Finally finished

[learninlady]

I have finally finished the 30 piece estate photograph restoration job.
I'm of course not happy with it, but know in my heart of hearts I could work on those photos for the remaining years of my life and never be completely happy.
Heres one of the simpler photos as I have posted all the (not really there were more.) more difficult ones.
Hope everyone is doing well and changing the world pixel by pixel.

[klassylady25]

Looks great!

[learninlady]

thankx Lady. I had a look at your site, some good work there!

[igot2pman]

I know this is not your fault but the lack of sharpness of the front shoe bugs me. It should not be out of focus.

As for the rest of it, top notch.

Good job,
-Keven

[learninlady]

Ah haha. You and me both! I did everything I could, but all efforts made it worse, can't fix what the photographer messed up sometimes.
I even did a search of someone elses shoe to replace it, but it just wasnt working.
That's was one of many for an estate I did. And she wasn't so much interested in perfections as such, just wanted to see her families faces.

[igot2pman]

Well the faces look really good...where did you search? own archive, online?

-Keven

[learninlady]

I had a search through:
http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/
and just searched for old shoes...lol
but finding the same shoe, or even changing the shoes all together didnt work for me. so I left it as is. I even tried to sharpen just that area and it still looked odd

[igot2pman]

Great resource, thanks for sharing.

-Keven

[learninlady]

Ah Kev I cant take credit, I found it somewhere here on the forum, cant say where, but I DID bookmark it! Its come in so handy!

[malart]

It looks great and the blurred shoe/leg bugs me too. I copied it and run it with Nik Sharpener 3.0 and it helped it considerably. May you could try the demo version on it and form your own opinion.

[learninlady]

Originally Posted by malart

It looks great and the blurred shoe/leg bugs me too. I copied it and run it with Nik Sharpener 3.0 and it helped it considerably. May you could try the demo version on it and form your own opinion.

Well, where is it? I looked every where to find what you did, but I dont see it here.

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by learninlady

Well, where is it?

http://www.niksoftware.com/sharpenerpro/usa/entry.php

Tried it, but don't use it. Though it's quite versatile and can be effective, it takes a while to become "talented" with it. Ultimately, I found that even on a speedy machine, it ran really sloooowwwww...

My 2¢

[malart]

Originally Posted by learninlady

Well, where is it? I looked every where to find what you did, but I dont see it here.

Here it is......I just let it go on default settings

[skydog]

Kate,

seems you have been at this for awhile. I just finished (I think) a restoration of a photo of my grandfather. I'm not sure how far to take it. The original is sepia but I restored in B & W. Are there any guidelines here...B&W or sepia? What about color...have you tried coloring the restoration? Just wondering if I should go that far?

[Kraellin]

looks good, kate

[learninlady]

Malart- Looks good, but for me it appears a bit grainy after sharpening, thats why I decided to just leave the shoes blurry, even tho its aggravating, I had to stand true to what she wanted and not to my thoughts. The importants to her was to see the faces of the family members, and I am sure they wont even notice the feet. Its a difficult seat to sit in when you keep perfection on your lap. I have to keep reminding myself 'what does the client see, and what do they want to see', and its not about me and my picky-oons...lol
Thanks Southbay - I have downloaded so much that I dont need another application - Ive got plenty of power but dont need to slow me down.
Skydog- I started this project somewhere in Sept/Oct of 2008. I took off for Holiday travels and such. Its been a very difficult project to say the least, there have been quite a few that were unrestorable that I did any way. She understands and is happy - well shes not picked them up yet, she may say "HA, forget it, they stink!". Nah, she will like 'em.
As far as colorization's and toning's, I would stick to what the customer wants. I ask if they want them to 'look' old when I'm finished or to set them in black and white, colorize, etc. Its difficult for me to remember, so I keep repeating it, its what the customer wants not me. Sometimes I just cant help myself and do something I think is nice and throw that in as a bonus. No charge. But again, always ask what THEY want to see, and if its for you, then why not both? or all three. There are tri-frames and something like that would look awsome! or even quad and have the original to start.
Thanks Craig! and Hello!!!

[malart]

Originally Posted by learninlady

Malart- Looks good, but for me it appears a bit grainy after sharpening, thats why I decided to just leave the shoes blurry, even tho its aggravating, I had to stand true to what she wanted and not to my thoughts. The importants to her was to see the faces of the family members, and I am sure they wont even notice the feet. Its a difficult seat to sit in when you keep perfection on your lap. I have to keep reminding myself 'what does the client see, and what do they want to see', and its not about me and my picky-oons...lol

I just used the default settings only, I suppose I should have just brushed the effect on the shoe/leg area only and/or reduced the effect percentage. I still believe this plugin is good for this type of thing, even though I'm no expert with it but the more I play with it the more things I find it improves.

[learninlady]

Thank Malart! I will definitely look into it!

I FINISHED MY NEW REVAMPED WEBSITE! OWIES, MY NECK HURTS


TAKER HER FOR A TEST RUN!
http://oldfadedmemories.com/

[Southbay]

That's quite nice!

Your work on the B&W carriage in the woods is outstanding. Viewers may want more info on your printing capabilites and services. Overall, well done!

Oh...I really like your choice of site theme colours.

SB

[learninlady]

Thanks Southbay,
I too like the surrey with the fringe on top one. I wish I could show them as they look in print as they are one hundred percent better. I can't optimize them and put them online without messing them up.
As far as colour goes, I searched a ton of competition sites, and they were all drab or goofy. so I decided to go with in between of those two ideas.

[Kraellin]

Thanks Craig! and Hello!!!

indeed hello and welcome back. you never call. you never write. what's a father to think?! i work and sweat and... hehe, ok, just kidding. it is good to see you and i like your new site. be sure to post the link in the library here

[learninlady]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

indeed hello and welcome back. you never call. you never write. what's a father to think?! i work and sweat and... hehe, ok, just kidding. it is good to see you and i like your new site. be sure to post the link in the library here

N'awe jus remember my heart always belongs to daddy.

I'll do that. I have been wanting to clean up my old site, it was so cluttered with ads. Some where on my web site advice some one said, put ads on make ya look trustworthy, ok, I did.
Then I got carried away. So now I'm all clean and only putting on ads that are helpful. P. Allen Smith is a PBS program about gardening, just the audience I want to target, and he has my link, so that stays. I also want to update my geneology dot com ones too. think thats enough...
and this I believe is enough site talk sence this is not the place, Im slow, but I just figured it out while Im writing this better late than jus keep rambling.

[amica999]

Nice site, Kate and stunning work in your PF

[dmrdm]

Very nice. I remember your railroad picture on a scrapbooking site sometime ago back in July 07 when you were starting to work on retouching that picture and were using PSP.

Looks like you've really gotten the hang of restoring! Nice job! Enjoyed looking at your new site also.

[Kraellin]

kate,

it's ok for you to ramble here. i moderate this forum

and i'm proud of you. the site looks great and the pics look great, as well

[learninlady]

ami - thanks for the kudos, much appreciated!

dmrdm - HA, small world in such a huge internet! That was a project considering the actual photo was 14x18? I think, too big to fit into my scanner, so I had to scan it twice and clone it together! what a trip! worked tho, thanks for remembering and having a look/see.

Ah Craig - Friends in high places, gotta love that! thanks for the lovely thoughts, its very much appreciated, means a lot.

[RichieMB]

I think that you did a great job with the photo, nice one.

[learninlady]

Thanks a bunch Richie!