How could I have done this better?

Lynette · #1 09-25-2005, 09:13 PM

I'm brand new here, and I was ecstatic to find this forum.

I have been using Photoshop off and on for about 5 years, and I'm about 80% self-taught. I discovered that I love photo repair, and people seem to be happy with my results.

This photo is one someone paid me for. It was extremely difficult because so much of the image was just gone--not only the torn-off part, but details in the photo itself. I had to redraw a good part of it.

I was not able to make it look as good as I wanted to. My customer was very happy with the results; me, not so much. I welcome any critique. And I really hope I'm doing the attachment thing right!

Duv · #2 09-25-2005, 10:07 PM

I think as a customer, I'd be happy with the restore as well. Personally though, I'd add a bit more contrast by darkening the 3/4 tones. But good work nontheless!

Dave

Lynette · #3 09-25-2005, 10:15 PM

That looks a lot better! How did you do it?

Duv · #4 09-25-2005, 10:59 PM

Hi Lynette. BTW, how rude of me..welcome to RetouchPro!!! All I did to your fine restoration was apply a contrast enhancing curve similar to the one attached here. There are lots of tools to do this but it was really just about darkening the darks a bit. Hope to see lots more of you at this forum!

Cheers

Dave

Panpan · #5 09-25-2005, 11:17 PM

Welcome Lynette.

Your work is excellent. I added a sky.

Pierre

Lynette · #6 09-26-2005, 08:51 AM

Thank you both for your kind words and advice. I have had no formal training and really know very little about the more technical aspects of Photoshop, which is why I'm so happy to have found this forum. I am currently running an auction for free photo repair for hurricane victims and am sure that I'll be asking for help if I get any takers.

Kraellin · #7 09-26-2005, 02:01 PM

you did an excellent recontruct.

the problem with the image is that the bright background is too bright and too much of a solid one color. pierre's adding the sky helped a lot. there also seems to be a bit of graininess to the image. hard to say for sure without pulling it and looking at it closer, but as it stands here, that's what i see. you might try a very light median filter or the program/plugin Neat Image to remove some of that grain.

and yes, welcome to RP!

Craig

Lynette · #8 09-26-2005, 03:55 PM

Thanks, Craig ... this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for!

What you see isn't graininess, it's damage to the photo. As you can tell from the original the photo wasn't taken care of at all, and something weird happened to it. It's like the pigment migrated from some places to others. There was so little to work with that in some places I all I could think of to do was use the paintbrush at 20% opacity to minimize the effects of this migration or whatever it was.

Kraellin · #9 09-28-2005, 08:10 AM

hi lynette,

it could be mold or fungus that's eaten the old film surface. not sure. i've seen some really odd deteriorations before where one part just gets eaten up while other parts stay completely intact.

have you done any more to the image?

Craig

Lynette · #10 09-28-2005, 08:52 AM

I finished the job last year and haven't done anything to it since, though I do still have the original hi-resolution scan.

Kraellin · #11 09-28-2005, 11:27 AM

ah, ok.

Craig