$50 Restoration Job

[TylerCruz]

Hi,

I'm a photo restorator, but I only do it as a side thing. Right now, I'm busy, but I have a client who needs something done. I'm basically looking to outsource this job. I won't lie - I'm making a profit from this, but still, I know that work isn't easy to come by, and so I'm offering you guys the opporunity to do this job for me for $50. I would pay via PayPal.

I will scan the image for you guys if you are interested. It's a very touch restoration: The photo is in tact, except for the lower left side, which was cut (clean cut) diagonally across. The missing corner/portion is about 9% the size of the entire photograph. The lady wants this to be 'created'. It contains the lower portion of a lady's dress, and whatever else you can 'forsee' in the background.

I pay via PayPal.

You must note this important piece of information: the lady will only be paying if she is satisfied with the work (you may ask why I conduct business like this, but it's a local thing, and a long story). Basically she will probably be satisfied with any decent job - all my customers have been thrilled with the work I give them - they have no idea restoration could be so good.

So, I'm going to be conducting this as a competition - basically whoever submits something I feel as great quality, I will use that one, and show it to her. If she likes it, and pays for it, then I will pay you.

If you feel awkward about this method, please don't try to restore it. To reiterate, I'm very sure that the customer will be happy, as long as the quality is good!

Please reply if you are interested!

[Noelf]

I would be interested in working on the project, you can send the scan to me at noelf@nomigraphics.com and I'll see what I can do to it.

Or post a link to download the pic from

- Noel

[TylerCruz]

I have scanned it and put it up at:

http://www.movie-vault.com/tpr/corner/corner.psd

It is 2 megs

It is black and white and doesn't need to be coloured, however after you recreate the missing section, you may want to improve the contrasting, etc.

Also please save your PSD, because I will ask for it (layers in tact, etc.) in case the customer wants a tiny change..

Any questions, just ask.

Thanks

[TylerCruz]

Hi,

To make it easier on you guys, I uploaded the same image, but I cropped and rotated it for you, so you can get to work right away on the image.

http://www.movie-vault.com/tpr/corner/corner2.psd

[Vikki]

I just want to make a couple of comments about this - just my personal thoughts......
This is quite the "challenge"
I can't tell if you're getting any responses to this, but if a customer presented this to me, I would probably decline the work or suggest a cropped restoration - minus the missing area.

If for some reason I did take the job, the cost to do the request work would be at least $175. You're talking about some major reconstruction here. Not only her dress, but her arm, hand and the background need to be recreated. It needs either some great artwork, or very meticulous cutting and pasting.

Your second post does not really make it any easier, as cropping and rotating were the only easy parts of that fix. If someone were having a hard time with that, they're in for a lot of headaches when they start to tackle the actual restoration.

I'm curious to see the outcome to this. Will you let us know?

[Noelf]

I am unfortunately not going to be able to complete this one myself.

The amount of work necessary is beyond a 50 dollar fee, especially when it is spec work.

I do appreciate being allowed to try, but I wanted to be straight on it.

- Noel

[TylerCruz]

No problem guys. I already stated that I was going to profit on this, but my idea was that not everyone manages to get their hand on clients. This is indeed a very difficult restoration, but definitely not the hardest one I've had to do. I appreciate your honesty though.

[TylerCruz]

To Dave,

I lost your email, but I checked my server for the image you uploaded. Quite nice! This is about 80% of the quality I'm looking for. My main concerns are how blurry parts of it is - lower portion of forearm, bottom of laundry, and bottom of skirt (although the skirt is difficult, I know). If you could clean this up by making these parts better, as well as doing a quick bit of cleaning on the top right (good old healing aid time!) then I will probably be using your submission (the only submission I received so far).

Your ground and shadows, lower left is perfect. The only thing I could possibly complain about is the angle - if you notice the shadows in the centre of the two women, you can notice they are going at a different angle.. but I'm just nitpicking now, the lower left is great!

BTW, the TIF you sent me won't open up in Photoshop for me for some reason. It gives me an error about layers and composite data, but I can preview it fine in the windows preview program thing that pops up... could you upload the PSD next time?

To Everyone else:

If you're still interested, I took a little crack at doing this myself, and if you want a head start, you can use the file I have at:

http://www.movie-vault.com/tpr/corner/corner3.psd - if you use this one, I'd only be giving you $45, as I already started on it. You would need to remove the girl as well obviously, but this might help you if you don't know where to start.

Thanks.

[Duv]

Hi Tyler

I made a few quick corrections and have uploaded again to your server. For some reason it is not allowing me to send PSD. Maybe sending TIFF with layers is causing some grief in PS.
I only took this project on to see what could be done with $50 worth of my time. I realize that others may define their worth differently. To me, I wanted to complete the restore in 1 hour and hopefully at a level that would satisfy the customer. I enjoyed the challenge. It took 1 hour 20 minutes. I've posted it here and would appreciate any feedback.
Should you choose to use this, please make payment as a donation to Retouch PRO.

Cheers
Duv

[Flora]

Hi Tyler Cruz,

I absolutely agree with Vikki in all the points she made .... and, as you might remember, I work best without "a head start" ...

Since nobody else has answered, I decided to post the restoration I've done.
Let me know if it could be satisfying for you.

One thing though, since I'm doing this for hobby, should you decide you like my restoration (I've saved the PSD format), I'd like you to make a Donation to RetouchPRO for the amount of money you mentioned.

[ExclamPt]

How about a "pass the restoration" with proceeds going to RetouchPro?

What if someone takes Duv's or Flora's worthy effort, adds some more effort and passes it on?

If the final version is accepted, the proceeds can benefit us all.

Just a thought.

[Flora]

Hi Duv,

You must have posted your post while I was writing mine....

I can see we think along the same line!!!

Btw. great job! ... quite a challenge, wasn't it?

[gland]

Flora about how long did the restoration take you? Nice job. I'm afraid at my skill level I'd be making pennies per hour...

[Flora]

Originally Posted by ExclamPt

How about a "pass the restoration" with proceeds going to RetouchPro?

What if someone takes Duv's or Flora's worthy effort, adds some more effort and passes it on?

If the final version is accepted, the proceeds can benefit us all.

Just a thought.

Not a bad idea for a case like this ... ... The one drawback I see in it, is that for making it possible you should pass along a 50MB PSD file (such is the size of my final restoration!!!)

[Duv]

Originally Posted by Flora

Hi Duv,

You must have posted your post while I was writing mine....

I can see we think along the same line!!!

Btw. great job! ... quite a challenge, wasn't it?

As usual Flora, your's is fabulous! Smart move in cropping it down. How much time did you put into it?

Cheers
Duv

[Flora]

Hi Gary,

Originally Posted by gland

Flora about how long did the restoration take you? Nice job.

Thank you very much! ...
I don't know exactly how long it took me to restore this picture since I didn't work on it in one go .... I'm usually very slow ... but being a hobby .... well... I don't mind how long it takes ....

[Flora]

Hi Duv,

...we seem to keep on "cross-posting" ....

Thank you so much for your words!

As for how long it took me.... I'm sure you know by now, from my answer to Gary...

[TylerCruz]

To Everyone,

Duv, are you the one that uploaded the file Dave-corner.tif? I think so - that's why I thought your name was Dave, sorry.

Flora, once again your work sickens me. It's too good. I don't think you know photo restoration at all, but instead use your time machine to travel back in time and take the photo again... that's cheating!

I think I'm going to have to go with Flora on this one. The only thing I can 'complain' about it is that the wall seems to continue off at a different angle after the laundry...

Flora, I'll have my upload program changed to allow PSD uploads in the future, but for now, you could try renaming it to a .jpg, then uploading it. When I download it, I will simply rename it to .psd, and we will see if that works.

Please let me know once you've uploaded it (I receive no confirmation when it's uploaded).

If the client likes it (she will, I'm quite certain) and once I show it to her (should be within this week), I will make the donation to RetouchPRO. Your guys' loyalty to the site is amazing!

[Vikki]

Duv & Flora, excellent job! I can't imagine how the customer would not be happy with what you've done.

[gland]

Excellent indeed..
I can make the exisiting photo look pretty good but the reconstruction has me somewhat baffled. Looks like Flora borrowed a hand from the lady in the center of the photo.

Duv and Flora do you have any hints on how you did this?

[Flora]

Tyler Cruz,

thank you for your great comment!!!

You are right about the wall .... I'm going to correct it before uploading the picture.

I'll also save & upload the full size as .JPG .... but you won't get any of the layers in this way....

Vikki,

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Gary

I actually borrowed the whole arm from the other lady ..... I pasted it over the 'missing' one and erased the part of it which covered the original 'stump' ( ) .... I adjusted size, contrast and consistency of the pasted part to fade in the existing one....

[TylerCruz]

Flora,

I actually meant just rename the extention of the PSD file to .jpg so that my upload program will allow you to select it. Then when I get it, I will rename it back to .psd, and it should open fine in Photoshop...

[TylerCruz]

Actually,

I had my upload program updated!

http://www.movie-vault.com/tpr/tpr1.1.zip

It will now allow you to upload PSD files

[Flora]

Hi Tyler Cruz,

...All done .... I'm uploading the 'monster' file/Image (nearly 50MB) to your site as .PSD file ...

It's going very slowly .... soooo .... it'll take a while .... As soon as it's uploaded I'll let you know!



P.S. .... I renamed most of the Layers .... but not all of them ...

[TylerCruz]

Flora,

There's been a bit of trouble - when I had the uploader upgraded to allow PSD's, I didn't know I needed to also update the accompanying data file. I just tried it with the new data file, and it uploads fine. I have no idea where it is being uploaded to if you are using the old one! Lost in Cyberspace somewhere I guess!

So my apologies.. please delete all the old files you downloaded from me, and download http://www.movie-vault.com/tpr/tpr1.1.zip again. I'm logged into my server, so I can see pretty much in real time what you are uploading, but you aren't actually sending it to my server now... try downloading it again.. it should work this time!

Thanks

[Flora]

Got it!!

No problem .... I just wonder who is receiving a monster file from a perfect stranger!!!!!

I'll re-start the procedure just now!!!

[TylerCruz]

I think that the programmer that made me the program, when he updated it to allow PSD's, that he tested it by using his own server (which the data file contains information of), and when he sent it back to me, this file came as well, and so my guess is that you were sending to his 'test' server.. which also explains why it probably went slow.

I have a dedicated server, so it should go fairly fast on my server.

Thanks.

[Flora]

Everything seems to be proceding well and Yes!!! much, much faster!

Please warn your friend that nobody was trying to invade his server!!!!

Are you receiving it now?

[TylerCruz]

Hi Flora,

Yup, getting it fine - thanks.

[root@trinity Upload]# ls -al
total 44032
drwxr-xr-x 2 photo_upload photo_upload 4096 Apr 11 18:14 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 photo_upload photo_upload 4096 Mar 17 02:15 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 photo_upload photo_upload 17169550 Apr 11 11:55 Dave-corner.tif
-rw-r--r-- 1 photo_upload photo_upload 27848811 Apr 11 18:39 F_corner1.psd
[root@trinity Upload]#

[Flora]

Hi,

Seems all done now ....

Could you, please, let me know if you got it and if you can open it?