Examples of our restoration work

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi All,
I uploaded several before and after examples of some of my restoration work in the hopes that you all might follow suit. I thought it would be nice to see what we've done outside of the challenges in the restoration work.
These photos range from my very first efforts to my latest works. (Not in any order) So if you are interested check them out here
Give me your critiques, thoughts etc. I can use all the help I can get.
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

Very nice. I especially liked 'man at the bar' and 'two women restored'.

You seem to have a particular knack at pulling out details from shadow areas. Maybe you could share your technique?

The closest thing I could have for criticism is that sometimes the saturation levels don't match (see 'fire truck colored') and edges can be a bit abrupt (see 'scene manipulation'). But I'm trying really hard to find something to criticize. They're really quite great!

[Ed_L]

Way to go Debbie! I especially liked the "two women restored". You did a great job on that.

I hope you have a signed release for "muscles". I surely don't remember signing it.

Ed

[Chris W.]

Hey DJ,

What beautiful work you have done!! Outstanding!!!

It's obvious you enjoy the colorization as you put a lot of feeling into getting the right colors for the era.

I particularly liked the sleepy boy and pup...very nice effect.

I also tried to find critisizm...but wasn't able to see any immediate problems.

I do have a question for you though, have you received any colorization jobs where there were trees and all their many leaves involved? I received a request from a customer and cringed when I saw the trees. Maybe that might be a good challenge to colorize a very detailed black and white. It's one thing to do portrait type pictures but one with a lot of detail like your stereoscope is really quite difficult..at least to me it is..lol.

Cudos for all the time you spent in setting up your webshots pics, I'll have to try out webshots as I haven't seen that site before.

Again, beautiful work!

[kathleen]

what a great way to start my day. i love your stuff, dj. i really liked the two sisters combined. as usual, much of it pulled @ the heart strings and made me want to know the rest of the story; that is one extra special benefit of this work. the way the goat popped out was really cool. and i love the face on that little girl who was you. where were you?and how clever of you to get ed to model, we have all wondered what he looked like. just like i thought.

[thomasgeorge]

Excellent work Dj!!!! I am enthralled with the WW 1 soilder. Great job!!!! Tom

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thank you all. You are a real encouragement to someone's efforts. I can't wait to see all yours. Hint Hint

Doug-
I realized how drastically hard edges show up by printing that "scene manipulation" I have since learned to blur my selections more. Good catch. Incidently, that was my son in that picture after he fell face first in the sand. As for the firetruck, I could never quite see what the problem was with that one, mostly because when you work on something so long, you don't always see it like someone else does. You are right about the saturation on the truck but I just couldn't see until you said it. I bet that's why it didn't print so nice. Thanks, that was a good observation and a learning experience for me.

As for the shadow details maybe I will post a tip in the tips section. I hated how scanners get the white detail at the expense of the darks and vise versa so I have been trying to get around that.

The 2 women restored was a job I had that at first I was only going to do the upper bodies. I just couldn't do that. I thought the photo was better in it's entirety so I cloned the legs of the older woman and slimmed them down on her daughter then cloned the rest of the area to fill in the floors and curtains.

The man at the bar had sooooo much damage since the guy had been sitting on it for 40 years. It looked like it was crunched up fine and ironed out. That was a nasty one. There was no skin detail it was all cracks. I blew it up and used the dodge tool and a small brush to lighten all the webwork cracking. Then cloned hair from another photo he had. I still had to shadow and highlight to get his face to have some definition. It became a painting more than a photo. What a job!

Ed- Muscles is now in his late 70s and is an exact model of the big belly Buddah. That's his nickname even. Blew me away when I saw him after working on that photo and his bar scene photo.

Tom - the WWI soldier was my first PAYING job. I was thrilled to be able to give them back a piece of thier history. Guess that's what gave me the encouragement to pursue this line of work.

Kathleen- The little boy with the goat was my son Jason at 4 years old. Yeah I'm the little kid (about 12) on the horse if that was the one you were mentioning.

Thanks again guys for all your wonderful comments. Encourgagement and constuctive help are priceless to someone who's not always sure of themselves.
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

The legs was one of the reasons I liked it. Great touch.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Doug,
I just figured since they were mother and daughter there parts were interchangeable. Guess it worked. The client loved it.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Debbie,

You said "The man at the bar had sooooo much damage since the guy had been sitting on it
for 40 years". If I had been sitting on a bar for 40 years, I'd have a lot of damage too! Sorry, just had to get that one in .

I'm on my way to check out your web site. The part I missed, that is.

Ed

[paulette conlan]

I thought that you did an excellent job with those photos.It is very helpful to view the before and after side by side . I was particularly impressed with the man by the bar. I like the "painterly" effect and have been trying to do more along that line. I sometimes combine photographs and art backgrounds. I'll try to post an example in the near future.The only thing that I might consider changing was the composite of the two sisters. I would have reversed the order so that the sister looking to the right is looking at the other sister. But maybe you did so and it didn't look right. I had the thought that since the feet always seem to be a problem area that we should make up a leg and shoe archive. Maybe we can start going around with our digital camera snapping legs and feet... my neighbors would really start thinking that the heat's gotten me! Isn't this hot, humid weather a great excuse to stay inside and work on our photographs. Paulette

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi Paulette,
Thank you for your comments. I never even thought about trying to face the sisters or at least the one looking to one side. The client wanted them in the vertical 5x7 position and since they were so different in shadowing etc I aggreed that they wouldn't look right side by side. The only reason I put the lower one down was that she was actually darker and the top photo had a natural progression to darker at the bottom so they blended easier. I guess I could have moved her to the other side and she would have been facing in the direction of her sister. I never even thought of it. Good point.

Yeah here in Florida you could take pictures of bare legs all year for cloning purposes. Good idea. I've had a few times when I needed some good shoes or legs for a photo. I was just lucky that one had one.

Look forward to seeing your work. Glad I got someone eager to upload some of her work. Thanks again Paulette
DJ

[Marni]

Hi DJ

Everyone, I had the pleasure of meeting DJ, we found out we are practically neighbors!!! Small world. I saw her work and WOW very very impressive. It's hard to see the quality online, I was really amazed at how she got all the detail. I showed her my work and she was very encouraging about my "butcher" job of my wedding photo restoration. LOL LOL. I am trying and learning so much from this forum. You all have helped me soooooooo much. Thanks

[Doug Nelson]

Wow, my little board helped make some new in-person friends

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy...

I need a hug

[Chris W.]

Okay...here's a huge hug for Doug...lol.

[Chris W.]

Okay all,

Here's some examples I've put on the webshots...hope I did it right..lol.

http://community.webshots.com/user/ladybelle76885

I'm not real sure if this will work and I just put up some quick samples and I'll add more as I can get some time.

Please view them and let me know any feedback as I appreciate any help I can get.

[thomasgeorge]

Chris, Excellent work, especially "Wedding" and "Granddad". Wish I had your eye for color! Tom

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thank you Chris for getting this parade started.

I am impressed!!! Your work is beautiful!! I loved how you got Grandma Moses to look lifelike again. That was a tough one. Don't you just love those ones that bring out the painter in you?

Grand-dad seems to pop right out of that picture. Your eyes are drawn right to him especially against that monotone background.

Loved them all but the wedding and Grand-dad really caught my eye.

I was hesitant at first to start this thread but now that it's going I am thrilled. It gives you so many ideas on how to approach your future restoration projects. We tend to work in a certain style. I think when we see other works we get insite to other ways of doing things and we are able to expand ourselves.
DJ

[Chris W.]

Thanks so much Tom and DJ.

Okay you two, need to have any tips or suggestions on the ones that don't pop out...lol. One thing I've noticed on the colorization it does help a lot when your original is in very good condition. The grand-dad and wedding both were in excellent shape and had obviously been very well taken care of.

Need some ideas though on improving the not quite so "poppy" ones...lol.

Thanks again for checking them out.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Chris
You may have just answered your own question. You probably hit it on the head when you said alot depends on the condition of the photo you scanned from. Your work is still exceptional "poping out" or not.
DJ

[paulette conlan]

And I'm just up the road a spell in Stuart! DJ- isn't there a photographic center in Delray Beach where they offer courses and have exhibits.We're still somewhat of a backwater up here culturally speaking but with great PS courses at our local community college I'm staring to meet other folks in the community who are into digital imaging. There is a strong MAC users group here which meets monthly in the library and I sometimes go to one of their workshops if they have something of interest.Must leave now for something but I'll post later.( My friends think I need more face-to -face human contact in my life!)PC

[kathleen]

hey chris-

that's some good work. i have to agree with the majority on preferences, granddad and wedding were mine, too. the saddle in granddad made me want to touch it; i felt like somebody could just jump on any minute. and boy would i love to see the brides outfit face to face; i love to look @ the detail and craftsmanship on vintage clothes, you have featured it admirably.

i wonder how old that one of grandma moses is. and i wonder how old she was in it. i'm 51, and i'll bet she was in that ballpark. i have noticed that before in old pictures, how people my age look a lot older. (altho i may be kidding myself) wonder if a few generations hence, they will be saying that about me.

and your grandparents both have such kind faces, that's really neat what you were able to give your mom. precious. good job.

[Chris W.]

Thanks Kathleen,

I wish I could show you the original in real life as I've never seen anything quite like it.

I'm just not sure what was done as I said it isn't any kind of a photo but more like maybe a sketching perhaps. Very different looking.

It was on paper versus photo type paper and very brittle so needless to say I held my breath throughout the scanning process.

Thanks again for the input all.

[Vikki]

Debbie, great work! My favorie is "Muscles" You really did an excellent job on that.

Chris W. - great job too. I especially like your coloring of the wedding photo, beautiful job.

I also have a portfolio online atwww.lifetimephoto.com

[T Paul]

Chris,

Nice colorization jobs. I like the “grandparents” photo where you combined them both into a computer-generated frame. Nice touch. My only criticism there is that her hair looks a little hard. Need a few of those whispies that get lost when you cut out a person from their original background.

I really like the “grand-dad” photo. It’s nicely colored and just an overall neat photo. I also agree with everyone else that the “wedding” and “grand-dad” photos are so attractive because you made the people stand out from their backgrounds. Great job!!!

[T Paul]

DJ,

Nice work. The “man at the bar” restoration was very impressive. I bet that took a while to restore. I also like the
“sisters custom” photo. The results look like the two had their photo taken together verses you combining two separate photos. Great job.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thanks Vikki and T for the nice comments. Yes a few of those were real hair raising experiences.
DJ

[Chris W.]

Thanks T,

You're right on the hair and that is something I have been trying to work on...getting all the whispies when I crop. It's a tough one but I'll get it sooner or later with practice.

[kathleen]

hey vikki-

i had come across your site sometime in the past (before i found this one), and i was then, and am now, endlessly impressed. love your work.

i looked at each and every one, the one that stands out the most in my mind is the watercolor dog. i think if you didn't know it was a photo, you wouldn't know it was a photo.

actually should prob have posted this under "our favorite business sites", because it qualifies. you inspired me early on and still. thanks kc

[Chris W.]

Vikki,

I had also visited your site some time back and am very impressed.

I have a picture somewhat like the man in front of the house where I assume light had leaked in the camera or the film was not totally rewound when it was opened...anyway, there is a large red blotch across the front of the picture...to this day I still try different methods to get it fixed but no luck yet. The good parts of the picture are very dark so maybe that's what the problem is...I'm still trying different things to get it restored.

Very nice work and a large applause to you.