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Restoration Strategy

Started by jfharrison, January 03, 2012, 06:10:34 PM

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jfharrison

Hi Folks,

My name is Jared Harrison and I'm new to OPR.  I've received my initial restoration project and could use some "strategy" guidance on how best to proceed with some of the more challenging portions of this restoration.

While I've been doing "normal" restorations for a while -- most have been on old/damaged B/W photo with genealogical significance.  I feel fairly comfortable with the basic concepts of color photo restoration and the use of Photoshop's basic tools & techniques.  In addition, I've studied all the guides and tutorials on this site, as well as the usual books by Eismann, Ctein, etc.  Regardless, I know that I still have a lot to learn...

Where I feel least confident (and certainly least experienced) is in the area of facial reconstruction and the skills needed for "beauty" retouching -- making a reconstructed face look "right".

So here is my challenge photo: 


Here is the image after some initial cleanup:


If possible, I'd love to get some guidance and suggestions on how best to proceed with the restoration of the left side of the image and the woman's sweater, neck, ear and hair.

Here is what I'm currently thinking:


  • Since so little of the sweater is undamaged, I might select the damaged area of the sweater and copy it to a layer and then "fill/paint" it with samples sweater color and then attempt to patch and heal to restore the sweater's look and texture

  • I am thinking of a similar strategy for the woman's neck -- select the damaged area, apply color, and then attempt to restore skin texture & shading

  • For the left cheek and chin, I think there should be enough info available to clone, patch & heal to come-up with a reasonable result -- although I am concerned about getting the shading and texture right.

  • With the hair, I was thinking of taking a selection from the right side and flipping it to form the basis for the missing left site.  I would then take a few small selections of the front hairline and attempt to place and blend them into a plausible look & style.

  • I an not sure how best to handle the missing ear, since I'm not much of an artist...

  • I'm also not too sure how best to handle the wooden pole or bookcase sort of thing behind her left side.  Also any thoughts on how to handle the curious blue/pink/yellow color at the bottom of the sweater?

Anyway, this is what I am currently thinking of as an approach, but I'm wide-open for other ideas, strategies, recommendations and direction on how best to proceed.

Thanks in advance for any and all help & guidance offered.

---Jared

corpusdei

#1
Very cool, it looks like we're working on the same image.  It sounds like you've got more restoration experience than I do, so I'm not sure how much advice I can give (and of that, how much will end up being actual "good" advice) but I can run down the approach I took.

-There isn't much good actual texture on the shirt, but I took what was there and built it up bit by bit with the clone brush followed by the healing brush.  Once there was a little more that looked good to sample I was able to use that with the patch tool / larger clone brush to fill in the rest of the shirt.  There was a lot of guesswork as to the shadows/highlights where the cloth folded, a lot of that ended up being extrapolated from what was already there and looking at shirts on people in similar poses.  

All in all, I like the sound of your idea a little better.  I'll have to try that.

Hannie also had a great suggestion about using a layer of 50% gray in the Overlay blending mode and painting on that to add shadows and highlights, I'll be trying that to see if I can get a better result.

- For her neck I used undamaged samples from her cheek and tried to built them up layer by layer (with a lot of blending).  I also pulled some texture and details from the neck on the lady on the right and blended them over that.  I'm still working to get the skin tone right but it's starting to look fairly good considering the damage to the original.  I'm also considering trying to take what skin tone / texture is available and build that into a separate neutral sample large enough to clone from that I can then go back and add shadows/highlights on top of.  Seems like a lot simpler idea than it'll prolly end up being, but it's a thought.

- On the left cheek I tried starting with a copy of her right cheek and building the rest using skin textures from that and her forehead.  Again, I'm having a devil of a time with the texture and tone, but I'm starting to work that out.

- You described pretty much exactly what I did with the hair

- There's a little to go on with the ear, enough at least to approximate it's general shape.  Without any other comparison to go on (or ears in the picture, for that matter), I ended up copying birthday girls ear and tweaking it with the Warp tool (and a little smudging) to fix the best approximation of shape.  I also had to approximate the earring from the little that's showing on the other ear - it looks like a dangling hoop earring, so that got sampled and rotated around until I had the hoop shape.

- For the background, it does look like wood paneling, though there's a hint of something (possibly a plant) down towards the damaged area.  Again, there's next to nothing to go on, so I ended up carrying the wood texture downward, adding shading and shadows where there would most likely show up.

It's a tough photo, no doubt, and it's been sending me after about two dozen tutorials so far (and counting).  Best of luck on it and I look forward to seeing the results!
"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.  We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity."

Tori803

Hi Jared and welcome to OPR!

To start with, I would say that although the photo is badly damaged on the left, you still have plenty of clues for restoration. For example, you know where the ear is on the head on the left, and you know its height and width. Knowing that, you might be able to make a selection around the good ear from the middle person, copy and paste it onto another layer over the damaged ear, mask out the unwanted area, and warp it to fit the known size and shape. You might have to adjust the Hue/Sat on the replacement ear to match the woman's face.

You might use a similar technique with the sweater, building up smaller selections and blending them in. I wouldn't worry about the shape at the bottom of the sweater. If it is a figure it's hopelessly damaged; I'd just repair it to match the rest of the sweater. The same goes for the 'bookcase' in the background. We can't really tell what it is, but we can repair the the damaged areas by making them look like their adjacent parts. If you happen to have Photoshop CS5, content-aware fill might work wonders there.

For the face, you can see where the jaw line is through the damage. Perhaps you can use other portions of her face to repair the damaged side.

'Painting' on a separate layer is usually a last resort for me. I can seldom get something painted in to look natural. I like healing, cloning, patching, and copy/pasting with masks. But if you get good results with painting and adding textures, that can work too.

Remember to work non-destructively whenever possible. Use layers and masks if possible. If not possible, make a backup copy after each stage of restoration. Why don't you tackle the 'bookcase' and sweater first and then post your work-in-progress again.
Tori
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." -Calvin Coolidge

jfharrison

Hello again,

So here is the latest WIP snapshot -- All comments, suggestions and recommendations welcomed.



Clearly the left side of her jaw and the ear need a bit of work - I'm thinking of slimming the the left side of her face a bit and adding some more definition through shading.  Her chin can probably also stand a bit more attention.  I could also continue to work on the hair - still has a bit of the "painted look" on the left side.

What else am I missing and how would you suggest I proceed from here?

Any and all comments/help welcomed.

Thanks!

---Jared

Mhayes

Hi Jared,

I think you are doing great and you also know the areas that need more work. The one thing I notice is that her coloring seems to be too orange. The first photo you posted had the color looking more normal. You are close to being finished.  :up:

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

battleaxe

Terry you are doing great on this one,

You might consider the following:
Copy a portion of her face that is  undamaged onto a separate layer. Flip it horizontally. Blend  in using a mask.  Might try lowering the opacity or just  playing with it.

Take a sample of the dark color on the undamaged side of her neck. Make  a new layer, set to blending mode color.  Use this color for fixing the orange cast on her neck.  If this doesn't work , put the layer in normal and lower the opacity.  If the color seems uneven or rough, add a slight gaussian blur (3-5 px) to the layer.

Hope this helps