Half of a Picture

[ArkNsawer]

Hello,

Everyone done such a great job on Robert's picture I though I would see if my other brother's pic could get fixed better than I could get it.

The first is the original and the second is my attempt to fix.

As always thanks everyone.

Sharon

[Kraellin]

sharon,

yes, we could get it better, but that's not the point. the point is, can we get YOU to get it better i'm seeing a bit of a trend here with your postings. you're starting a number of projects/pictures, but leaving them undone and posting them here for others to work on. the point of this site is to get YOU to get them done; to help YOU become a better retoucher so that you can finish them up nicely.

now, dont get all mad at me or think i'm trying to not help here. i am. you've got a good start on this image. but apparently you're hitting a barrier of some sort, at some point in the work, and that's what i'd like to address here. what is that barrier? what are you having difficulty in doing that's keeping you from finishing these? and basically, that's all that's wrong here with the image; it's just not done yet. that's all. you seem to be going in the right direction with the work, so what's the stop on completing it? is it more a matter of observing what still needs to be done or a matter of seeing what's wrong but not knowing what to do with it to get it better?

craig

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Sharon,

There's a lot to work with on your picture, so what I did was borrow from the Left Hand Side and copy and paste it to the right, then its a matter of flipping and rotating to get a fit. The rest is just lot of cloning to fill in the gaps and blend things.

Hope this gives you a hint at what can be achieved. The posted image had a lot of jpeg artifacts, with a better resolution image you should be able to improve on this greatly.

[Ziaphra]

I have to agree with Craig here Sharon...this one is more easily fixed than the other but I must also add that I am quite disappointed that you have just come along an posted another picture without even taking the time to thank those (besides myself) that helped you in your other thread.

[ArkNsawer]

Craig,

I want to thank you for noticing that I start good. I do have trouble finishing my picture. I go as far as I can with what I have. Any help and instruction you can give is I am truly greatful for. The only options I have is Copy and Paste and the a blurring effect. I don't have any of the photoshop editions or any other ones. I downloaded as free trial of Fotofinish, but all the tools are not open to me, because it is a free trial copy. On this picture I though and tried to copy one side of the face and paste it onto the other side, but it didn't work to good. Gary's job on it looked tons better than I could get it, and I thank him. Any advise anyone can give with using limited tool to fix these photos Please send.

I always say thanks to the people that help me on my pictures. Maybe not to each one, but to everyone.

I am not asking for someone to fix my picture for free. Alot of my picture I have redone, and done a good job at it. It's when they get more difficult then I can handle or just don't look right than I have a problem and come here. The two sets at the bottom I redone. They aren't perfect but I can live with them.

[Ziaphra]

I apologise if I jumped down your throat, it's just that you posted another before even acknowledging the help you had received in the other.

Anyway...I use the clone tool at about 35% and keep cloning over until it looks right and blends in well. Then I use the smudge tool at about 49% opacity to finish the blending completely. I am working on the other and will post it when I am done.

[ArkNsawer]

Ziaphra,

Thank you for working on the picture and if I offended anyone by not saying thank you enough for all the hard work than I apologize big time.

I am going back over the picture again to see if I can make it come out better to.

Thank you
Sharon

[Kraellin]

ah, now i understand i knew there had to be some barrier there, arknsawer. ok, what you need to do is go to sourceforge.net (i think this is where it is) and get 'the Gimp'. it's a funny name, but a good FREE graphic editor. and yes, there is a windows version and linux. not sure about mac. several folks on here are using it or have used it and can help you with it. it's a remarkable program for being free.

another option would be to get Gimp Shop. this is 'the Gimp' made to look more like photoshop. it's still the gimp but the interface has been re-arranged a bit.

i must also add that for just using fotofinish you've done a remarkable job. it was never meant to do the kind of work we do around here. so, well done on that but, get the Gimp and you'll be able to go forth and prosper

craig

[Daviskw]

Hi Sharon

Like most above I used the right shoulder to replace part of the otherside. Remember to change a few shadows and also look for duplicated areas that will give away the copy. Then some cloning and healing brush to finish off.

And Sharon I like helping because I am learning as I go.

Butch

[klassylady25]

With a tool that is limited isn't he going to run into the same problem of not being able to complete a photo and aren't all who work on his photo's still going to be the ones doing the completion based upon his limitation?

Hmmmm

[ArkNsawer]

Craig,

Thanks for the info on the Gimp I'm going to look for it and download it. Maybe it can handle me harder pictures.


Butch Thanks for working on th epicture it Looks great.

Thanks
Sharon

[barbara]

Hi ArkNsawer
Craig is right, you may test Gimp - look on the homepage
www.gimp.org
(info, links, tutorials, plugins and scripts , downloads etc)
this is very interesting Open Source software.

I use Gimp running on Linux (Fedora Core ). Only.

[ArkNsawer]

Craig and Barbara,

I have the Gimp now how to work it? It has a lot more than Fotofinish does.


Thanks
Sharon

[Kraellin]

arknsawer,

you're welcome.

and yes, the gimp is a lot more complex than fotofinish, but that was kind of the point. if i remember right, fotofinish is for really simple things like getting out red-eye, cropping and other simple corrections. the gimp is much more powerful and thus has a higher learning curve. but it shldnt take you too long to get the hang of it. for all its power it's still got a fairly decent interface.

yes, i have the gimp. no, i dont use it any more and barely used it when i did. so, i wont really be the one to ask questions about it to. lkroll used to use it a lot and barbara says she uses it, so perhaps they can get you going.

make sure you also download the documentation. i checked the site and they've updated the docs fairly recently. so, that's good.

play around with it. study the docs and try everything. when you post questions make them as specific as you can and post images if you can. those always help. you're going to want to find the clone tool and test that out. that's the tool that got me interested in retouching. smudge, airbrush, paintbrushes and filters are going to be very useful in your pictures. you're probably also going to have to learn about layers, which is really nothing more than stacking images on top of each other...like layers on a cake.

you're going to be overwhelmed with all that's there at first. and you're likely to get a lot of information from here that's going to confuse you as well. try to pick one thing and learn it well then move on to the next thing and learn that. you're also going to hear a lot of terminology that may not be familiar. ask what it means or look in a good dictionary or look in the retouch glossary here. words can be real killers if you dont know them.

but above all, practice, practice, practice!

and good luck!

craig

[ArkNsawer]

Craig,

Thanks for everything and I'm sure everyones going to get real tired of my questions before long. I plan on starting on my picture tomorrow.


Thanks,
Sharon

[Gary Richardson]

I can assure you we won't get fed up of any questions you may ask. We've all been there, and know from personal experience just how frustrating it can be learning a new image editor.

Remember, there's no dumb questions, the only dumb thing is not to ask when you don't know.

Good luck with the Gimp, and above all, have fun.

[fpellerin]

Here's another site where you can find some tutorials on the GIMP:Pixel2Life . There's also a great deal of other tutorials for other software (photoshop, PSP, etc.).

Frank

[Kraellin]

sharon,

you're welcome and like gary said, good luck, have fun, and ask away

craig

[ArkNsawer]

Thanks everyone for the information and work you done on my pictures.

Sharon

[Syd]

I had a go at this one too just for the challenge of it. I did the same as Gary and Butch and copied, flipped and rotated the left to fill in the missing part on the right. I used the smudge tool to get rid on the Jpeg artifacts by hand, rather than using any of the filters because that way I have more precise control. I zoom into about 300 or 400% and use a 10px brush set at an opacity of 10.
Sincerely Syd

[ArkNsawer]

Syd,

It looks great. The background is wonderful how did you get that background to come through?

Thank You Syd

Sharon

[Syd]

Sharon I used a color balance adjustment layer and added 10% more blue and 10% more green. I also increased the saturation by about 10%. I did all my color corrections in Lab mode.
Sincerely Syd

[ArkNsawer]

Syd,

What program are you using? Do you know if Gimp 2 has it? I'm new at using this program and have try the color tools on it but haven't found out how to do that.

Thanks
Sharon

[Syd]

Sharon,
I am using Photoshop CS. Sorry, I don't know if Gimp supports Lab mode. Craig will probably be able to help you on that.
Syd

[Syd]

Sharon,

Had a go at the Betty and Brenda pic posted earlier in this thread. The original is in a pretty bad state and it needed a lot of cloning. I decided to add some texture to it to get rid of some of the smaller scratches and save myself some work. (Photoshop - Filter/Texturizer/Sandstone) It took on a bit of an artsy, painterly look which I had reservations about at first but, later, thought it looked ok. Perhaps this is one route you could take especially if you have a large volume of pictures to restore. I wouldn't suggest it with any photo but this one (I suppose because it has a bright red berry bush in the background) lends itself to this kind of treatment.

Sincerely Syd

[ArkNsawer]

Syd,

Thanks, it looks more real then mine did. I never could get Aunt Betty's hand right. The red berry is cherry's picture was taken in Michigian in 1964.

Thanks for everything.
Sharon