OPR Restoration - Navy

klassylady25 · #1 08-10-2006, 05:14 PM

For all things there is a beginning. This is the start of another restoration.

Kraellin · #2 08-10-2006, 11:58 PM

my goodness, girl, you are masochistic. i love it

craig

Gary Richardson · #3 08-11-2006, 02:03 AM

You really do find em Candy, good luck with it.

roger_ele · #4 08-13-2006, 01:58 AM

This is a real hard one, Good job.

There are some changes to the shape of the face, so I hope you don't mind some suggestions. In the original photo he is lit from the side some. in the retouch he is flat, lit from the front with no highlights. Also, I think the shape of his jaw on our right side is too low, but I can't say for sure without working on the image ...

There is a tendency in a restoration this extensive to focus on the damage instead of the good areas ... keep the original image in the background layer so you can judge the art work 'as you go' ... then turn on and off the art work layers ... while doing this, instead of focusing your attention on the damaged areas focus you the areas that are good to see if they change. In this case I think the culprit is in the changing of the highlights and shadows.

Another hint is that as you are retouching, even if you have to get into a real tiny brush, only retouch the spots you know are damage for sure. The shape of the face sometimes 'comes to life' and you discover the face hidden among the damage as you work.

I worked on it a little to see what other ideas I came up with, I found myself using lighten and darken mode with the clone and healing brush. I also found myself creating a curves adjustment layer on top of the retouch layer, I grabed the midtone and pulled it way dark to accentuate the shape of the face which is hard to see when it is so light. Then I did my retouch on the art work layer making sure that the 'sample all layers' is not checked in the the brush options. The channel wth the most detail that shows the original shape of the face the best is the green chaennel.

When using lighten and darken mode work from the side of the damage that will cause the least amount of change. In other words if you are using lighten mode sample from the darker side, the more obvious damage will disappear and it becomes easier to see the shapes that should be there.

I just roughed in what I thought the face originally looked like on just part of the face and it did take a little bit of time, so I do sympathise with the retouch

Some of this you may be a wiz at, I hope there is something that is a help.

Regards,
Roger

klassylady25 · #5 08-13-2006, 07:22 PM

Evidentally you've had more training in this than I have. Mine has all been read a book, try and try again and a lot of late night practice. For 2 years I've been trying to learn this but there must be something that I'm missing after seeing your picture. Perhaps you need to finish it and send it on to OPR. BTW, why aren't you a volunteer for Operation Photo Rescue? You could do so much good with your skill level.

I have to admit that I've come a very long way from where I was but am not, nor may I ever have your skills. I've read and reread your information and you'd be suprised at how many thing I have tried based on what others have said, but Flora once said that it's all subjective. When I placed the last one on the board I was pleased with its outcome, Now, I don't feel well about the way he turned out.

I'll keep trying....

roger_ele · #6 08-13-2006, 11:27 PM

Hi klassy,

I am sorry, the last thing I want to do is discourage you! My experience is 14 years printing in a black & white darkroom and then 19 years owning a photo studio (family photography, weddings, copy & restoration, etc. ... ). So, I guess my skill is the 'eye' I have developed and years of practice. I had a tough time figuring out the left eye that I worked on - so no matter what the experience, it does not mean that it is easy.

Flora is right that it is subjective, and her work often mekes me feel like a beginner so I know how you feel. What I really wanted was not to make you feel bad, but just to help. You did such a great job on the art work minus the lighting / shape issues so I was hoping to share that side of it. This is such a hard one that, beleive me, I understand the problems.

Regarding OPR, since I do this stuff all day at work I probably won't want to do too much outside of work, but I will take a look at it. I am more than happy to share anything I might know though.

Best Regards,
Roger

klassylady25 · #7 08-14-2006, 04:54 PM

If I want to continue what I'm doing that is to be expected. I will continue to work on this until it's right.

Hugz

roger_ele · #8 08-14-2006, 09:51 PM

Hey Candy,

I looked at OPR, quite impressive - I will definently keep it in mind.

I saw your post over there about this restoration and saw the interim stage where you had a total blur where the skin is ... I think that might be part of the challenge. I would have a hell of a time painting in a new face to match the original, which is what you end up having to do when you lose the shape in the retouching process. For me, keeping the shape is the first priority, second is the damage ...

Best of luck,
Roger

klassylady25 · #9 08-14-2006, 10:59 PM

Let me know how it's coming along now? Background is generic so I could post not the one I will use....

roger_ele · #10 08-14-2006, 11:30 PM

Hi Candy,

Good shape on the nose and great job on the eyes! I think you are right to go with one highlight in the eyes to mimic the light source. My guess on the eyebrows (because of how faint they are on the areas between the damage) is that this is a blonde gentleman with lighter eyebrows (just my guess).

The only thing that I see that is changing the shape of the face so far is the jaw line on the left - I think it is out a little and the face has lost the shading along the 'jaw line / left side of the face' that makes the face narrower.

Good work,
Roger

roger_ele · #11 08-15-2006, 10:54 PM

Hi Candy,

ok, so now I don't feel so tagged ...

1st screen shot:

I played with this some more, and I found the green channel to be the one with detail that showed the most original face shape. I used apply image to paste the green channel into a new layer and then levels to adjust the tone.

2nd screen shot:

I had a hell of a time seeing where the changes wer, so I pasted in the blue channel (cause it was the most dramatic for seeing the face shape and created reference points with the guides

3 is the image with the neck a little bigger on the left and jaw shape adjusted.

Roger

klassylady25 · #12 08-16-2006, 07:33 AM

Tis food for thought

Kraellin · #13 08-16-2006, 09:46 AM

candy,

i see you're in the thick of it again. fun, isnt it

if you dont mind, i'm going to post a series of pictures of steps of working on this image. i do hope this is ok. it's probably the easiest way i can help.

first, i work in rgb as much as possible. i usually dont work on single channels and i really dont think you have to here from what i see so far. i'll also mention that if you're using photoshop, any version, their clone is a bit clumsy, at least to me. i'm using Paint Shop Pro 9 (my main computer is in the shop with psp 10 and this is windows 98se so i cant install 10 on this machine). psp's clone is simple, right click to set the start point and left click to clone. so, it's all on the mouse for ease of use. and yes, there are other settings along the top tool bar for opacity and all that.

with this image i decided it would be best just to get rid of some of the clutter. there is nothing in the background worth saving so i just cloned it all over with a bit of decent background i found near his jaw on the camera left of his face.

my workflow is simple: duplicate the original layer and then also make a new blank layer and set the clone to 'use all layers'. i set the clone tool to 90% opacity to do the background. this is fast, just roughing things out, type of work. the 'hardness' of the tool is set to 50. this setting allows a sort of feathered cloning and is very forgiving, which is why i like it.

so, with the blank layer highlighted i just start where i indicated above and move around the man's head till i've got a mostly clean area. i'm not even really trying to get up close and really clean edges at this point. i just want to get rid of some of the distracting area of the background so that things are a little cleaner.

and that's it, stage one complete.

craig

Kraellin · #14 08-16-2006, 10:28 AM

ok, this is stage two. again, all i'm trying to do here is clean up the rough stuff so that i can better see the good stuff. this time i took the coat and hat. the brush is still at 90% opacity and 50% hardness. i may have missed on his collar on the camera right side but i can fill that back in later from a similar image if i did.

notice i purposely left a little texture and whiteness in the coat. i dont want a perfectly monotone color here. i'll do more with that later.

i did nothing on the face but i did go around a few edges and get them closer.

oh, and this was all done on yet another blank layer, not the same layer i used in stage one. there is an advantage in doing this this way. if you find out you really messed something up in one of the stage it's a whole lot easier to deal with that one layer than to try and go back 500 or even 1000 steps in the history. i've even deleted whole layers and just done them over and that's again, a whole lot easier than just starting from scratch.

so, stage two, done.

craig

Kraellin · #15 08-16-2006, 02:41 PM

stage three. now, these stages are all pretty arbitrary. it's just i get to a certain point or maybe a certain area and look at things and go, 'ok, that's good so far'. they are just sort of break points in the workflow.

on this one, i'm still all clone, but i've changed the opacity down to 60% now. i'm still at 50% hardness, though. it starts to get a bit trickier now. i've also lowered the brush size for closer work.

here i'm going to start cleaning up the face a bit, but again, this is mostly to just sort of generally clean things up; no fine detail work yet, at least not on the face. and since my motto on these is always 'do no damage', i'm staying away from the eyes for now. i do handle the chin and jaw line on the camera right side a bit. i also do a little more on the uniform and hat and some of the outer edges of the head.

basically, i'm just doing those areas that wont hurt things too much at this brush size and this opacity and i'm still staying away, mostly, from the critical edges like eyes and lips, though i do do some on the ears now. it also gets more important to start watching the shading, so the stuff directly under the brim of the hat has to be watched and around the jaw where the jaw shades the neck and so on. i work from many directions to the same point often, picking up the shade from one area and then the other, blending them into each other to make a smoother transition. i also take out the major mar across the face/nose area while defining the nose a bit more in the process.

this is also where it starts to become important in knowing how the human anatomy looks close up. at various points i might also put a contrast/brighness adjustment layer up for a bit to bring out more detail so i can see where the edge lines are. but i dont leave this up when i clone. this is just for checking my lines.

ok, i didnt do a lot on this stage and that tends to be the case. as you get into more and more detail, i like to make new blank layers to work with for each area, minimizing the amount of flaws on one layer.

and that's it for this stage.

craig