First time volunteer: Needing Help

[rjackl]

Okay, Max, I am starting over again but I will have to retire and start tomorrow. I do think I started one previous version similarly.
This was my most recent effort: Looking very flat.

I appreciate the advice and basically will try everything.
Eager to learn... old teacher speaking!
Ruth

[rjackl]

I could not stop, ahhhh....

Almost 4:30.

Here is my lastest effort, having taken everyone's advice.



Please tell me how I did. I did nothing to the checks on the right, tried to make those on the left similar.

Ruth

[OPRAng]

Ruth,

You are doing some really nice work. I can imagine how frustrated you feel, but we are thrilled to have you and you totally belong here. Keep up the great work!

Angela

[glennab]

Hi Ruth

Much improved!  Don't be discouraged  None of us is prepared for the degree of damage with which we're dealing.  I commented in another thread that it would be interesting and, I think, fun to go through the forum and pick up everyone's remarks to the effect that "It didn't look that difficult until I downloaded it!"  Since you're a retired art teacher, you're one up on many of us, including me.  I'm a graphic designer with little fine art education, and I agonize over every restoration, because I don't have the ability to fine-tune shading and the important but subtle things that give a person the reality of contour and shaping.  That said, I love what we do, and there's no better feeling than to be able to send one of these restored photos home to their families.

Best wishes!

Glenna

[rjackl]

I am afraid this is all I can do. I can keep working but little changes and sometimes it gets worse not better.



I appreciate your input. My daughter isn't up yet so I'll see what she says.

I have fixed photos for family before and even though one was quite damaged, this seemed harder. Of course I knew what my Mom looked like and other family as well so that helps. :)

[paula]

You're doing a great job  rjackl.  Don't be discouraged.  Every one of us has experienced the shock of seeing the unbelievable damage that these photographs have sustained.   We're all used to being the go to guy in the family for fixing up photos.  So these photos are a blow to the confidence at first.  You'll get over that as you learn and widen your scope of ability.  You have already learned a lot from this thread. 

So don't give up.  Besides being an opportunity to help others, OPR is also and incredible education in photo restoration that we couldn't get anywhere else, at least not for free.  You're one of us now. :hug:

[rjackl]

I printed it and it looked dreadful.So I did more.

Suggestions?

I live with my 89 year old Dad and basically have little life at the moment, so this is good for me. A chance to devolp skills and spend endless hours at home.



Some of the checks I cleaned up look very fake now, Thanks again. Ruth

[Dave]

Ruth,

Don't give up. You've gotten off to a great start. Don't take the comments as criticism. Take them for what they are ... good advice.

No one said this is going to be easy. You may not make a perfect restoration, but in someone's life you'll make a perfect difference.

Hang in there.

Dave

[sanbie]

I think you are doing a wonderful job...and yes it is far more difficult than restoring family and friends photo's..mainly because I think we usually know the people so we know what we need to do...These photo's are strangers and so we have no idea!!

Keep at it hun I think you are doing a fantstic job!

Sanbie

[glennab]

Take heart, Ruth

Since most of her blouse is a bit out of focus, I suspect you could take the portions that appear to not match to your satisfaction, blur them a little and possibly pull back on the saturation and it'll all blend.  I've redone all of my restorations several times (which I don't think you'll have to do with this one), and I try to look at it as practice and a great learning experience.  Especially with the honest evaluation of other volunteers. I concur with Dave that everyone tries to come up with solutions and suggestions.  I don't take any of the comments as criticism; I prefer to consider it free professional consultation!  You're likely to get differing opinions, which will help you look at your restoration in new perspectives, and then decide what you think works and run with it.

Glenna

[phischer]

It might help you to know that you are certainly not alone with any feelings of inadaquicies that you may be having. I've been working on my first restoration for 3 weeks now and have had all kinds of thoughts about my abilities. (or lack thereof!) :D  I was seriously doubting that I would be able to do it and contemplated quitting several times. (Maybe not so much quitting as passing the buck)   I am now happy that I've stuck with it and am pretty close to being able to send it home. Stick with it. You are doing a great job. Don't be so hard on yourself.

[Ausimax]

You are doing well Ruth, some of these can be pretty daunting, and clothes with regular patterns are a real pain, florals you can fudge a bit and it isn't noticed, I don't know anything about early versions of PS so I don't know what tools you have, however in gray scale images you can get away with using the smudge tool to blend some of the damage in those checks on the dress and the dodge and burn can work well to adjust the shadings, it is time consuming, I have had some where I had to paint in each check then blend them in with the blur brush, most of it is a matter of patience over skill.

Just keep plugging away and realise that every little improvement is a big boost to the owners, who at present only have the damaged image.

Max

[rjackl]

I am happy with all advice and it is taken not as criticism, but critique which is criticism but with a different meaning in art classes.
I have not touched the picture since earlier today, I watched movies with my daughter instead. While watching, I thought about how to fix some of my issues and the things I came up with actually match some suggestions given.

Until April I had photoshop 7 but upgraded to CS3 at that time. Needless to say I have not learned all it can do, and probably won't in my lifttime, but this will certainly promote my learning.

Also must say that I am a retired art teacher but not an artist as such, I taught elementary school through eighth grade for 31 years.
A great career I might add. I do love art and photoshop and won't give up!

Thank you all for your  advice and encouragement. I am very pleased to have found this activity, it allows me to make a contribution and sit at home. Much preferrable to playing games on my computer and watching tv. Ruth

[kstruve]

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I wanted to respond to the notion that "criticism" is somehow a negative thing.  It isn't.  Criticism is giving an informed opinion or interpretation.  It's used pretty much interchangeably with "critique".  What we should always strive to give is constructive criticism, where "constructive" is the operative word.

Kurt