For review please

[G3User]

Finally got back to this one. With so much noise in the original I decided not to try and eliminate the noise and have added noise to the new surfaces I created. Might be a little overdone?

I haven't pushed the contrast/brightness, I thought it made the image look over processed when I printed it but it could possible be a bit brighter, now I see it on line

Having been absent for a month or so it is great to see all the new faces(?), well you know what I mean

Athol

[Hannie]

Hi Athol,

Your restore turned out great!  I don't think the noise is overdone, maybe you could darken the hair, eyes and mouth of the lady and the man in the middle.  I used a levels adjustment plus hide all layer mask.

How are things with the 3 storey building plans?  I hope your lobbying made a difference!

Hannie
(I also softened the louvre doors with 30% blur brush)

[glennab]

Hi Athol

Wow! Fine job on a real bear.  I only see a couple of things I'd revisit.  The gentleman in the middle appears to me to have a more rounded head and his moustache looks as if it doesnt go as far past his face as you have it in the restoration.  Also, I think he needs face/neck below his ears to fill between there and his moustache.  I concur with Hannie on a little darkening of the hair. Overall, the people look pasted onto the background.  A little softening around them, and I think you've got it.

Cheers

GK

[PatW]

Nice job on an impossible restoration.   I have a question.  How did you create the woman's face when there is just a tiny fragment of information?   

pat

[Tess (Tassie D)]

You've done a great job on an impossible photo Athol. Along with the other suggestions do you think the Lady's eyes are a bit far apart? I wonder if they would look a little better closer together and a fraction larger?

[lurch]

Can't believe how far you've come with this one! It started out looking hopeless. Just have one suggestion to add to all of the above. The woman looks wall-eyed. She could maybe use a little more straight-ahead alignment of pupils.

[G3User]

Thanks everyone for the feed back

I haven't counted the number of layers in this one so will be able to make the changes you suggest without having to mask anything!!!!

Hannie, have done as you suggest. One thing I find is that it is very easy to overdo shading at 100/200%, even using the separate layer technique so I will tweak that as well. It really shows up on the smaller image I posted.
Re the development, we have rallied all the neighbors and have lodged many objections and a petition with the local Council. So now we wait while the wheels grind slowly. I took a panoramic photo from the front of our house and insert a view of the proposed building into it, my wife is beginning to think I might be doing something useful with the PC

I have changed the shape of the center gentleman's head Glenna, good call on his mustache, I hadn't trimmed the mask. I am working my way through softening.

I have done 4 faces for the lady and reducing the width between her eyes by 4% looks much better Tess. I also narrowed the bridge of her nose. I will do another A4 print shortly, reviewing a print on screen is sometime like trying to proof read a document on the screen. It never works as well as a hard copy

Pat, I was able to get an idea of the shape of half the lady's face and part of the hairline on the other side. Drew them on a layer, duplicated and flipped the duplicate and moved it to give me an idea of the full face. On a third layer created a skin texture using samples from the undamaged original. Copied and flipped the eye.
There appeared to be one nostril showing so used that to position a copy of the RH man's nose, used levels, warp and smudge at 100% to make it more feminine(?). Not sure that this approach is kosher but it is far better than anything I had been able to do free hand.
Mouth is just a smudge, both it and nose on separate layer so I was able to push them around. I had access to some full face images of women of similar age and that helped with the positioning and eventual shading

Lurch, the lady's eyes were a worry. Her right eye is original so perhaps she was looking to her left when the photo was taken. Now she is looking straight ahead.

Should finish it in the next day or so and intend selecting the easiest I can find next time.

Thanks again

Athol

[Hannie]

Athol, thanks for explaining how you restored this photo. I like the fact that you use so many layers and are able to go back and move the eyes around a little. 
I always make the mistake to "merge visible" at one point or another during a restore, I do that because I want to use the the burn/dodge tool and that doesn't work on an adjustment layer.  The problem with that is that I cannot go back and change things easily should I want to.  I have to learn to use layers and smart objects better!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your petition to the local Council, it would be a shame if they followed through on those plans, good luck!

Hannie

[Atlantis]

I do that because I want to use the the burn/dodge tool and that doesn't work on an adjustment layer. 

Ah but you can!! I always use an adjustment layer filled with 50% (neutral) gray set to soft light. Painting with a low opacity soft black fakes the burn and the same in white for dodge. Setting the paintbrush to neutral gray again can help undo where you overdid it. I adjust the brushsize, softness and opacity to my wishes as I work on the photo.
I love this trick so much I even turned creating this layer into an action (and have the actionpalette always open of course) to save some mouseclicks.

edited to add : you can also use the dodge & burntools on this layer but I somehow feel to have more control using the normal paintbrush

[G3User]

I understand your feeling Hannie, I cant count the number of times I have created a "repair" layer and then tried to blend the edges healing brush only to find that it doesn't work unless I use merge visible (which I learned from you)

Though I still merge, I try to end up with a stack of layers which, if I make the merges invisible will give me the repaired image and allow me to access all the adjustment layers and do any trimming before creating the repaired jpg file. I find it useful to color the layers as I go to identify what is part of the final image and which layers contain attempts that I have replaced

Atlantis, I do the same and understand that CS3 smart objects may be an alternative to linking layers. Have you had any experience?

I am prowling all the galleries looking for a couple of easy ones and am open to offers

Athol

[glennab]

Athol, I use the same method you do with working with layers.  I do a merge visible when I get to a point that I have to use the patch tool extensively, then I create a layer group beneath it with the working files therein.  Makes it easy to go back if necessary (of course that doesn't happen often – sure, yeah, right!)

I don't know if the smart objects in CS3 work the same way they do in CS2, but I can tell you that they're incredible.  Once you create a smart object, you can make it any size you want without losing resolution.  I'm not sure how often it would be applicable to our restorations, but it's invaluable at work, especially when importing a vector object into Photoshop.  It works as if it's still a vector object, which it technically is, but it's part of the file.  Great stuff!

Can't wait to see your completed restoration.  You've done such a wonderful job, even before the fine tuning.

Bless,

GK

[PatW]

Athol,  Thank you so much for your detailed explanation.

The generosity of the Master Artists (like yourself) on the forum has been of enormous help to me.  I thought I had a pretty good handle on Photoshop until I got mixed up with you guys.  It's both exciting and energizing to have a chance to learn to solve an entirely new set of problems. 

If you don't count the time I spend beating my little fists against the computer screen and swearing or sobbing (whichever is appropriate to the situation), I'm enjoying this immensely.

Pat

[Hannie]

Atlantis, I will definitely try this method of burn/dodge,  I seem to remember it was mentioned some time ago but I forgot to put it into practice.

Glenna, you are way ahead of me, I have read about this subject but never put it to practice so the logic is beyond me.  I will probably not be able to get around doing a lot studying on this subject before I will be able to incorporate it into my workflow.

Athol, it only just dawned on me just now (another not so bright bulb in the arena) that I can always make the "merge visible layer" invisible when I want to add things to a lower layer. 

Sorry about the topic hijack Athol but I did learn a lot today, thanks everyone!

Hannie

[G3User]

Here is the final result with all suggestions incorporated. Please don't tell me there is anything else, I cry very easily



I had a quick look in Restoration and Retouching about smart objects Glenna, looks like they avoid the need to link layers but I rarely seem to need to scale anything to the point where image quality suffers. Will try at the next opportunity to see if there are any other benefits

Hannie, the only thing with having all the layers available as you get near the end of the repair is being able to find the one you would like to make a change to. I am getting better at labeling layers, I had to.

Pat, my screen is less than 12 months old and definitely is looking the worse for wear. I also have been caught by leaving my PC on line at night and having Microsoft download an update which required a restart. Very frustrating as I forgot to do a save as the last thing

Athol

Oops, just realized that I haven't removed the owners details from these posts. I will hang a note on my screen

[Hannie]

I disabled Microsoft Updates, it is very easy to check once in a while and upload what I need.  That way you also lessen the chance of updates with bugs.

on topic: I was going to mention one more thing but I don't want to be the one to make you sob...just kidding, it looks really good.  The lady's eyes look better too, great job!  :up2:

Hannie