I first played around with Paint Shop Pro a number of years ago, restored a few photos by trial and error. I avoided Photo Shop, for one it was expensive, two....it had to be really complicated to cost that much money. well the first part is still true, the 2nd part not so bad. I picked up Katrin Eismann's 2nd edition restoration book last year, worked on all the samples adn had good results. Anyway, this effort is only my 2nd photo this year..(I should be ashamed) It was given to me by a co-worker, and is a member of her family came to America in the early 1900's.

As you can see from the original, the photo is stuck to the card background. The border looked really cool, and gave it an authentic period or time in history......so i cleaned it up, heal n' stamp then cloned the left border to make the right (I may borrow the border for future work). As the background was not imprtant I replaced it. I couldn't remember how to make a new studio backdrop, so I made clouds and adjusted. I borrowed the right side of his mouth to patch the left side. cleaned up marks on the face, and around the left eye. Added to the left eyebrow a bit. Minor scratches were cleaned up with healing brush.

Finally I added the border on top with John's name and sepia toned it...(took awhile, my actions bar is there but empty ?).

Anyway, would love to hear what you think, good or bad. Total time was about 4.5 hrs.

Mark,

I think you did a very good job, and I like the addition of the name on top :)

- Noel

Very nice job, Mark. You're right - that is a very cool border. Nice job with it - looks great!

Mr. Heffernan's face could possibly use a bit of repair around the right temple area. Also, sometimes a mouth (or nose, chin, etc) can look almost "too perfect" when borrowing the good half to replace the missing half. You might want to consider subtle alterations of the replaced half so it doesn't appear perfectly symmetrical, unless of course, you know for a fact it was. :classic:

All in all, high marks! :thumbsup: Great job.

Good work. I like the comment about the too perfect replacement. The only thing I would add is that the right jaw below the ear looks a little wanky, maybe a problem with selecting.

Cheers
Dave

Thanks for the comments, I made some adjustments to the left side of his mouth, to correct the symmetrical look...i'll play with the jawline later today.