Looking for advise....

[weewood]

Here's a photo that I have been trying to restore. It was badly damaged (as you can see), and I've tried my best to recover it, but I'm not completely happy with it and don't really know what to do next. Any advise or criticism is welcome.

[Mhayes]

Hi David, nice clean up on your photo. I think the reason you are not completely happy with your work is that it comes off flat. By that I mean that there are little if any shadows that give depth to your photo. Even though it has lots of damage, you will see where some of the shadows need to remain--shoulder and under the arms extending to her back. Also, looks at the ruffles and you will see where shadows fall in the dips of the ruffles. There are also shadows showing in the elastic ruffles of the armband, which you have smoothed out to look more like stitching. Around her neck up into the hair line will also have shadows that vary in darkness. In the original I notice that her bangs come down a lot further. You really have a hard one with the background, since it looks dark with color splotches that are damage. The problem with making everything black is the little girl looks like she is floating. It would help to have more of a lighter color for what ever she is sitting on. You have done a great job and it shows you have a very good eye in knowing that it isn't where you would like it.

Margie

[cmpentecost]

I agree with Margie on this.  I think some shadowing, etc. will help.  Here is a good link in the forum:

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,844.0.html

I dropped a glass while washing dishes tonight, giving myself a major cut to the wrist, so that's about all I'm up for to type tonight.

Great start on a very difficult photo David.

Christine

[kiska]

David, a little helpful hint. I noticed this photo in the NAPP forums. Before posting a restore ANYWHERE we delete the personal info attached to that file. This is to protect the owner's contact information. In cs3, you go to FILE>FILE INFO to delete this info before posting the image. Half the time I forget to do this.  :crazy:



Maybe this will help with the outline.

[Hannie]

Hi David, welcome to the forum!

You picked a really difficult photo to restore, you have done some great cleaning up already.  I like Margie's tips on what you can do to make it even better.  If you can manage somehow to get the shading back in it would give you the result you are looking for. 
To determine the exact placing of the shadows it sometimes helps to have the original and the new photo side by side and look back and forth real quick while painting.

(When a photo is as badly damaged as this one, it isn't always necessary to restore it to look perfectly new.  What I'm trying to say is, e.g. the background could possibly be just cleaned up and repaired where possible.  Then use the repaired area to patch the rest of the badly damaged background area.  You could then blur or burn it a little where necessary to blend everything nicely.)

Thanks Chris for the reminder of the link that explains a different method of burning/dodging.  I tried both yours and Kiska's and both methods work really well!

Hannie

[jneil2]

Hi David,

As you can tell, our forum members are the greatest when it comes to offering suggestions and resources.  You will be amazed at how you can improve your skills by making use of it.

I am looking forward to seeing your progress on this one, a tough one!

Jan