Operation Photo Rescue's Online Community

OPR Virtual Offices => Office of the OPR Board => Topic started by: Mhayes on August 22, 2008, 05:01:39 PM

Title: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 22, 2008, 05:01:39 PM
I imagine all of you have heard car ads where they announce the boss is away and they want to sell off a large number of cars before he comes back. That is kind of what I would like to do with some of the photos remaining in Jan's Gallery. She has about 9 families that have only 1 photo remaining in her gallery. These are the ones that I would like to see taken. I won't try and trick you like a certain Dutch gal I know into thinking that these are easy, because they are not.

I'm also thinking that it might be fun (now everyone is on full alert) for someone to pick one of these photos and then post for ideas on repairing the photo. For the sole purpose of a group project, I could download the full resolution photo to each of you. I know some of you are really skilled in some areas, so that might be a way to help out. Maybe even take a vote on those remaining photos to see which one you would like to see posted. I will only do this for one photo to start, in case my idea turns out to be a bust.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 24, 2008, 07:24:38 AM
Margie, I'm all for trying the group project, I'll take the first orphan in Jan's gallery and start the topic.
I will only do it on one condition:  I also want a box of kudos!!

Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 24, 2008, 11:15:00 AM
Hannie, one group project coming up--stay tuned for the unveiling.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 24, 2008, 12:46:30 PM
I am posting our first group project. This photo is still in Jan's Gallery and you can request that it be downloaded to your gallery or you can copy it straight from here. I have posted it at full resolution, so if you post your work back to the Forum, please keep it at full resolution. I know this is not an easy photo, but by posting it on the Forum will help other members gain insights on how to handle the tough ones.

(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/BradyR_5_85x12.jpg)

Thanks everyone,

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 24, 2008, 02:48:41 PM
Wow, what a doozy!  Maybe desaturate first and then try to repair with some of the channels.  The only problem with that is that I've never colored a photograph before and I'm afraid it is going to have the "dreaded painted" look!.  There also seems to be texture, wander if that is damage or not? 
BTW where are my cookies?  :knuppel: (will not push another pixel untill I get some...)
Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 24, 2008, 05:38:55 PM
Hannie, I guess for cookies we will look to Tess to send some over. As soon as I get free (not like tied up), I will post a neat tutorial on coloring that I seen in one of the Photoshop magazines from the UK. I will take a look and see which channel looks the best to go with black and white to colorize.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: glennab on August 24, 2008, 06:11:11 PM
I have to confess to starting on this little guy way back before I had my health setback.  I'm almost embarrassed to post it, but there may be something worth looking at.  Hannie, the texture on this image looks like fine caked mud.  I actually sampled skin from another photo to try to get his face smoother and it looked good at first, but then I started going downhill and so did the restoration.  The mud and the color casts were what I found to be the most troublesome.  Since I struggled with him for so long, I'll be really happy to see him go home soon.  He's precious.  Reminds me a little of my son at that age.

It's a mess, but here's where I had to stop, for what it's worth:

(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/BradyR_5_85x12Started.jpg)

I won't even admit to working for food on this one!

GK
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 24, 2008, 06:38:37 PM
Glenna, don't ever be embarrassed about any of the work you do for OPR!  Your version looks a hell of a lot better than the original! 

Apart from my thought to start out in black and white, I really don't know how to tackle this one, like you said, when you look at it closely the whole photo is covered in little cracks and muck.  What makes it even worse is that the photo is quite large.  I tried to make a layer with dust/specks removal. Than add a hide all layer mask and paint back those areas that I want to look smoother.  It makes the image too blurry, it wouldn't if it were a smaller size. 

The damage seems to have a pattern but when I tried the FFT filter the pattern didn't show.

Difficult restore!  :mad:

Hannie

This is what I have so far after desaturation and levels adjustment.
Quite an improvement, isn't it?  ;D

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/WIP1.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: glennab on August 24, 2008, 06:57:12 PM
Whoo hoo!  I can see we're going to make HUGE improvements on this one in no time.  It's an absolute bear, Hannie.  I went through every color space, every channel, color corrected(?), tried the blur.  I knew FFT wouldn't work, because it's not a symmetrical pattern.  I think it actually IS the imprint of dried mud.  I just started patching & cloning.  I think I got the bakground by patching a blue I discovered when I was adjusting colors.  The hair... fageddaboudit.  I've read tutorial after tutorial, read Mary's explanation, gotten samples from her, and it just doesn't happen!  Seems as if it should.  Just a bunch of squiggly lines for cryin' out loud! NOT!

I'll be interested in seeing how the heck we get this doll ready to go home.  I KNOW it can be done.  We're all pretty good at this.  We're just up against a nigh unto impossible!

GK
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 24, 2008, 07:16:56 PM
Yes Glenna, this one is going to need more than the 2 of us can offer!  ;D
It is very late here, way past my bed time but I was thinking to go back to color and in the selective color adjustment layer move the black slider all the way to the left in the red and yellow channels.

Goodnight everyone!

Hannie

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/WIP2.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: glennab on August 24, 2008, 09:19:54 PM
Hannie, I hope you have better luck with that than I did.  No matter what color I selected, tweaking it in either direction made things worse.  I also tried going into LAB color, inverting the colors and then placing that file in the original and used layer blending modes.  At least I can say that one was especially interesting!

If there's any part of my original work from which you can pull (maybe the 5 pixels in the upper right corner), I'll be glad to send you whole file, or even just the layer on which I worked my "magic."  The background isn't bad, and if the color doesn't suit you, that could easily be adjusted.  At least that battle could have already been fought.

There must be someone out there besides the aged Garrulous Kraken and the reasonable facsimile Hannie with some ideas.

Cheers!

GK
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on August 24, 2008, 10:37:46 PM
I had a go at the face, think he's a bit pink though. After repairing the damage and lightening the dark spots I selected the face and hair, converted to greyscale then painted the colours in using overlay.

(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5404/bradyr585x12bd0.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 24, 2008, 11:27:37 PM
OK, thought I would just sit back and let nature take her course and then at the 11th hour I would chip in with some advice as you guys finished up the dirty parts. I really have been working on this one, but GK is not kidding when she says this one looks like caked mud up close. I am not even going to try to work from the colored version first. Right now I have gone into Lab and worked on the Lightness channel and tweaked with the Curves adjustment. After converting back to RGB, I added a Gradient Map to bring more detail in. I am now cleaning it up to getting ready to colorize. When I get closer, I will post my progress.

For those of you that are really good at painting, you probably have a better and faster way of doing this one. Glenna, I think you made a lot of progress on this one.

Margie

Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Ausimax on August 24, 2008, 11:43:16 PM
Here is my quick take on this, its rough as I only spent about 15 min on it.

First I used a curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast, next I used the dodge tool to clean off the dark stains - then the healing tool in replace mode to replace texture and colour to the damaged areas - then in normal mode to blend it in - I didn't use the clone tool at all as I wanted to work with the texture rather than against it.

After I cleaned up the face I used another layer set to colour mode and painted the face with a pink skin-tone and reduced the opacity to about 35% - lastly I used the median filter at a setting of 1 to reduce the texture a bit.

I don't know if all these ideas would work as well on the full sized image, from the name I think it would be 8.5x12in and I fine the healing brush isn't as useful blending on large areas.


(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/8922/bradrewew7.jpg)


Max
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 25, 2008, 04:09:13 AM
I think I may have shot myself in the foot on this one! It still comes out muddy no matter how much I work on it.

(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/BradyR_color.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: kiska on August 25, 2008, 06:39:42 AM
hmmmmmmm. Dunno if this helps or not.

(http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm81/kiskaopr/janaway.png)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 25, 2008, 03:05:37 PM
Wow, already some great results! All the versions shown here mixed together would give a beautiful result. 
For instance, Glenna's background, Margie's sweater, Max's hair + eyebrows, Tess's smooth skin and Kiska's tonal adjustments. 

Easier said than done, I have to say that a nice treat of some kind (kudos?) would help a lot!

Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 25, 2008, 04:10:21 PM
No treats?  Then this is what you get!  hahahaha!
(I used a little of everyone's versions  ;D)
Help!

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/wip3-1.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 25, 2008, 05:52:39 PM
Talk about a group effort--Thanks everyone! I think this worked out pretty well Hannie considering it was a mud cracked mess. I would like to see maybe a little more color to his hands so that they do not look so ashen. Donal Duck look better a little brighter, but considering how the pullover looks, it might be well to keep him subtle.


Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 27, 2008, 05:44:05 AM
Great tip on the hands and Donald Margie.  It still needs cleaning and a little touch up here and there as well.

I'm really hoping someone else will finish this project as I'm going to work on a Westervelt photo now.  After reading Margie's post on the thank you note I really want to see those picture returned to their owner asap!


Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: schen on August 27, 2008, 07:33:07 PM
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z298/schen_album/wip33.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 28, 2008, 01:15:02 AM
Hi Shujen, it's nice to see you back. We thought maybe your students had kidnapped you! Nice job on the boys face and lightening up the eye on your left. Now if we can get the mud out of his pullover.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on August 28, 2008, 02:53:16 AM
I used Shujen's pic and tried to get the mud out. Too bright??

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/DD.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 28, 2008, 11:25:12 AM
Tess, I like it much better. See what it looks like if you make it not so bright and Donald a little brighter.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: kiska on August 28, 2008, 11:57:08 AM
His left eyebrow is getting on my nerves.  ;D

This is the cyan channel with a little healing and cloning. His right ear seems to stick out. Might see a little of the left.

(http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm81/kiskaopr/browear.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 28, 2008, 04:27:24 PM
Just taking a break from my other projects, used Kiska's cyan channel to reconstruct the ear some.

Hannie

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/wip4.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on August 28, 2008, 08:00:31 PM
Adding to Hannie's, I coloured Donald.

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/DD2.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 29, 2008, 04:52:10 AM
It's getting better all the ti-i--me, better, better, be-tter! (remember that song?)
And now we can finally see Donald Duck!

Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on August 29, 2008, 04:36:52 PM
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k88/mschonher/BradyR_5_85x12mary.jpg)


This is an interesting concept to have a group restoration.  It will be fun to see how this photo ends up.  The only way I could work on this guy was to desat him to work on his features.  Any of my attempts at color enhancement didn't work at all for me.  He can be painted afterwards with the primary coloring method which is the one I like, or any other method for that matter.  This is still pretty rough but I'm adding my 2 cents worth to the mix.

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 29, 2008, 04:56:08 PM
Mary, I really like what you did, his face looks great! 
I'm silently hoping you will find the time to give the boy in your version a haircut and then we can maybe merge the 2 versions...

Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 29, 2008, 09:56:58 PM
Hi Mary, I like what you did with his face also. This almost makes me want to start from square one again--almost?  ;D

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on August 30, 2008, 11:33:38 AM
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k88/mschonher/BradyR_5_85x12marycopy2.jpg)


Hi Margie, 

If it looks like I have kidnapped your photo I'm sorry.  I got to working on it last night and couldn't stop myself.  I haven't worked on the mouth yet so it looks rough.  I cleaned up what I had already one in the first post and then gave him a "do" per Hannie's request, so it's all her fault.

I posted the beginnings of one I started to color using the Primary Coloring method.  You can find a great tut at Worth 1000.  I hope this helps get this little boy home a little faster.

PS  this one is lotz easier than the Lotz photo..........lol

Mary    :hug:
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on August 30, 2008, 02:22:24 PM
Hi Mary,

This looks beautiful! You didn't kidnap the little boy; you just took him home for a cleanup and a good time. I think it is interesting to see how everyone approached this photo. What I thought was a good way to start, ended up causing me some problems later on down the line. Thanks for the reference to Worth 1000.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 30, 2008, 04:04:28 PM
Mary, how beautiful!  Margie is right, this is a group project and anyone on the forum that feels like working on this one is free to do so.  Actually, the more the merrier!

:loveit:

Hannie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on August 30, 2008, 05:22:57 PM
I really shouldn't be working on this one now but I just had to add some of Mary's work to the WIP.
I used most the hair, face part (!) of the eyes, and about 50% of the background.

Hannie

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/WIP5.jpg)
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: klassylady25 on August 30, 2008, 05:26:15 PM
The hardest part is duplicating the texture - one way or the other.  Wonder if there is a way to do that?  Can a transparent texture be made so that it can mimick let's say the courser texture.  Do you unerstand the question?

Hope so,
Candy
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on August 30, 2008, 09:00:11 PM
Hi Candy,

I think I've posted before about film grain and you might have missed it.  I usually do this at the very end after all the repairs are done.

Dupe image in the layers palette.  Go to filter> Grain> choose enlarged grain, about 10% or a little lower, no contrast.  Click ok and when you're back on screen choose layers, hide all mask.  You can then add it where it's needed.  If you need it all over then don't add the mask.  You can adjust this with the slider.

When I need the film grain but also a bit of smoothing I'll add to the duped layer a small dust and scratches filter, then a small gausian blur and then the grain.  This will be all on the same duped layer.  I then apply the hide all mask and brush carefully over the areas that need it. Use a delicate touch with this method.

Is this what you were asking?

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: klassylady25 on August 30, 2008, 11:55:44 PM
Mary, it's the hide all that I forgot about.   And yes, that's what I was asking about.  Sometimes the picture warrents, to me, that the back ground not be as smooth as the subject.  But that's primarily because of the soldiers that I've worked on.  There is something, and I don't have the words, that if the paper is smoothed out to much it looks overdone.  Hope I've made sense.

Thanks for the reminder,
Hugs,
C
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on August 31, 2008, 09:14:04 AM
Candy, the photo should have the same amount of film grain throughout, so you can apply it wherever it is too smooth.  It also helps blend in any painted areas that are too smooth.  I also make my own grain for skin with a starry dust brush #400.  I always do this on new layers, one layer for the lights, one for medium/middle tones and one for darks.  I set the opacity low and almost always need to use the gausian blur filter. I love those brushes and you can get them free on line.  Just google in brushes, photoshop, starry dust. 

Hugs back at ya,

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: schen on August 31, 2008, 01:57:46 PM
Mary,

You did a fantastic job restoring the boy's head.  I would like to learn your painting techniques when I have time.

Margie, I was not kidnapped but they did keep me very busy.  I finished my last OPR restoration three weeks ago then my coworker gave me a dozen of original vintage prints to scan and restore.  These photos were from USS Missouri on September 2nd, 1945, the signing of the Japanese surrender instrument.  I had a few days break from work last week but I squandered many hours watching Democratic convention.  There will be more hours squandered next week watching Republican convention.  I am still working on two OPR restorations, one is quit close to finish.  The nice thing about the new technology this year is that I have been watching convention by streaming video on the computer while I was working on restoration and some other tasks at the same time.

Shujen
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on September 01, 2008, 11:39:26 AM
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k88/mschonher/BradyR_5_85x12marycopy.jpg)


I can do no more to this little guy. It will be interesting to see what happens with him, I know the lower right side needs work.

Shujen, thank you for the kind words.

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on September 01, 2008, 12:13:52 PM
Mary, he looks great!  :up: His face looks so nice cleaned up and I love the background as it doesn't compete for attention with the boy anymore. One question, I know that you said the right side needs work--his right? Is the reason the left looks blown out, because of having to desaturate so much to get rid of the ugly mud?

By the way, the owner of the Lotz photo said to tell you, Kiska and Hannie, a big thank you. It was a quick thank you by email before he left town to get out of the Gustav's path.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on September 01, 2008, 01:57:54 PM
Margie, did I say right?  I meant our left, sorry.

I guess I could steal from the other arm.  to be honest with you I was trying not to spend too much time on him.

Can I see the Lotz photo please?  You can email it to me Margie.

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on September 01, 2008, 02:46:52 PM
Mary, we can finish the arms, since you got the really hard part done. If we can't, we will just cover the arm with a blanket or fade that part out.  >:D  (kidding of course)

Yes, I will email the Lotz photo to you.

Thanks.

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on September 01, 2008, 04:00:05 PM
Mary, you have done an amazing job on our little boy!  Thank you also for all the great tips and instructions.  I wish I had a little more time to go through some of those and try them.  I have a long bookmark list of tips and tuts to work on but just never seem to get to it!

Margie, that was nice to hear from the Lotz family, thanks for sharing!
How about a vignette to cover up the left side of our project?

:loveit:

Hannie 
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: mschonher on September 02, 2008, 11:25:02 AM
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k88/mschonher/BradyR_5_85x12marycopy-1.jpg)



Margie, I decided not to be so lazy and do the arm.  Hope it's ok

Mary
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Mhayes on September 02, 2008, 02:59:36 PM
Mary, he looks beautiful! I am the lazy one for waiting till you made the next move on him! Thanks everyone for the work and help on how to restore this little guy. This was a fun project and got lots of interst. I'm thinking that this is something that would be fun to do on a regular basis.  :up:

Margie
Title: Re: While Jan is Away
Post by: Hannie on September 02, 2008, 03:30:03 PM
That looks so beautiful Mary!  Looks like our first group project has come to an end and this little boy can go home!

Hannie