Help with tintype image

rocketfuel · #1 03-24-2005, 01:55 PM

Got this image from a tintype. I managed to get out most of the larger cracks, but I'm having trouble with the hair and background.

Since I'm always comiing here for great tips I figured I would see if you could help me on my own image.

Any tips/advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Caitlin · #2 03-24-2005, 02:58 PM

It looks like you've done a great job of removing the cracks.

I'd be concerned not just about the hair, but the arms as well - they seem to vanish. But it's hard to tell from your 'before' what image information there is to work from because it it quite small and has a fair bit of artifacting. Could you post a higher resolution/less compressed copy? (the one you have posted is only 18k - it can be up to 100k).

rocketfuel · #3 03-24-2005, 05:20 PM

As far as the hands go, she may have been wearing black gloves which wasn't unusual for this period. She is a distant relative so I know she had hands.

I figured I could put on a viginette so the hands wouldn't show up too much.

Caitlin · #4 03-24-2005, 07:11 PM

Well the more I tried to play around with this the more I realised what an excellent job you'd already done. This is a very challenging picture. The hair is there, but it's almost unusable I think, however upping the contrast for that area gives you an idea of the shape you are aiming for.

I was curious about her eyes - you've obviously done a lot of work on them - they look great. But could she have been wearing glasses? There is a dark mark on each side of her nose.

A vignette around her does sound like a good solution to the hand issue.

Sean2 · #5 03-24-2005, 11:13 PM

Hello Rocketfuel,

I tried my hand at this, and particularly the hair. Left the upper torso as the focal point. Tried several different layers for adding hair, but it is all done on a finger pad on a Mac- alas, no writing pad :-(

Anyway, I also flipped the right side cheek to the left and the left eyebrow to the right to try and balance the "hair ".

Left the background open for you to add to, and left any further colorization and skin texturizing for you. Hope it is of some use to you. Thanks for the picture.

Sean

rocketfuel · #6 03-25-2005, 08:11 AM

I thought about the possiblity of glasses, but I didn't see anything besides the marks around the nose, so I figured I would take them out.

Great job on the hair. Maybe I'll post up my final when I get it done.

Hephaestos · #7 03-25-2005, 10:22 AM

I wonder if I'm the only one who had a hard time visualizing what's going on here at first. Apparently she's grasping a chair back. She's not wearing gloves since her thumbnail is visible on our left (it looks a lot like damage so it's hard to spot). The lessening of focus on the chair as compared to her face also threw things off a bit.

rocketfuel · #8 03-25-2005, 11:25 AM

I had a hard time bringing out the chair part of the image, at first it looks like it might be part of the dress pattern. Maybe the focus being off is what 'loses' the hands.

The original is practially black. I put it very near a bright light source and used a digital SLR with macro to capture the image. Scanning was usless. Unfortunely this was the best image I could get off the hard surface. I don't want to mess around with the original as I could ruin it.

barry_uk · #9 03-25-2005, 02:42 PM

I zoomed in and brought up the image clearing the tone it can clearly be seen she is wearing specs, I have out lined the rt side of them you can clearly see it.. As for your work on cleaning up the scratches you did a great job weldone..

Caitlin · #10 03-25-2005, 03:57 PM

A chair!! Of course - it looks obvious now! I thought she was hold a pair of swords or something *lol* Her arms become much clearer when you know that!

Those glasses are tricky - to my eye they are quite small ovals, just based on the darker patches around her eyes - but it's guesswork because I can't see any arms on them (were there such glasses then I wonder, that just clipped to your nose? Time to do some historical spectacle research!)

rocketfuel - do you think you could post a close up of just the face?

rocketfuel · #11 03-26-2005, 10:03 PM

here is a closeup on the face

rocketfuel · #12 04-03-2005, 10:41 AM

Here is the final picture. Did it for my cousin. Her mother (my project) was my great grandfather's sister. My cousin is in the middle and her father is on the right.

The 'baby' will turn 89 next month so I was kind of on a deadline.

Thanks for the help.

nebgranny · #13 04-03-2005, 12:47 PM

Hi Rocket:
You did such a GREAT job on removing the scratches, could you please post what skills or steps you used to do so? Do you use photoshop? I would really like to know what you did. Thanks Neb