Learning different techniques

[sage150]

This photo of my son was partially destroyed
by salt water during a Nor'Easter Flood a few years
ago.I have many of these destroyed photo's in my
possesion.
I am not a graphic's artist nor a photographer,
though I've always loved the art of photography.
Certain event's took place in my life that made
me investigate photo restoration and manipulation.
One of these were placing a photo of a Mother and
Son in the same photo.The Mother was a good friend of
mine from Grade School.She didn't have a photo with
her son due to the fact that she hadn't seen him in
many years.The son passed away and I thought it might
be nice to do that for her.I am pretty skilled in
computers.
The restoration area came with the many old black
and whites I have of my family and thought it would
be nice to try and restore many of them.Eventually I
began colorizing many of them also.
I find it an excellent hobby and pasttime.My main
goal is just to learn more about the different
techniques so I can make better restorations.
It also allows me to move away from my other hobby
which is Genealogy.I research my family and also try
to find other friends families for them.
When I complete an oldie picture I feel like I have
been given a chance to go back into the past when I
was younger and many of the family & friends were
alive.
Thanks to this Forum Board I have been reading,
searching links,obtaining various programs to assist me and in general going forward in a positive direction.
This past week I was trying to understand layer
masks.It took me a little while because I am not
adept yet with many of the techniques used.I also
haven't got my shortcuts with the keyboard down yet.
This photo was done using layer masks and I stumbled
and bumbled my way through until I got was what I felt
was a half way decent copy of the photo.
I also used the clone tool and the dodge tool.I used PS 6 to do this.
All comments are welcome.I don't get insulted and
welcome constructive criticism.
Hopefully I'll get better results in the future.

Joseph

[Ed_L]

Hi Joseph,

I think you're on the right track. Good thinking about taking another pic to copy from. It's hard to tell by the small image, but I'm wondering if there's not a little more detail in the hair than we can see. If there is, you can bring out detail by using a curves adjustment layer in conjunction with a layer mask or a selection for localizing the tonal changes. If you don't know how to do that, just ask, and I'll explain it or someone else will if I don't see your post right away.

It looks like you're losing something in the darkest and lightest parts of the image too. Doug wrote a good tutorial on a quick and easy levels adjustment here . I would also recommend that you pick up a copy of Katrin Eisman's book on restoration and retouching. There is another thread about good prices on the first edition, which was written for PS6. I haven't seen the new edition, but I think it goes into a few things that are not available in PS6.

I'm also into genealogy a little. I found a distant cousin last year who has a different surname. That was exciting!

Ed

[sage150]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the input, it's really appreciated. I just finished
reading Doug's tutorial on Level's and adjustment level.That
was sure a very good tutorial on the subject of losing the
highlights of the picture.I definitely will be practicing that
tomorrow.
I know the quality of the picture as a whole leaves alot for
me to desire.I was looking more at the technique than the
picture as a whole.I had never worked with layers and read
about 4 or 5 tutorials on the subject and kept getting lost.
When I started playing with the slider and watching the
picture beneath the top layer come through I was really
astonished and understood right away the power in the
technique.
I used those two photo's to begin with learning it.Eventually
I know that once I feel more comfortable with more of the
tools available I'll be able to do a much better job on it.

I just received Katrin Eisman's book in the mail this weekend and will be looking into it.
I read the forward and it was stated
that there are some techniques available for PS6.

On the subject of genealogy.It was placed on me by a couple
of cousin's on both side's of my Mom and Dad's Families.
I have become very adept at finding people,places and dates.
When I am knocking my head against a wall so to speak I just
have to get away from it for awhile to rethink my gameplan.
Living near Manhattan affords me the good fortune to have
the New York Public Library nearby and they have an excellent
Genealogy Dept. which includes online research.

Thanks Ed,

Joseph