Baby Face

philbach · November 28, 2009, 07:47:48 AM

:knuppel:
Hi again. This is sort of interesting and I've been working on the baby's right ear and right side of the head. The label on the baby gown is a mystery to me but I was thinking of making a vignette. Suggestions are appreciated like how does the ear look and is the head proportioned properly.

Mhayes · November 28, 2009, 03:07:04 PM

Hi Phil,

This is a tough one, especially with most of the ear missing. I'm not too sure, but what you have now looks too big and a replacement ear from another person. Also with the lightening stands out on part of his ear, which is probably because the ear is borrowed. I would try to shade in the ear and not worry about getting a lot of details, because you don't have any. The very inner part of the ear to the head looks good.

You are lucky that you have most of the head with no damage. I'm not sure what you have done, but it look like you have added hair on the top? Also, I would not cut out the baby and then place on a flat background, because now you have sharp edges which gives it a cookie cutter look. For the missing part of the baby's head, do a selection from the other side and put on its own layer, transform and flip horizontal and move into position. It may take several layers to get it looking like you want. Work on your background on a separate layer and try to us as much of the original as you can. Once you have the background done, you can do a layer mask with the baby. Also, notice the shadow by the baby's neck on your left hand side. I think the baby probably has its head on a pillow.

I think what you have done with the baby's top is fine and I wouldn't worry about the logo. It would be good to lighten up the right side as it looks dingy compared to the left.

Although you don't have much background, Mary wrote a very good tut on restoring backgrounds, which maybe helpful to others working on backgrounds: http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1761.0.html

Sorry, but do not do a vignette.

Margie

philbach · November 28, 2009, 04:54:29 PM

Thanks Margie. At present I am not concerned much with the background but I was concerned about the ear and the head shape. I did copy the ear from my 8 month old grand daughter who happened to be here for the holidays. I had not yet removed the hair strands from the source ear yet.

The head flip technique may work but the head is turned some and so the left side isn't exactly symmetrical to the right because of that. I'll work on the ear and the head some and repost here.

Thanks again and I'll post again shortly.

glennab · November 28, 2009, 05:05:46 PM

Hi Phil

I think Margie's covered all the important specific points about your baby, but I wanted to make a suggestion. The first thing I noticed is that more of his head should be visible behind the ear (to which Margie alluded). Something that helps a lot with proportions, positioning, etc. is a book Mary Schoner recommended to me; I bought it several years ago and find it invaluable. It's a large, thin paperback called Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm. It's old and quite elementary; yet I've learned so much from it, especially about creating non-existent features. I'd highly recommend it to any of our volunteers who don't already have a good handle on anatomy (I don't have a clue, since I'm not a fine artist).

Good luck on the missing parts. Tough one!

GK

philbach · November 28, 2009, 05:45:46 PM

Glennab, its obvious to me now more head behind the ear. By the way, you can download a free pdf file of the Jack Hamm Book from deposit files. Its about 130 megs in two separate pdf files but the price is right.. I'm in the process of doing that now. I was thanking of buying a Mannikin head too for the same reason since these problems do turn up a lot. Thanks for your advice.

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/940409

Mhayes · November 28, 2009, 07:54:12 PM

Hi Phil,

When I said to copy and then flip horizontal and move into position--it doesn't end there. Yes, you are right the head is not symmetrical, but what you need is the outline of the head and you have to flip it so that it is in the right direction. Below is a quick sample of what I did using that technique. Once I get the section in position; I do a transformation and rotate the part of the head into postion. When you do a transformation, you will notice the little square boxes on the corners which allow you to rotate or change the size (hold the shift key to key the portions right). Once I like my position, I do a layer mask to conceal all and then paint back in the good parts.

I know everyone has a workflow that suits their style, but in this case you should not ignore the background, because by creating a new one you have lost the natural blending of the head to the background and it looks too flat. By selecting the baby and putting on a new background, it looks cutout. You can work on one or the other, but don't get rid of your original background. Probably the biggest help in working this kind of photo is to feel comfortable doing layer masks.

I tried toning down the ear. We do not substitute parts, but I will make an exception on this one if you can make it look natural.

Margie

Hannie · November 29, 2009, 06:18:31 AM

Hi Phil,

I like the shape of the baby's head in Margie's version, it seems more in harmony with the rest of his face?
I placed Margie's version over your restore in Difference mode. Notice the little light crescent shape on the left, that's the part from your restore that you could change.

This is a great topic, very informative, thanks everyone!

Hannie

kiska · November 29, 2009, 06:27:06 AM

Maybe bring the head a little more behind the ear.

philbach · November 29, 2009, 11:01:36 AM

Thanks. Great advice. And hey I got a free book too. I knew I would get great help from the ladies who have a great eye on what babies should look like.

glennab · November 29, 2009, 02:30:40 PM

Phil, I think kiska nailed it. That's what I was envisioning when I mentioned that there should be more head behind the ear. I also think there should be more shoulder on the left side.

Do you or does anyone else have a suggestion as to how we can make the information about the free download of Jack Hamm's book more readily available? That would be ideal for our international volunteers or anyone who doesn't especially want to buy the book. What a great find!

Tess (Tassie D) · November 29, 2009, 06:55:36 PM

Margie you would have to be very careful of copyright laws. Technically you would have to contact the author to see if the share files above were authorised in the first place.
If they were you could then upload them to the website here for members to use.

philbach · December 02, 2009, 07:26:50 AM

About the Book: "Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm"
I just googled the book ie "Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm" and came up with several sites that either sold the book and a few that offered a free pdf download. Easy enough to do.

haleygd · December 02, 2009, 08:48:59 AM

Is the free pdf download the entire book or just a part as a teaser to get you to buy the whole thing. Some authors are including a "bonus chapter" as a pdf download... saves on printing costs (for them anyway.)

philbach · December 02, 2009, 09:03:07 AM

Well its the whole book in two downloads off of deposit where I downloaded it. It came in two ~ 86meg pdf files.

Here is my latest iteration where I worked on the head around the right ear and worked on the background some. The baby's right shoulder is a little iffy. But let me know what you think.

Mhayes · December 02, 2009, 01:07:48 PM

Hi Phil, I think this looks great and you have really come a long way with this one. The only tweaks that I would do would be to darken a little on the baby's neck on your left hand side. Perhaps a little more of the sweater's texture below the logo and lightened up a little. These are minor pics and I'm sure the family would be thrilled with this version. Great job!

Margie