Restoration Mini-Challenge 1

[Kraellin]

attached is an image of Walt Whitman. it was taken from the united states government archive site: http://www.archives.gov/research/civ...il-war-137.jpg and seemed like a good challenge pic for anyone to try their hand at. it's in fairly good shape, but does have some damage.

photographs are a form of communication. the photographer was trying to convey something, say something or show something. we've all heard the saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. so, i'd like all of us doing the work here to say something back, both to the original photographer and to each other. i'd like to start a bit of dialogue amongst ourselves here, more so than usual.

in particular, what do you see wrong with the posted image and what's right with it relative to restoration. we're not so much interested in how well the photographer did but rather what work is needed now to bring it back to a pristine level.

i'd also like to see some cross examination and critiques of the works posted. be fair, be polite, and dont just say what's wrong. i want to also hear what's right as much or more than what's wrong with any given rendition.

and with that in mind, there is only one other requirement to posting your own rendition. you MUST comment on at least one other piece posted here or your post and rendition will be deleted. the first person posting may simply comment on the original to fulfill their requirement. for those that dont speak english very well or at all, i really dont know what to tell you... or that i even can. post in your own language and hopefully someone will translate.

oh, and i'm going to make one other requirement as well. you must post here in the forum, not on imageshack or some other posting site. i want these renditions to be here permanently and other site links sometimes get deleted. so, linked postings will be deleted also.

those that can post at 200k are free to do so (patrons, moderators and admins).

and whereas this isnt specifically a colorizing challenge, feel free to do that as well.

there is no prize with this challenge other than what learning you may receive or impart and the enjoyment of doing the work and so on.

also, the challenge here is RESTORATION. that means bring it back to its original state. that you may enhance it over and above that is fine as well. that you may wish to show its age through sepia toning or some other method is also fine. i know some restorers prefer to do this on older images.

ok, so as danny says in the art forum, have fun! keep it civil and let's see some restorations

[DCobb]

To the photographer I would say that his picture conveys an accurate portrayal of a man who grew up in an era when America first became a nation. A man who was from working class home and largely self-educated, but went on to become one of America's greatest poets.

As far as restoration there is a need of the removal of numerous white areas from the background and the picture. Some smoothing of the skin and several areas on the coat that need have the texture restored--lower left hand corner.

I am submitting a colorized version and one that is supposed to be a sepia tone.

dc

[Alison]

I get the idea that the photographer was trying to convey the sense of a casual pose, as opposed to the very stiff pictures that seem to be from that era.

I did as little work on this one as possible, to keep with the integrity of the era.

Hi DC,

I like the colourised version of the image, the only thing that spoiled it a little for me were the overly blue eyes ..... well, they appear overly blue on my monitor

[Oh_Heck]

Well, this is my first touchup done for this forum, and my first message. So i'ld like to say hello to everyone. This forum is a terrific resource for this type of work. I've already learned a couple new techniques just from browsing the posts.

Oh boy, thats what I get for not reading the entire first message. So, let me add a bit to this post .

The original picture, thankfully, had a good deal of detail intact. So it pretty much required some adjustment to faded areas and their contrast. Also some noise fixes within the entire image, small white spots which may have been small physical deterioration of this old image. I decided to cut him out and put in a new background, with some artificial noise artifacts to match it somewhat with the foreground image.

As far as critiquing prior work in this thread.....only suggestion i can think of for Allison(hello!), is to touch up some of the fading and artifacts at the very bottom of the picture. Another thing, is the bright tones behind his head, almost giving him a 'saintly' appearance. I did this initially myself, then my wife said, "well, he looks like a saint or something"...so naturally I had to adjust that a bit, and tone it down somewhat to avoid that.

Dcobb may want to look at the fading and artifacts at the bottom of his image as well. Burn tool works great for bringing out the needed shading.

Other then those notes, I think the work is great thus far.

[lurch]

This is a GOOD challenge, Craig. I for one really welcome the opportunity for thoughtful discourse not only on our restoration efforts but also on the image we're working on.

To the photographer - this image grabbed me. It appears you were trying to convey the impression of someone of supreme confidence, relaxed, direct, and unpretentious. Whitman's gaze holds a challenge to the viewer. Can't figure out whether the challenge is for the viewer to be/do something, or if it's an expression of "This is who I am. Want to make something of it?" That enigma is at least part of the photo's appeal.

To DC - Nice job, but I have a couple of nits. In your colorized version, I don't see a burgundy jacket as being consistent with what appears to me to be a no-nonsense kind of guy. I'd expect more old navy corduroy or something more work-y. And his beard and mouth should have some kind of color. My husband has had a grey beard for many years now, but there are still signs of the old brown (or last night's dinner?).

To Alison - I too didn't do much beyond fixing dust and scratches. Tried to retain the grain, slightly soft focus, and limited dynamic range characteristic of the era. And since the original was obviously black and white I left it that way, though I do like the look of a real sepia tone.

To Oh Heck - welcome. You did an excellent job on the damage. (Wait 'til you see what some of the other restorations look like!) My only carp would be the wide dynamic range, but only from a historical perspective.

And thanks, Craig, for the challenge. I do hope future submitters don't feel they have to address every post as I did. I only had three to talk to, after all.

<C>

[Kraellin]

lurch (god, i always think of the adam's family butler when i see that name ),

thank you

yes, 'thoughtful discourse' is exactly what i'd like to see here. so, i'm encouraged at how this is progressing. one of the best discussions i ever had on RP was with nancyj about a picture of mine in the art forum. now, anyone that knows nancyj knows that she's got a great eye, a good talent and a very frank style of discourse. that makes for a very powerful teacher. and i needed some learnin'.

and nancyj was very specific with me. because she has the eye and the talent, she could point out EXACTLY what needed to be done, or in some cases, undone. generalities are rarely helpful. 'that's crap' doesnt help a bit and is invalidative. nobody learns anything from a statement like that. but nancyj pointed out my oversharpening and some other details and i was able to not only correct the image, but actually impress her a bit, which is no small accomplishment. and that's what i'd like to accomplish with a thread like this.

so, if you see an image that's better than yours, ask the author what he/she did. if you see something that needs more work, point it out, but point it out so that the person can see what you're saying and see that you're right. or, if you just see a different way of doing something or a different style you'd like to impart, that's fine too.

and, if you just want to kibbutz but not enter the challenge, that's ok as well. ask questions, make comments. i want us to talk! i see references to tutorial this, and book that and this link and that link and so on and so forth, but the greatest resource here is ourselves! make use of all those 'selves'! tap the wealth! communicate, grow, make mistakes, have fun... YOU are the power. YOU are the community. YOU are what makes RP such a great site! splurge!

[lcramer53]

Photographer - I wonder if you had a conversation with Walt during his sitting, I wonder if you only took this one photo or several and if you took several, I wonder what differences there may have been to "poses" or lighting or background.

DC - I think that you did an especially terrific job of restoring the lower portions of the jacket although I'm not quite sure how you did it.

Alison - Great rendition. I don't know what else to say.

Oh Heck - Your choice of background works very well with this photo, very nicely done.

Lurch - Another nice restoration. I don't know what else to say, I think that everyone did really nice work.

What I saw wrong with the original photo and what I did to fix it:

Specks, damage and scratches on the lower portion of the picture. I used clone, spot healing, and patch. When I was satisfied with the b&w version, I created hue/saturation layers set to overlay for adding colors. New gradient layer for background, masked out Walt, added clouds and another overlay or screen layer visible at 25% with color for the background. This was fun!
Attaching the colorized one.

[Charlene5]

I enjoyed this challenge because the photograph was (thankfully) only lightly damaged and Walt Whitman is one of my favorite poets. I deliberately didn't look at anyone else's work until I'd finished and I am delighted by the different interpretations. That's one of the things I love about restoration - it's a skill but it also requires thoughtfulness, an eye for detail, infinite patience and a thousand decisions that impact the outcome. There are no definite rules and everyone approaches a problem differently. Maybe that's why I hated math so much in school - it's ALL rules

At the time this photograph was done Wat was already famous. I wonder if the photographer was intimidated? I pictured him chatting with his subject - maybe a bit stiffly at first - to suss out his personality as he got him situated and the equipment ready to go. Walt looks to be a straightforward person. I hope he put the photographer at ease. BTW, is this a Brady picture? I couldn't decide.

I studied the original and decided that the photographer was highlighting the face and Mr. Whitman's expression. I've restored a half a dozen or so studio pictures from this time period and they all have two things in common: Murk and exaggerated shadows. The photographs lose their range of tone and become very flat. Things that started as nice shadows get darker and darker with age and don't stop until they are forced to at 0-0-0 black. With that in mind I did an overall curves adjustment to bring back some of what I thought was lost. I also did a little lightening under the hat to bring out his eyes. I added a bit of gradient to the top and bottom of the background to highlight his face.

After that it was a general tidy of the bits of damage. I evened out the tone in his jacket and hat as I thought they were less blotchy back in the day. I left his face pretty much alone. Walt Whitman was headed towards 50 when he sat for this photograph and I didn't want him to end up looking like a GQ cover model When I thought I was finished I went back and added back the texture in the jacket and a bit of overall noise. He was far too polished for such an earthy man.

Lurch I liked your minimalist approach! I've learned something from you tonight. It IS possible to restore without sticking in one's own ideas. You did that with great success and next time I'll remember that and try to resist the urge to butt in on a composition. LCramer I'm a bit unnerved by your colorized version. It's a matter of taste, but for old photos I'd much rather see a gentle tint - a sort of imitation of the hand tinting done then. Oh Heck a very nice public debut!!

Cheers,
MJ

[lcramer53]

Hi Charlene, I really like your restoration, especially the attention to detail and bringing back the texture to his coat. Sorry that my colorized version unnerved you, didn't mean to offend anyone. I don't know if I will ever be able to tame my wild colorizing urges.. .. before computers and even Atari, one of my favorite rainy day pass times with the children was to drag out the coloring books and bucket of crayons. I love coloring! However, I appreciate and agree with your observation and hopefully next time I open up my box of crayons (the digital ones) I'll pay more attention to achieving a more realistic outcome of the time period.

[Oh_Heck]

Charlene, i'm curious what technique you used to texture the background. Very nice texture there. Almost looks like a light canvas and gives it a much more authentic look then just using noise.

[Kraellin]

lcramer,

interesting colorizing there. a bit dark overall, though. walt is blending into the background there. having him lighter and the background dark like it is would work better. also, the hand/wrist doesnt quite match the face. if the face was the color of the hand/wrist, i think it would work better. and re the hand/wrist vs. the face, look at the original. they pretty much have the same lighting and tone.

i like the coat color and the hat choices. dont care for the background much. takes attention away from walt.

[Charlene5]

Oh Heck it started as something else altogether. I'd cleaned up the lighter blobs of damage and scratches in the background and decided to go to work on the jacket. I selected out the bottom of the picture with the intention of using a gradient to pre-darken the damage on the bottom left. I was using edit/warp to shove/ease the gradient where I wanted it (I dearly love the warp tool) when I decided that it would make a nice sort of subtle frame. At that point I forgot about the jacket and added a matching gradient to the top. I warped them both in a kind of arc shape and dragged the edges toward the middle of the picture to darken the edges and highlight his face. I twiddled with the transparency until I thought it looked right. I think I settled on soft light at about 75%. The canvas texture is nothing more than noise added in at the very end of the project. I noised up the whole photo because I thought it looked too slick and obviously Photoshopped.

Glad you liked it

MJ

[Charlene5]

Oh Heck I was just folding the laundry (a real riveting task) and what's left of my mind was wandering. I've attached Walt at the point where I'd done all the background cleaning I thought I'd do and added the gradients. One of the side effects of the gradient is that it amplifies things beneath it. Part of that texture that appeared was the texture (I think) of the original paper. I went back and cleaned out the white splotches that were too glaring after I added the gradient but the rest of it I left alone. So. The background was a combination of noise and paper texture.

I think I've finally explained it properly

[lcramer53]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

lcramer,

interesting colorizing there. a bit dark overall, though. walt is blending into the background there. having him lighter and the background dark like it is would work better. also, the hand/wrist doesnt quite match the face. if the face was the color of the hand/wrist, i think it would work better. and re the hand/wrist vs. the face, look at the original. they pretty much have the same lighting and tone.

i like the coat color and the hat choices. dont care for the background much. takes attention away from walt.

Thanks Craig, at the time that I submitted it, I knew that it was really weird, but, could not have worked on it any longer, absolutely had to run. Anyway, I completely changed the background, made it much more subtle (color and texture). I think that Walt's face better matches his wrist now but unsure why unless I accidentally didn't totally mask out one of those areas with the previous background. When I originally did the Hue/Sat layer for the skin color, that's just how it turned out, I wondered about it but was apprehensive to start burning.

[Kraellin]

lcramer, much better, especially the background

charlene, i like the work but you've got quite a bit of spotting in there yet. try a little clone at a medium to low opacity.

[Charlene5]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

lcramer, much better, especially the background

charlene, i like the work but you've got quite a bit of spotting in there yet. try a little clone at a medium to low opacity.

Which one are you looking at? The one just above here is something I posted for Oh Heck to see where the background came from. My submission is up about 6 posts. I don't see any spotting in it?

MJ

[Kraellin]

charlene, well, both do, but you're right about the 2nd one. that has more. in the 1st one, it's mostly in the background and certainly less important for that, but nonetheless a bit distracting. also check his left wrist, hair and mustache. the coat looks good.

i also like how you lightened the face up and cleaned up the forehead and some of the facial blotchiness.

did you do an add noise on the coat? (not a criticism, just a question).

[Charlene5]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

charlene, well, both do, but you're right about the 2nd one. that has more. in the 1st one, it's mostly in the background and certainly less important for that, but nonetheless a bit distracting. also check his left wrist, hair and mustache. the coat looks good.

i also like how you lightened the face up and cleaned up the forehead and some of the facial blotchiness.

did you do an add noise on the coat? (not a criticism, just a question).

It's not noise it's a pattern. When I started on the picture I thought his jacket was velvet but when I zoomed in on the top left shoulder I found traces of a twill weave. The jacket was probably wool.

I tidied a couple of spots in his beard and mustache, did a little more dodging in his beard where I thought it was still too dark, and cleaned up the blotchiness in left wrist. Thank you for pointing that out, I missed it completely. As for the background I like it the way it is.

I've uploaded the revised picture at my original post.

Cheers,
MJ

[Kraellin]

charlene,

yes, i think it's wool also. how did you treat the coat then?

the touch-ups look great, charlene

ok, now there's one thing i just noticed in everyone's renditions, something that's been missed in all of them. take a look at the lower left portion of the image, on his body, below his right hand and i think you'll see it. and it's not that i know what this is. it has me a bit perplexed.

[Charlene5]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

charlene,

yes, i think it's wool also. how did you treat the coat then?

the touch-ups look great, charlene

ok, now there's one thing i just noticed in everyone's renditions, something that's been missed in all of them. take a look at the lower left portion of the image, on his body, below his right hand and i think you'll see it. and it's not that i know what this is. it has me a bit perplexed.

I just went back and looked at the original and did a shadow/highlight so I could see the contrast better. I think it's the bottom of his coat hanging open and a bit of trouser showing. I'll have a go at it in the morning.

This is the pattern I used on the coat. I used to make stuff for the Sims 2 and I have loads of patterns stashed away. I chose this one because I wouldn't have to line up the grain with his jacket. This one is a kind of herringbone and it works on any direction as is. I did a general tidy of the jacket being careful not to lose the ridges, folds and shadows. I selected out the jacket, did a pattern fill at 100% and played with the layer. I think I settled on multiply at 75%. I didn't want it to be too obtrusive. I erased the buttons out of the pattern and voila, instant wool

MJ

[Charlene5]

OK I think I've cracked the lower left mystery. Walt is wearing what we'd call a barn jacket. If you're not familiar with them I've done a fabulous <cough> line drawing for your edification. It has an underarm gusset to accommodate the inset pockets in the front. Think pea coat minus the double-breasted closure.

He's got the first two buttons done up and his hands jammed in loose fists in the pockets. What you see is his fists pushing the inside facing of the closure forward making a nice rumpled mess and if he keeps that up regularly the buttons will pop I've corrected my restore for the third and final time <g> and uploaded it at my original post.

Cheers,
MJ

[jstar]

This is my first time ever when I try to do photo restoration. Took about 1,5 hours, now need to sleep

I also tried to leave some original to the image, like the coat: its worn-out.

URL for the picture:
http://bayimg.com/maGeGaaBE

EDIT, after viewing your submissions - you guys are great! I'm ashamed now :P

[Kraellin]

I think it's the bottom of his coat hanging open and a bit of trouser showing.

i think you're right on this part.

i'll give you my take on it. the hands have little to do with it. remember, he's sitting down. if you notice that curl of fabric on his right, at the bottom of his coat, you may wonder why is it curling. it's from his leg. and, if i'm reading through all that dirt and smearing and fading down there, you can make out the top of his leg and possibly a knee. and that's what's pushing the coat up and causing that rolling of the fabric. best guess, anyway. i'll show what i'm talking about when i get it done.

[Kraellin]

oh, and welcome to RetouchPRO, jstar

no need to be ashamed. it's like anything else when you're first starting out, study, study, study, practice, practice, practice. probably one of the biggest things to learn in restorations is, what i now call the restorer's motto, 'Do no damage' that's the hard part the rest is gravy.

[Kraellin]

He's got the first two buttons done up and his hands jammed in loose fists in the pockets. What you see is his fists pushing the inside facing of the closure forward making a nice rumpled mess and if he keeps that up regularly the buttons will pop

yup, looks right to me. the only difference in that that i see is the leg/knee part i mentioned. and that could be wrong.

ok, here's my go at it.