tricky picture for opr

[paulus]

Hi,

I've got some tricky pictures to work on from OPR and I must admit to being a bit out of my depth!!.

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y..._8x10Large.jpg

So any ideas or pointers would be really fantastic!

Thanks in advance
Paul

[W.Smith]

Much as I'd like to help out the folks at OPR (again), Paul, where there are no data/pixels in the image, there's nothing to restore...

Besides: at 768x1024 the 'original' is far too lo-res.
This one would require a miracle to resurrect in any meaningful way.
So I'm afraid reality dictates that it is a goner...

[bgates87]

I have to agree with W. Smith, I've restored photos for OPR before too and some were pretty bad, but this one's just too far gone. You could restore it, but it would require a lot of artistic skill. You would basically have to paint in the missing parts from scratch, and there is so much information missing -so much left to the restorer's interpretation- that even if you could achieve a photo-realistic final image it would be more your own creation than an actual restored photo.

[Kraellin]

this is a rebuild, the hardest part of any restoration and this one is exceptionally bad. but, i dont quite agree with the comments above. i think something can be done here. the baby's face, the most important part of the pic, is essentially there. you can see the form, the eyes, the mouth, the nose and so on. it wont be an easy restore/rebuild, but i think it can at least be made better.

one thing that might help you is to ask if there's another photo with more of the data showing that you could use to help you rebuild this one. you could either cut and paste from the other or use it as a model to help in the rebuild.

either way, it's not going to be easy. the first step is to simply bring out what's left, then cut away what doesnt belong and then rebuild. dont worry too much about being perfect on these; just get it as best as you can in a reasonable amount of time.

[crazyfly1]

What's OPR?

[mistermonday]

I agree with Craig. What's important is that you can recognize the baby from the facial features that remain in the photo. The clothing and the background really don't matter. If it were a photo of my child, I would be able to recognize it and say immediately
" That's my baby at age ?". If no other photos are available (that's probably the case), I would just try to clean up the image / gunge a bit. I would not try to fabricate the missing left side of its head, nor would I try to colorize it unless that was requested.
Blake, OPR is Operation Photo Rescue and is a program that was initiated after hurricane Katrina to restore photos that were found / rescued in the aftermath of the destruction. It is done totally on a volunteer basis. The images are sorted by severity of damage / difficulty and you work on the ones you think you have skills to do a good job on.
If you are looking for more info visit oprworkshop.org
Regards, Murray

[crazyfly1]

Wow, that's cool! I'm gonna go look now. Thanks for the link Murray>

[0lBaldy]

Am I correct in assuming that if doing work for OPR we should not borrow parts from other sources not related to the subject because it might not be recognizable to the owners..?

[paulus]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I don't think I can borrow bits from unrelated images but I'll ask if they've got another of the same child.

Cheers

[unimatrix001]

I am no artist but i believe it can be done I used parts of this picture to rebuild the right side of the photo.

[lurch]

OlBaldy, you're correct about not borrowing third party parts.

[Cupcake]

Some ideas for the baby.

Larger file if needed.

[Kraellin]

i'm encouraged by the results so far

[dmeadows]

This thread has just reminded me I have an OPR account and should probably do something useful and worthwhile this coming weekend