these various tints, found by spending more hours than I care to admit just playing and saving them with descriptive names,so I can find 'em again. Sorry- gave you the wrong number. No hay or grain tonight. Tom

i am relieved it is as simple a thing as a wrong #, will plug in right one and try it.

i have a little sweet feed left over from edward the goat, it is only a little blue around the edges, you can have that. :D