Antique Girl

[Yolie]

HIII! I've done a little bit of retouching before when I took journalism classes in high school. Lately I've become fascinated with antique photos and thought it'd be a great opportunity to start retouching again.

I've used a few tutorials found from google to get started on my first project. I started with a 600 ppi scan of the image. I used photoshop to change the brightness and contrast. I sharpened a little in rgb red, used the healing brush and patch tool, clone stamp, smudge tool and created a layer to apply a gausian blur at 2 pixels to get rid of grain. But, I think the blacks for the image are too black? for some reason and I'm uneasy about her skin tone, kind-of yellowish. Any suggestions on how I can improve on this? I'm very new to this still... hehehehe

Fixed image can found at: http://toxae.net/tester.jpg

[Caitlin]

Terrific job Yolie! At first I thought the attachment was your restoration job - but the image in your link looks terrific. I don't think her dress looks too dark. Lovely photo too.

[Ken Fournelle]

Yolie,

I like the skin tones and color. Did you re-sepia tone the print or make
adjustments to the print only?

I do think you lost a bit of detail in the dress. You might want to look at that?

And what is that pattern or square mark on her right heel? Is it a stocking reinforcement for the heel or something else?

K

[cardmnal]

Yolie,
Welcome to RP! It's great to see a sample of your restoration work and I hope we see much more. You did a very nice job on what I consider a very nice piece.

This may look like a lot but it actually only took a few minutes. Here is what I did.

I duplicated the layer and turned off the original (I never work on the original).
Adjusted levels on this new layer.
Ran in neat image. Neat image removes noise and also grain (download a demo version here) .
Duplicate this layer and run filters>noise>dust and scratches.
While holding the alt key I clicked the add new layers mask at the bottom of the layers pallet. This filled the mask with black and covered the layer. Now with a small brush I can simply paint the areas I feel need touching up. For more on this technique try this tutorial.
As an antique photo I decided I like a little film grain so I ran the noise filter with the monochrome box checked.

I posted 2 versions. on the first, I removed the yellow cast by clicking image>mode>grayscale.
On the second I increased the sepia tone look by adjusting hue/saturation with the colorize box checked.

[philbach]

You really did a nice job on "Antique Girl." The general tone of the image is on the dark side which puts contrast on her skin. Sort of makes her more important and striking. I took you image and simply lightened it up with curves. Is it better?? Probably not. It distracts from her.

[Yolie]

Hi again! Thanks so much for the comments, I'm so glad you guys liked it. I still have some work to do on it but I think I will keep the colors. Your right it may be darker than usual but we'll see when I have it printed. I'll let you know and post an update when I'm done working on her portrait. I had to rebuild an entire table leg and it took forever getting her shoes right. At first they were too glossy and now I notice a spot that shouldn't be there. Her stockings are supposed to be that way, kinda olden.

This project was time consuming but I barely had to retouch the girl at all which made it super easy. I can't get back the detail on her dress; I think it got lost when I adjusted the brightness. There's supposed to be a front pocket and now it's not there. For the dress I used the patch tool... trying to drag the threading of the dress over which came out sloppy. I'm not sure how to get it right but copy part of the dress and move it over or something? When I tried before I couldn't get the the white, acidic glare off and at the same time keep the pockets visible.

[Yolie]

cardmnal, Thanks for neat image... I'm going to give it a try asap! Is the technique you posted a way of doing what I did with the patch tool faster? because that took so long doing it that way, can you please post another link for the technique?

[Yolie]

BTW, I will be using "curves" to change the brightness. It's a brilliant idea!! hehehe, I think it will solve the brightness problem in no time.

[byRo]

Originally Posted by Yolie

I used photoshop to change the brightness and contrast.

This is most probably where you lost the details of the dress.
The Brightness / Contrast is one tool that you should never use (unless you use this "special version")
Levels and curves, won't ruin your photo, Brightness/Contrast will (and fast)!

Rô