DeDe's Great Grand

[Ms Bay]

Hi folks, I did a restoration on the photo shown and noticed that there was something missing. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first and then I figured out what it was. Her dress has no shadows or creases or folds. The photo original was really faded and had no outlines that I could follow, so I didn't use them. Shadows and the dodge tool are two of my problem areas in PS. So if anyone can help me, please do. Thanks.

[Vikki]

Is this the original, or your restored version (I'm guessing restored)?

[Ms Bay]

You're right, this is the restored. Do you want me to post the original?

[philbach]

I think it would be a good idea to post the original. It looks like in your restoration you may have blown out the highlights. Or perhaps there were no highlights to begin with.

[Ms Bay]

OK, this is the original.

[philbach]

Thanks for posting the original. Obviously you aren't to blame for the highlight problem since they aren't there as far as I can tell. The only option it seems to me is to draw in some folds to her dress and perhaps add texture. Its art.

Well good luck. I did work with it some and I wish I were an artist.

[Vikki]

I hope this doesn't seem like "20 questions"
I'm a bit surprised that the original image is blue, as it appears the original was sepia, or b&w.
I'm thinking there may abe a way to get more information in the scanning step.
Can you tell us a bit about the original, such as the size, paper, color, etc?
Also, what settings are you using to scan this?

[Ms Bay]

Hey Philbach! This is good, but not quite what I was talking about. The shadows and folds need to be just a bit more suttle. They are all in the right places, but you, like me, need to have a bit more artistic edge to it. To "spread" the lines and highlight them so they will look more like folds. Have you ever been in a predicament where you knew what you wanted, but just couldn't make your hand do what your brain was showing you? Thanks for the effort, you're great!!

[Ms Bay]

Hey Vikki, well, I scanned the picture which is about 1x1 1/2 (very small) at 300dpi. It was on what seems to be plain white paper, very old because it had discolored. It was probably a copy someone had made a long time ago because you can see the texture of the paper that seems to be the original. It is originally blue like the one you see here. I resized it to 4x6 when I got it into PS.

[Ken Fournelle]

I restored a photo from 1944 that was on a "blue" paper. Almost like blue print paper. Ms Bay's print, by the dress and hair style, would appear older than 1944.

Has anyone else worked with or seen any prints on a blue paper stock.

k

[Jaime]

Originally Posted by Ken Fournelle

Has anyone else worked with or seen any prints on a blue paper stock.

The blue color is a characteristic of the cyanotype process. You can see some prints here:

http://www.vernacularphotography.com..._cyanotype.htm

[soleah]

Originally Posted by Ms Bay

I scanned the picture which is about 1x1 1/2 (very small) at 300dpi. It was on what seems to be plain white paper, very old because it had discolored. It was probably a copy someone had made a long time ago because you can see the texture of the paper that seems to be the original. It is originally blue like the one you see here. I resized it to 4x6 when I got it into PS.

From what I understand from this, it seems that you scanned as is and then enlarged the digital image afterwards?

If this is the case, perhaps it is best if you scan the picture at 400% or you can go as high as 800% of the actual size. Then downscale it to your desired size.

Of course, this isn't a guarantee that you would have the details that aren't there to begin with. What we're avoiding is the "empty" pixels created from enlarging a digital image.

[Ken Fournelle]

Jaime,

Thanks for the link to the cyanotype process. It surely seems the likely answer to my "blue print" photo I restored. It was just a snapshot of 3 brothers during WWII. It would be interesting to know why they got a cyanotype print. Amateur processing?

k

[Flora]

I had to give up my 'quest for details' for the dress in this picture .... Using Brightness&Contrast I came up with a kind of 'map' I could have tried to follow for ehnancing shadows/highlights ... but no real working detail ... (attachment 1)

What I did is 'borrowing' from dresses I found in pictures from our archive .... Not knowing if this coul be acceptable, I did a quick job ... should still be refined .... but, in attachment 2 you can see my result in the light cyan hue (from the original) and with a light sepia tone...

Hope this helps...