My first post, My first project.

[patio87]

Well I go into Photoshop to do photo restoration specifically. So I learned the basic layout and fucntions of photoshop, then educated myself on photo editing, then educated myself on restoration. So I learned some good stuff, and I needed to apply it. So I found a picture and went at it, and now I am here to hear(more read) your criticism. And also to ask for some advice on what else I should do. First thing that I ask of you guys is my skin, basically it sucks. And I would love some short tips on coloring skin.
Anyway, here is my little project, I am personally proud of it, and it was quite an obsession of mine for many hours. Remember I am a TOTAL noob to PS. I mean I know how to use PS but this is my first and only project EVER using PS.

Original
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5...riginalrd7.jpg

Restored/colored

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9650/restoredco7.jpg

Restored/BW

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2...filtershi3.jpg

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Patio87,

OK firstly, nice attempt at a restore.

I won't comment on the coloured picture, as there are others here better qualified to do so, and my own colour jobs are nothing much to talk about.

Before I start to crticise, I'd like to commend you on losing the tape marks. You've done a good job on that.

The thing that hits me first, is the blown out whites of the woman's dress. It is a common mistake made by many to up the contrast when doing a restore, and it doing it they usually go too far.

Pictures of this age often have lots of fine textural detail, and I'm sorry to say you've lost quite a bit of it, most notably in the background cloth and the woman's dress.

I realise this is a first attempt, and I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, just to point out factors that you need to concentrate on in order to get the best results in future.

[philbach]

Nice Restore and welcome to retouch pro

Well you have really gotten off to a great start.

But I thought I would mention some of the things that I noticed. Like Gary the whites of the dress are blown out so you probably did add too much contrast there. The top right corner of the chair was not colorized. The gentleman's left index and long fingers have some spots on them. There is an artifact on the lady's left shoulder not touched up, and the background and carpet probably should be colorized too.

This is a great web site to learn and to have others review the work and thanks for posting your work.

[duwayne]

Welcome to the world of restoration - Nice first cut. The image is a little "soft" probably as a result of trying to get rid of the noise in the original. It's easy to lose detail while trying to eliminate the noise. I desaturated the original, saved it and ran it through Neat Image (I use the free version) before trying to repair any damage. I used the Auto Profile and Filter Preset => Advanced => Filter more chrominance (for muddy looking images). You don't want to remove all the noise! You'll lose more detail and the image will look flat.

After Neat Image, it's just a matter of cloning and healing. No painting or skin fixing necessary. I use a standard round brush with a hardness of 40-50%. This does a good job of matching the texture.

After repair, I used level adjustment layer to set the tone. Be careful not to blow out the whites or get the blacks too dark. Photo will look too “contrasty” and lack detail. I typically set the black point (left slider) to 5 and the white point (right slider) to 245.

I finished it off with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the colorize box checked. Hue was set to 50 and Saturation was set to 10.

Sorry - can't comment on the colored version. I wasn't good at coloring as a child and 60 years later am no better.

[patio87]

Wow this is great guys, i'm loving it.

-Gary Richardson- Thanks. Yeah I noticed that too about her dress.

philbach- Yeah the hand is still something I have to work on. It looks really bad ATM.

duwayne- Thanks alot for that write up. I will be using that in the future as reference. I'm also going to download Neat Image. You don't happen to know of any other plugins/programs for photo resto/retouch do you?

Also that's amazing what you did with the picture. How long did it take you?

[leanan`si]

Hi patio

It's probably at this point that the magnifying glass comes in handy. Without being able to peer closely at the original photo, it seemed to me that there was a chance that the artifact on the lady's shoulder may be a feather brooch.

There are times that I seriously do grab the magnifying glass when trying to decide what should be in the photo and what should not.

You've started well .. and you're right. It does become an obsession

leanan`si

[Littlecoo]

Hi Patio, I found a colourization tutorial that you may be interested in HERE
Also adding a subtle sepia photo filter to soften the overall tone in the photo may help. Other than that you are doing very well, you have a good eye for this