first restoration

[paulus]

Hi

I'm doing my first restoration and I was wondering if people could advise me if I'm heading in the right direction and ask for some help.

Original image


So far - not sure if I should start again


The jpg saturation is a bit off as on .tiff  on my machine the colours are a lot less harsh

Don't know what to do with the white speckled stuff - I can make a selection for it but don't know how to remove it - any pointers?

How can you remove the mould spots - as there are blue and green spots - I've removed some of the blue but not green which also has removed a bit of the sky

Also got issues with where the colours have run together almost like paint - its a unpleasant mix of greens and browns

Any pointers, advice or criticism would be great.
Cheers
Paul

[Hannie]

Paul congratulations on your first restore! 
You have cleaned up a lot of damage and did a great job on the levels, they are not easy to do.

I would just clone away the white specks, lightly paint over the sky, darken the right side some and in a selective color adjustment layer tone down those blue green spots.  (greens: less cyan, more magenta)

I did a quick (messy) job to show you what I mean
(I also cloned some of the good trees to the right side of the photo)
(oh yes, I also removed some of the color blotches in the jeans with 50% desaturation brush)

Hannie

[paulus]

Hi Hannie,

Thanks for the feedback

How do I do the 50% saturation brush bit as that looks good!

Cheers
Paul

[Hannie]

Paul, you can use the Sponge tool (right click on dodge/burn tool and pick Sponge) and set the mode (on top) to desaturate and the flow to 50%.  Go over the jeans once without lifting your brush.

Hannie

[paulus]

Hi Hannie

Wondered what everybody thought?


Is the tree okay on the left?
I've done the sponge bit and added some blue to the trousers - I've tried to paint in the sky as per original

I notice your handling of the shovel head bit is a lot better than I could do - have you just cloned or something as else as well?

Cheers
Paul

[Juliet]

This is looking really good,  I think the shovel may be over-worked, though.  In the original, there appears be some mulch on top of the shovel.  Also, there should be a shadow directly under the shovel's blade so that it does not look like it's floating. 



Try bringing the mulch back over with clone, a small brush, partially opaque.  Then use the burn tool underneath the blade to give it some weight.

[paulus]

Hi Thanks for the shovel tip



Does this look better? - had problems getting it to look like what I wanted.

I'm conscious perhaps that it looks better at this size but will this be reflected when its printed?
screensize vrs printsize and all that

Cheers
Paul

[Hannie]

Looks good!

:up2:

Hannie