New Member first restoration

[mepaulus]

This is my first attempt at a serious restoation job , i was looking for restoration tips when asked by a family member to repair some old photos and i came across a site that offered this photo as a test peice(restore and recolour) for job offers so i thought i would give it a try.The forums here have been an immense help in finding help and tips on restoration techniques and so a huge thankyou to all those who have shared their knowledge on here.Any comments or tips on bettering my work would be greatly appreciated.

[mepaulus]

OMG i just found a post on here with a reference to the neat image plugin for photoshop and tried it on my image , the skin improvement is amazing , a huge thankyou to the poster.

[cun030876]

hi mepaulus,
first of all: great skin color judgement!
IMHO the dress is a one-shoulder kind. And you cloned the teeth too much, they shouldn't be that white on the left corner of the lips.

[mepaulus]

Originally Posted by cun030876

hi mepaulus,
first of all: great skin color judgement!
IMHO the dress is a one-shoulder kind. And you cloned the teeth too much, they shouldn't be that white on the left corner of the lips.

Many thanks for your comments cun030876 , i see exactly what you mean with the teeth so i fixed it here ,regards the dress i was using a bit of artistic license lol as the site i found the original image from wanted to see creative design skills as well as artistic.

[MsT]

Woa that's amazing...you just painted a whole woman back from nothing.Did you do this in photoshop? If this is your first attempt you have a gift yo. Go with it

[mepaulus]

Originally Posted by MsT

Woa that's amazing...you just painted a whole woman back from nothing.Did you do this in photoshop? If this is your first attempt you have a gift yo. Go with it

Many thanks for the encouragement MsT , yes i used photoshop CS3 with a couple of actions (decrack and smartduster) and plugins (Neat image and Polaroid scratch removal) all found through reading the forums here to work this photo with a lot of healing tool and clone.It probably took in the region of about 8 hours to complete because i am new to restoration so made many mistakes.I stole the teeth, the dress and a few patches of skin from a pic (i Googled "young black girl") she is shown in the thumbnail.Once again many thanks to all who shared their knowledge on here.

[haymelter]

It is the same site here is my try at it

[Lily Star]

I'm new here, and new to photo-restoration. I've done a bit of retouching here and there and some digital airbrushing, and I've really enjoyed it, so I figured I'd give the full-on restoration a go. This seemed like a good photo to start with. So here's mine.
The dress could use a bit more work. I think I need to practice with fabrics, and different textures, and that kind of thing, but I'm relatively happy with how the rest turned out.

[Aurora Graphix]

Actually Lily I think you did a great job! Only thing I may have suggested from my limited experience is to perhaps add a bit of color to the background, some sort of gradient even if very subtle. You nailed the important part though in the subject's head, hair and features.

If I was the customer: I'd be happy!

Edit: Oh, forgot to mention that the brown circle on the dress is kinda distracting though and not sure if that was suppose to be there?

[Florin]

Well, my friend, let´s say that is your first attempt and you must understand that critical opinions are more important than congratulations. First, everything is blured. Eyes, nose, mouths etc lost their shapes. The edges seem to be cut with some shaving blade. Try always to blur a little these shapes. Going back to the face. Restoration does not mean only eliminate the imperfections, details as scratches, spots etc by blurring, means PRESERVE the original image as much as you can, the strucure and the general original look and details. Blurring so much doesn´t mean this photo is "restored", in my opinion is just a blured and coloured image. Try to learn how to use some filters and also how to use the clonebrush and paintbrush to improve the final quality. This kind of a job can´t be solved with only plugins.
Well, don´t be sad, some 10-11 years ago I was in the same level as you are now. I´d never show to anybody my first "attempts" now but we all must consider that everyone has a beginning, it´s a long way untill we´ll be very good artists and all you need is a lot of work and patience.
I wish you the best luck and success
http://restorations.yolasite.com

[voodooscuba]

Florin,

I checked out your website, but could not find any photo restorations. All I found were tattered old portraits and then next to them someone had done elementary paintings of that photo. Like something you might find on the side of a conversion van or the back of a denim jacket. Please advise I would love to see the benefits of your years of expertise.

[Florin]

Buy some eyeglasses, man. You need some strong ones. If not, offending my work means nothing for me, caming this from you. Read the appreciations and the criticizes in this forum, from the people who really konow about this business and my works. Sometimes, have the mouth shut is more profitable, sun. The worse situation for someone like you is judge something you don´t understand. The only thing that you are defending a beginner work just for being beginner and do not see the real estate of his work/try make me think that you really don´t understand anything about this stuff. May be you shoud try first with some cartoons, seems to me that Mikey Mouse is more close to your set of mind.
Hope you´ll be better soon

[Aurora Graphix]

I know I am just new here and a beginner at resto work as well, but guys, come on lets get along! ;-)

First we have to expect some constructive critisism. As a matter of fact I welcome it personally, as thats how a person gets better.

Second, I have checked out Florin's work as well (more than once). In my opinion much of it is very well done. After doing research on how photos from the day were actually done, many of them had a real painterly look and feel right from the day they were taken. So sometimes the painted look is actually closer to the original than trying to get artsy with it and make it look like something it's not.

But back to the point, I think most of us are here to learn and/or help. Expect good and bad comments - it is all part of the learning process.

Brad

[Florin]

I also hope our friend and companion here, Mepaulus, must take this as it is, just someone´s opinion, not an offense. He´s a nice man here an belive me or not, I´ll be the first one to congratulate him when some of his works will get better. Maybe my criticizes are to straight but remember, I also said I was doing the same kind of works some years ago and that´s normal, I´m not ashamed to say it. It´s normal, it´s only the first step he´s doing and has a lot the way waiting for him. The fact is that I always was very, very open to the other´s criticizes and this helped me to understand where I was standing. Also, my motto was and still is "the next work must be better".
About this first attempt, Mepaulus, it´s ok, just leave this as it is. Think about begin with some other "low level" retouch, a simple image which could be less complicated and allow you to practice and restore it easely. This one is not so simple, is very damaged and I´m sure you´ll be able to fix it in the next future but for now, take another one. Look for something which has not a massive damage, just spots, small scratches, use delicately the filters and begin to "play" with the clone brush, learn also how to paint a little.
As a baseball career, if you want to be some day a big league man, you must begin from below and keep move up and up. Must begin with the small and easy game to prepare yourself for the hard game later. All of us here are betting for the beginner´s succes and being happy to share this forum.
Brad, the fact is that always people send to me this kind of very damaged images, almost destroyed. The only way to restore them is painting. What should I do?
Have you all my best regards