next »

Total Members: 1579
New This Month: 8
New This Week: 2
New Today: 1

Before and After

Ritopr13

Young girl

Belmont University

[Charity]

Obviously this photo needs a little more work, but my question is, how far do I go with it. It is very out of focus and blurry to begin with. Do I try to fix that.. try to redraw features.. or at least make them a bit darker?

Honestly I have worked on this over and over and over.. because I really want to bring the baby into focus... but I think it might not be what I should do.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Tori803]

If you're asking about sharpening, the rule is "Don't!" We leave sharpening, if needed, to Quality Control.

It looks like the hands are blurry because the baby moved when the photo was taken, so the blur is really part of the original image, not a by-product of damage (I think). I don't think I'd try any sort of 're-creation'. I think more color correction will bring out the detail that is there.

I did two quick Curves adjustment layers, one for the overall image using the black/white eyedroppers, and a second one to try to get rid of the green in the face (which is making the face look even murkier). These would have to be tweaked, but they do show how the Curves adjustments can bring out a little more detail.


GreenFace by Tori803, on Flickr

Tori

[Charity]

Thank you Tori for your input. I really do think you are quite right. I will work out some adjustment layers tomorrow and upload another one...The baby's right hand is blurry because of trying to clean up the photo. I haven't gotten in there to try to detail it in a bit.  The other was blurry to begin with. I did end up sharpening up the blanket, but not with any sharpening tools, just burning in some of the shadows so it wasn't so.. murky I guess.   I'll upload a larger version too.. so you can actually see the detail.

[Charity]

O.k.. hit me with the critique.. I can take it!

[Charity]

I tried to fix the colors up a little better than they appear here. and I sent it home.. I have a feeling it may come back to me.  It was a lot more work than I thought it would be when I first saw it. Then I downloaded and realized how blurry the entire picture was.. I don't know how to restore blurry.. to that degree.

[Tori803]

Looks much better!

As you've just learned, once you download the original image, you can really see the damage! Sometimes it seems that photos would be easier to repair if they had all been great (technically speaking) to begin with, or that they all had a Color Checker calibration card in the image so you could tell what the original colors were. But the photos that really matter to people tend to be family snapshots, and it always feels good to get a nice restore back to them!

Tori