Help with regaining facial structure

[Kraellin]

flora, simply amazing!

and cate, airbrush is a brush type tool that somewhat simulates how a real airbrush would work. it's sort of like spray painting. and push seems to only exist in paint shop pro, but i'm told the equivalent in photoshop would be a very heavy smudge too.

[cate_55]

Thank you Flora

Thats beautiful. I have been working with the healing brush but found it really hard to get the white mold bits. I get to certain point and then I get frustrated. Is there any particular way to use it in this photo for example?

Thanks again
cate

[Nan]

Flora,
Your restoration work is obviously gorgeous. I have a question. Did you remove the original background or paint a new one over it?
It's really beautiful and just sets the photo off perfectly.
Thanks,
Nan

[Flora]

Hi everybody!

Wow.. thank you so much for your kindness!!!

Originally Posted by cate_55

I have been working with the healing brush but found it really hard to get the white mold bits. I get to certain point and then I get frustrated. Is there any particular way to use it in this photo for example?

• When restoring badly damaged images, I usually work on a strongly magnified version of the picture, while keeping opened a 100% magnification for comparison... This can be achieved by going to Window>Arrange>New Window for...... "and another window containing the same document will appear.
  
  This is not a duplicate image (notice the file name displayed in the title bar is exactly the same). It is merely a second view of the very same image. Any edits you make in either window will appear in both windows.
  
  This allows you to set two different magnifications for the same image simultaneously. You'll find this very useful when you need to zoom in close on part of a document for editing fine details, and at the same time you can see the results of your editing in actual size." (Attachment 1)
  
  
• Whenever possible, I never work on the image itself, but rather on 'Blank Layers' as described here.. (just scroll down the page to the paragraph 'BLANK/EMPTY LAYERS SET TO....')
  
  
• ...and now to the Heal Brush...Working on different 'Blank Layers' and making sure that the 'Sample all Layer' Box is checked .. (Attachment 2) ... I change the 'Mode' of the Heal Brush to: Darken, Lighten, Replace or Normal according to what needs to be done or blended in... (Attachment 3) is a snapshot of my workflow for this procedure.

It is a rather tedious work and a far cry from from the 'Ta Daa Plug-in X or Plug-in Y one-click global correction' ... but, in my opinion, it gives the most natural results (vital, specially when working on portraits)...

Originally Posted by Nan

Did you remove the original background or paint a new one over it?

No, I didn't ... I restored the original background just as I restored the main subject, then I used Levels to individually enhance Subject and Background. (Attachment 4)

Hope this helps...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

[cate_55]

Thank you Flora

I have been working slowly on the image.

Thank you for all the feedback.

Cate