Hello Everyone! - New user and offering

[Dov]

I thought id have a go at photorestoration - add another tool to my bow. I thought I could put a few ads in local shops to see if I could do this as a sideline.
So I got a web address, then thought Oh I better have a go at this first, see if I like it. Well the attachment is a pic of my nan, and having followed some of the tutorials on the site (which incidently are fantastic) I very much enjoyed touching up this photo.
Its taken the best part of a day, but ive learnt some new masking and key shortcuts which go a long way. Even though im a beginner I thought I should explain the steps ive taken - to get them checked out or if there of some help.

I decided from the start to keep the image b/w , maybe sepia.

1) forgot to desaturate - opps!

2) got rid of all the small scratches I could using filters

3) did alot of cloning and healing and patching ( wow that patch tool is so cool )

4) painted on top of dodgy bits - which were nearly all over. I selected the area to work on. I found using the 'alt' button good to quickly select different colours from the image to paint with. I used a scatter and soft brush. Then did noise to match and a bit of blur. I kept repeating this step ..

5) Satisfied with the b/w result, I came to this site to put it up and got distracted reading a tutorial on masking.

6) The next day decided to put my new masking skills into practise and colourized. Only using Hue/Sat , Curves and levels to change the colour on the mask. I know this is a basic way of colourizing, but its worked to my amazement.

Ill try painting in colour next time.

Any feedback welcome

Thanks for all the help!

[DannyRaphael]

Greetings from Across the Pond!
...and Welcome to RetouchPro.

I'd say you were exceptionally successful, Dov, ESPECIALLY for someone without a lot of experience at this sort of thing.

Though not an expert by any means at colorization, to my untrained eye, the results are wonderful.

Keep this up and you'll no doubt get more and more business. This "before/after" image might be a very good one for your website to illustrate results you can potentially achieve.

Well done.

~DannyR~

[fugitive]

Looks good to this jaundiced eye. Now do a hard one. They got some here that make me want to give up.
Anyway, the B&W and the color are quite good.
greg

[Ed_L]

Welcome aboard. Your efforts look great to me. Can't find anything wrong with them. I especially like the colored version. If you're seriously thinking about making money at this, and you're new to restorations, check out some of the challenges to try. Some of them are really tough, and some aren't so bad. They're all open for your retouching pleasure.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Dov,
A hearty welcome to another British friend. Glad you joined the Retouch Pro family. Your restoration is very good but the coloring is fantastic. That's a very rich red and with the background still black and white, she just pops off the page at you. Excellent job. Looks like you are a natural at this.
DJ

[Vikki]

Well done!
As DJ said, the colors are very rich.

Funny though, how we each see things differently. DJ liked how the gray background makes her "pop off the page", but I would prefer some color in the background, for the very same reason. Only my personal taste, but I think a slight sepia tone to the background would look good too.

[Tim_S]

Dov,

The coloring job is very nice. You seem to be a natural at it. I have tried hand coloring and have yet to get a result I think is as good as yours.

The only minor detraction for me is the highlight in the right stocking. It is too bright. If you compare it to the relative brightness of the background highlights it is brighter than anything else in the picture. In the grey (or should I say gray) scale restoration the brightness matches well with the rest of the tones.

Very good.
--tks