Hi Gang,

This one is really giving me some troubles. The subject is outside with cast shadows from the trees. The spots on the photo are also giving me some troubles. I would appreciate any help and/or suggestions that you might have.

Jon

Well I don't know if this can really be restored. Perhaps an artist could come up with something. I tried a bunch of things like levels, curves, overlay blend modes etc. Various blur filters in lighten and or darken modes. Finally just painted some of the areas. The variable lighting from the trees did add some excitement to this challanging restoration.

Well I don't know if this can really be restored. Perhaps an artist could come up with something. I tried a bunch of things like levels, curves, overlay blend modes etc. Various blur filters in lighten and or darken modes. Finally just painted some of the areas. The variable lighting from the trees did add some excitement to this challanging restoration.

Hi Phil - Thanks for the reply. I am having the same problems. I frist thought that this would not be that bad until I got started on it. Let's see what others might come up with, but I do like what you did thus far, I had to do the same.

Thanks Again!
Jon

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Hi,

Jon,

I have to agree with Phil about "if this can really be restored"
It's one of those picture you could work on for hours and never be satisfied with the result .... :o:

Like Phil, I tried a bit of everything (concentrating mainly on the lady's face) but I'm far from satisfied .... I'm posting it anyway and, if you'd like details of what I tried just let me know...

Very nice. I think cropping was an excellent idea. The facial details are accurate to what the original was I believe. Her hands were tough to restore as where the margins of the lower part of the dress to the background.

Hi Jonk,

sorry this is crude but I usually visit Retouch pro while at work....and all I have on this workstation is paint. Feels like trying to spot with a two by four....anyway.... I mocked up some reference points for you, hopefully they will help you a little.

A couple of things that mess with ones perception.
The lady has the double chin thing going on, which makes it difficult to determine where the jawline lands.
Also there is a corner behind her, see the different perspective in the boards, I'd mask that off while I was working as I would find it distracting (but that is just me. I drew out the corner on the image.

There is an object sitting on the ground behind her on the left side of the pic, who knows what that is.
The dress should fall straight down from the hips given the style of it, you can see the building behind her through the gaps between her arms and her body. I drew up where her waist is for you.
If you are brave enough to try and mock up the folds in the dress by airbrushing, hit the library and grab the "10,000 years of fashion" book (it is really helpful when you just can't quite make out a line or detail on clothing)

Hi Gang!

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Well, I rolled up my sleeves and began working away on this one. I'll post it when I complete it. The very first thing I had to do was rebuild the Green and the Red channels by using the "Apply Image" method. This did seem to help but now I am working with the healing and clone brush to restore as much as possible before rebuilding the face and hands. It's a good thing that I am a portrait artist; I think my knowledge of structure is really going to pay off here.

I post it soon - Thanks Again!

Jon

Phil, Jon,

thank you for a great feedback! :pleased:

Jon,

after reading you'd like to start by tackling the Channels, here is a small tip:

don't limit yourself to the RGB mode ..... attached is the CMYK yellow Channel which I tweaked with the Levels. I found a lot of information there and had used it on my restoration to tackle the points raised by Juliana:

1* clearer definition of the lady's jawline and body contour (dress).
2* clearer definition of house boundaries and window behind the subject.
3* clearer definition of the darker area (near bottom left, behind the subject) which, looking where the light is coming from (top, 'my' right through the branches), I took to be the subject's shadow on the house wall.

Hope this helps.

I like that Flora :)

You can pick up almost all of the detail in her face now.

I'll have to try that (CMYK) with the next couple of projects I have to do

Thanks for the tip:)

I like that Flora :)

You can pick up almost all of the detail in her face now.

I'll have to try that (CMYK) with the next couple of projects I have to do

Thanks for the tip:)

Thanks for the tip, Flora. Small but great tip which sometimes I forget about. :grin:

Juliana, Venivedi,

Thanks for your kind feedback .... so glad you found the tip useful!!!! :pleased:

Hi Everyone!

WOW! This was the hardest restoration that I EVER had. I did not think it was going to be so hard at first. I first want to THANK EVERYONE for your help and suggestions, it was a big help.

Although I will continue to do so more fine tuning/adjustments on the photo, I thought that I would post my progress thus far for you to see.

So what do you think?

Thanks Again All!
Jon

Drop a shadow into her left arm in the inside of the elbow area. It is there on the original, just really faint.
Also you may want to wrap the shadow on that arm a little more (darker at the furthest edge/closest to the body, fading as you come out towards the middle of the arm.
I think that would help that arm look more natural, it looks a bit "plastic" compared to the other one.

Are you going for more of a painted look rather than photographic?
I don't want to critique something you were actually trying for :)

Hi Everyone,

I would like to say THANK YOU to Juliana. We sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees, if you know what I mean. I thought that I did a pretty good job until I read Juliana’s reply. It was the fact that she asked if I was going for a “plastic” look that raised my eyebrows. It was this comment that caused me to take another look at what I thought was completed and reassess the work.

First, I am somewhat of a purest. I have been restoring photos for historical libraries for years, and it was this type of work that always forced me to be that purest and to restore the photo back to their original state if at all possible.

Well, I took another crack at this photo. Please tell me what you think now. I’m going to play a little with the background and the subject as far as lightening and darkening to see which one looks best, and maybe just a little fine sharpening (not much).

The main thing I like about RetouchPro is the people. Everyone has been so helpful and I love it. I know that I am somewhat new to this site, but I am here to stay!

Thanks Again Everyone! Really – Thank You Juliana, you made me look at the photo again in a different way.

Jon

That looks much better by far, retaining more of the original elements of the photo.
Only other thing I'd do is tone down the black splotchy thing on her face. i had to do that with the pic of the little boy I did (in critiques somewhere)...used a separate layer and turned the airbrush settings way down, sampled from the area closest to the tone I wanted.

I know what you mean, sometimes when I have been looking at something too long, I just have to bring the file to work and cut a print.
Makes all the difference in the world to me...turns out some things I thought looked messy, look great when printed and vice versa.

I have started making test prints mid way on projects just to get a different view of the work. Keeps me from getting all bug eyed from staring at the screen for too long ;)

Hi Jon,

I agree with Juliana .. your last version is much better than the previous one! :pleased:

I have been restoring photos for historical libraries for years, and it was this type of work that always forced me to be that purest and to restore the photo back to their original state if at all possible.
That's what for me is the base of 'restoring' a picture!!!

What I try to keep in mind is also that in the past pictures seldom had the high contrast, high quality and sharpness you see today ....

So, when working on these old 'mementoes', I never try to get it too smooth, too contrasty or too sharp as it would look very unnatural ....
If a non vital part of the picture is beyond help. well then, I rather crop it instead of wasting an enormous amount of time trying to get a result which, I know from the beginning, will never satisfy me ... (Of course you can't do it when working on historical pictures ...)

What I try not to forget is also that in the end, even though I must be satisfied with my work, it is the customer (well, not in my case as I don't do it professionally) who has to be satisfied with the result ... and, most of the times, even a minimal improvement is enough ... as long as the person photographed can be recognized after a restoration and as long as the 'customer gets a photograph and not a painting back ....

In other words ... what I learnt is that in photo restoration most of the time less is much, much more ... :wink:

BINGO!!!!! That is exactly my feelings when it comes to restoration work. Sometimes I spend way too much time on a photograph and it comes back to haunt me, that's the perfectionist in me.

Juliana – I’m going to work to reduce the spot on her face and that’s about it. I might try to lighten it a little. The printed version looks really good.

Have a Great Day!
Jon