My first restoration - I'm a bit unsure

[AdamM]

Hello,
This is the first OPR restoration I've done so be kind but honest. I could just about make out what the pictures on the wall were, but I've had to employ a bit of 'artistic license' and effectively paint 80% of them. Is this a liberty I shouldn't have taken? I've kept it as close as possible to the original but there wasn't a huge amount to go on. I thought that leaving them as blank patches would have been worse.



If I've missed anything, please let me know.
Thanks,

Adam

If anybody wants to start a list, I now have nightmares about:
Wood grain
Gradual and uneven colour casts
1970's hotel radios
Japanese Cherry Blossom paintings
More wood grain

[Hannie]

Hi Adam,

Maybe you can add cyan blue dresses to your nightmares list...

Firstly the kind yet honest part: welcome to the forum! 
You have done an incredible job on your first OPR restore, can't believe how well you you eliminated all those water stains.  Great job!
I think that the art on the wall looks fine and if you are worried about authenticity just use a 50% blur over the flowers and the grey lines inside the frame.

Now the honest but not so kind section so please feel free to skip this part and totally ignore it.

The photo could use a little more levels adjustment as explained in the OPR Handbook, a hue/saturation adjustment layer with sat. at -8, a color layer set to color mode with a 12% soft brush (pure cyan from the swatch picker) and go over the yellow stains in the dress.

Cheers,

Hannie

[Atlantis]

Looking good but can I please add a silly question : is the grey part in her hair maybe also damage?

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Great job Adam. :up: With Hannie's level adjustment it will be spot on. I think the grey piece in her hair, is hair. Looking at the original the damage angles up past that piece and it looks like it is a curl. Who can be sure?

[AdamM]

After all of the time I spent correcting the background I completely forgot about the final colour corrections to the nightie. I feel a bit daft. I'll get that sorted and repost the photo in a couple of days (I'm working two jobs at the moment, so free time is limited).
As far as the level adjustments go, I'm going to stand my ground. After a second look at the image it does appear to me to be a bit too dark and could use a bit of an upwards curve adjustment. I, hand on heart, appreciate your advice and would be a fool to dismiss it on the basis of pride alone but I think it is fractionally wide of the mark. Looking at the version of the image that you have posted I am going to make the assumption that you have opened the levels adjustment dialogue box and moved the black slider to the bottom of the curve and the white slider to the top of the curve. In the current trend of high contrast photos this looks normal. It did not in the era I am assuming the photograph was taken; if you look at the original image again you will see that what should look pure black does look black and what should look pure white (i.e. specular highlights on the glasses and photo frames) does look white. The midtones in my restoration, though admittedly dark (which, as stated, I will adjust) show a more realistic tonal range. The skintone with clipped highlights and shadows looks almost monotone to me and reminds me of HDR composite images. I have made an attempt at realism in favour of the preferred, stylised ideal.
I know that what I've written may be taken as a scathing rant and if it does then it is entirely my literary skills at fault. I cannot convey my appreciation for your input and advice enough. All that I would ask is that I be given a couple of days to work on the final image and put in to practice what I am trying to get across. If you can endure my stilted, chaotic text until then you should hopefully understand all the gibberish that I've scrawled above.

P.S. I've re-read through this and I seem to come across as slightly eccentric and over-English. This might be because my fiancee and I are sat watching Top Gear and Match Of The Day on telly. Sorry.

[laportelj]

Welcome Adam!
I am only going to weigh in on the swatch of grey hair (personally I think it is damage) However what if it is not , lol?
The question would be, Give her grey that she doesn't have or touch her up. I think a touch up would be the lesser of two evils.
Just my opinion. 
  Jane

[GP]

Hi Adam, and welcome to our group!

I'm not sure if this will help, but there has been a second picture of this lady here and it looks as she is more gray on her left side.
Can anyone confirm that this is the same lady?

Gerlinde

[AdamM]

On the blue channel on the full size image I can just about make out that the grey streak is meant to be there. The only problem was working out how far up the hair it stopped. The other photo could come in useful assuming she hadn't gone more grey when that was taken. The (hopefully) finished article should appear on this thread tomorrow (again, hopefully). Wish me luck.

[Mhayes]

Hi Adam,

You have done a great job on this one. My feelings after downloading this photo is that the gray is damage. The color of the gray looks very similar to the gray/blue color of the damage coming across the photo. I also looked at the photo that Gerlinde posted, but the problem with that one is that the photo of her hair on that side has the highlights blown out because of the sun. I am also in agreement with Jane that a touch up would be the lesser of two evils. Amendment: I have looked and this woman did have a lock of gray hair as you done--later she went gray all over, so keep photo as you have it.

Margie

[PatW]

Hi Adam,

Here is a photo of the same woman that I'm still working on.  I believe she's several years older in this one and the gray patch has spread.  I think what you have is perfect.  Don't  change anything.  By the way, you've done a terrific job on yours.  It's always harder than it looks, isn't it!



pat

P.S.  Don't worry, Tess.  I've just started on the pedal pushers & legs and am still circling the blanket stuff warily.  Psychedelic sky also remains to be done.

[AdamM]

Hello,
I've been a bit busy recently so I haven't had much time to work on this. I think I'm done now though. I've brightened things up a bit and sorted out the stain on the dress.


Thanks,

Adam

[lurch]

Adam, you've done wonders with this photo.  :wow: I just have a couple of suggestions to finish it up. Did the following steps in Photoshop CS3 but they don't require any features introduced since version 7 at least.

There is an overall yellow cast, which you've fixed in the cyan nightie and other places. While we don't know the wall color, it's a good bet that the bed linens are white. Neutralizing those reveals that there is still yellow stain showing. I isolated the stained linens with a rough selection (we don't really care about the wall now that it's uniform), then selected the stain using Select>Color Range. Added a hue/sat adjustment layer, desaturated yellow, and partially desaturated red. Now the sheets and pillow are white. There's still some residual damage on the woman's arm, which I've outlined but done nothing with.



You're getting there - keep up the good work. And don't believe any of the time estimates posted for the levels of difficulty. These color snapshots take hours.

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