thoughts?

[fstr21]

i know this is a challenge but i was kinda wanting quicker feedback incase noone happened to look at that one certain challenge out of the rest.
personally i dont like the hair color.... and i know some will not like the sky but something about the grungy blue sky in the background really makes me want to keep it, almost like a cloud filter, without ..cloud..filter ha

i just know it needs more work but for the life of me i cant find it. I have also fixed the little squiggly lines at the top in the sky.

[Kraellin]

ok, if you look around on this forum you'll find that i push several things fairly consistently. one, find the image! that's almost always going to be your first step. bring the image out in all the detail possible. that's first! you cant restore well if you cant tell what the image is. simple. you didnt quite do that in this pic.

two, dont colorize till you fix! again, you missed this one a bit. you did do a nice job of removing the crease/fold lines, but there was more that need to be done, like noise reduction. when you colorize before fixing it's like painting a wall with holes still in it, or with large, unsanded areas. so, fix first, colorize second.

third, do no harm! now, that one gets interpreted a bit oddly at times. do no harm means, do no harm to the original image as it was taken. dont change backgrounds, dont wipe out arms and legs for convience's sake, dont alter the original image content. restore means to put back to original condition. it doesnt mean enhance. it doesnt mean wipe out something that's a little difficult to handle. it means restore. if conservators of the sisteen chapel allowed for alterations of the original... oh boy, the things we'd lose! so, be true to the original image!

so, here's my step one, find the image:

[Kraellin]

i shld mention that i use paint shop pro x2. for that example above, i duplicated the original background and then used 'fade correction' at about 32 and 'clarify' at about 10. this brings back much of the original contrast within the image. some dont like to do this because it also tends to heighten the flaws, mars, dust, creases, etc and that means extra work. i could have done the same but the texture and image in the shirt wouldnt be as good nor would the face. now, i might fudge a little here by masking and then finding the image on only the more important parts, but i didnt see much need to do that with this one.

[TommyO]

I would agree with Craig, spend more time on the restoration prior to colorizing it.

Also, the color is a bit strong for my taste. In order to keep the image looking like one would have been colored in that era, the saturations should be very light. Otherwise, it looks a bit like an old photo with modern color - nothing like what we would expect.

[aartist]

Well said by both Kraellin and TommyO.

Get all the restoration done first.
Color should only be applied to a competely finished restoration.
Color is not the end, it's an additional touch to a restored photo that can be easily and quickly removed if not desired by those people who prefer authenticity over added flavor.