Ghostly image

[Flora]

Hi,

Kraellin,

I usually define myself as a "bloodhound" .... once I get my 'nose' on a 'scent' I follow it to exhaustion ..... ..... but you are a born researcher!!!

deadants,

great idea of merging the pictures .... it really gives us a very clear view!!!!!
If/when you decide to post my 'effort' on the rootschat site, please, tell Jessica I'm sorry I couldn't help more .... but, suddenly, the 'scent' had vanished!!!

yuppicide,

thank you so much for your great comment!!!

Caitlin,

unfortunately I haven't seen that series .... hope to get the chance!!!
Congratulations on your becoming a 'Senior Member' !!!

[Kraellin]

Kraellin,

I usually define myself as a "bloodhound" .... once I get my 'nose' on a 'scent' I follow it to exhaustion ..... ..... but you are a born researcher!!!

flora,

well, that was the kind way of saying it. i call it compulsive to an extreme but thank you

deadants,

most interesting combination and it gives me another idea. oh, and the 'insect' circled in that pic is actually an 'insect wing' and back leg. the rounded back part of the wing is facing left and it tapers down a bit to the right. the 'leg' sticks down from the back and bends to the left. it's circled in that pic. oh, and deadants, did you ever get a reply from the owner about the luminosity/intensity question i asked?

congrats, caitlin

K.

[Kraellin]

alright, like i said, deadants gave me an idea. here's what i did:

i took the tubkids-1 image and made a duplicate image. i turned one of them into a complete negative image. i then combined the two images using the 'arithmetic' feature in paint shop pro, with the 'add' arguement as the combining routine. this produced a very interesting result. sadly, to post here, i had to cut it down in resolution by quite a bit, so a bit of detail is lost, but i think i can now say that muriel's right arm is definitely down into the tub, and not cocked like i had in my last picture. her entire outline seems better in this one, though facial detail is still quite lacking. even the way her head may or may not be cocked or turned is still speculative. but i do like this result.

i do have server space at a remote server if someone wants the uncompressed version.

K.

[Kraellin]

wow. this 'arithmetic' function is great. here's another rendition of the negative image and the tubkids-1 image combined with yet a different arguement; this time with the 'and' arguement. this one is even better than the last!

K.

[Kraellin]

and here's another with the blue and green channels combined from the last image. there's very little compression on this one due to the limited color array.

K.

[deadants]

I started to reply to your comments early on today but it has been a crazy day. Well the arithmetic' function is new to me as I only have Photoshop CS on my Mac. But it has produced some interesting results. I haven't as yet got an answer on the luminosity/intensity question but I will send her a reminder. I have still been playing around with this image and as Caitlan says, it is haunting in a way. I'll probably be still comming back to it this time next year to see if I have learned anything new that I can add to it.

deadants

[Kraellin]

deadants,

yes, the arithmetic function is new to me as well, but it was getting to be a case of when all else fails, read the freaking manual....so i did (well, parts of it) and that led me to the arithmetic tool. i do wish the manual had provided a bit more detail about exactly what they do in that tool, but it did produce some interesting results.

re the luminosity/intensity question, ok, let us know when she replies. that last scan just seems too bright and i just want to check if that's how the actual photo is also.

and yes, i tend to put this one down for a while and then come back to it also. the 'haunting' aspect is true for me as well. there's just something about a good mystery that makes it difficult to walk away from

K.

[Kraellin]

bump!

any more info on this one, deadants?

K.

[deadants]

Hi Kraellin,
Nothing yet. I do hope she hasn't forgot. I will send her a PM on the rootschat forum and jogg her memory.

[Kraellin]

sometimes you just have to walk away from a work and let it simmer.... or learn new techniques and then come back. well, i've been studying and have some new tools so i thought i'd give this one another try. i can now see a bit more and can also say that i have to agree with flora's assessment of muriel. she does seem to be facing to our right with her head tilted down a bit.

i ran this starting as normal with a dupe layer and contrast/brightness applied to darken the whole.

then i ran the fast fix filter plugin to get a bit more detail

then i ran channel mixer to bring out just a bit more.

but then i veered. i saved what i had as a new image and ran it through the polaroid dust and scratch program. i ran this several times concentrating first on the white specs then the black and doing various sizes and detection levels. after the very first pass i got a LOT more detail out of the background, but i didnt save this by itself. instead i kept making more passes and saving over the last ones for a cumulative effect to try to 'find muriel'. as each pass was made it became more and more clear that muriel was as how flora saw here with her gausian blur.

it's still not totally conclusive. there's just too much gone to ever be so, but i think flora had the right of it the only question left is why did i ever think otherwise

Craig

[deadants]

Hi Kraellin,
I must say you are like a dog with a bone with this image. I think this photo is at the extreme end of the photo restoration spectrum. To have resurrected Muriel to this level is an achievement in itself.

I went and had a look for the fast fix filter you mentioned, but it is only available for the Mac in the old OS 9 software, so it won’t work in my version of Photoshop. I hope they upgrade it to OS X standard soon.

I haven’t been around the last few weeks as I have had the flu. When I thought I was over that, I came down with a head cold. I’m now looking for some good cleaning agent for my new 20” Apple widescreen display, as I sneezed and sprayed the monitor. I hate winter.

deadants

[Kraellin]

deadants,

you can find the plugin filter here: http://www.cybia.co.uk/fastfix.htm it lists it for windows and mac but i dont know what versions of the mac it will work for. if you already went to this site, why then, i guess yer out of luck on that one. it really doesnt do anything photoshop cant do already; it just does it all within one filter interface.

hehe, yeah, that was one of the first ones i worked on when i came here and it just bugged me that we couldnt do more with it.

hope yer doin better soon, mate

Craig

[Panpan]

Here's my interpretation of the picture in this fascinating thread.

The left side of the attachment is the original photo (cropped) in the genealogy thread. This is the best copy I think. The right side of the image is slightly retouched to make what I see clearer to you.

First, I was looking for knees. That tub is very small for two little girls, more so with that spigot in the way. Whatever position Joan and Muriel come up with, their knees are going to be up. Also, no matter how limber, they have to change position often to avoid cramping, so creative posture is not surprising.

Second, I think it likely that Muriel's hairdo is similar to Joan's. I assume they're sisters.

That's why I call this an interpretation. I "found" features I expected. They might not be there.

My biggest problem is not Muriel, but Joan's right shoulder. It doesn't quite look right. I thought this might be because Joan is holding her shoulder with the same-side hand, but is this anatomically possible without visibly bending the wrist? The biceps is in the way, but maybe a little girl with thin arms can do this?

[deadants]

Hi Panpan,
I really like the idea of the hand on Joan’s shoulder. I hadn't thought of this till you pointed it out. I would love to see it at a larger size so I can have a good look at your interpretation.

[Panpan]

I now think it's her left hand crossing over; the elbow is behind the knees. Joan is protecting her modesty (or she's just cold).