Ziaphra's Restorations - Updated 17th July

[Ziaphra]

This was an absolute nightmare!

[cmpentecost]

Wow, very impressive.  I wouldn't change a thing.

Christine

[Kenny]

The original looks like an OCD nightmare!  :D  It turned out very nicely!  :up:

[Ziaphra]

Thanx guys. I don't think I will get it any better to be honest!  ???

[Ziaphra]

Ughhhh! I hate doing hair!



Edit: I just realised I left out her breast outline...done now on the one uploaded to PhotoShelter!  ;D

[Ziaphra]

I love doing the baby ones!

[glennab]

Hi Ziaphra

Your restorations are astounding!  How long have you been doing this, and where did you get your expertise?

GG

P.S. For someone who hates to work on hair, you do a beautiful job!

[kjohnson]

Amazing! Must be using the SGR filter



*special gunk remover

[glennab]

Keith, is that a PC or MAC filter?  I have to have it NOW!  At least you could have posted a website from which we could download it.  (Probably the same site with the FWW filter. FIX WHATEVER'S WRONG! but I think that one only works on PCs)

GG

[kjohnson]

Uh, oh - I was joking about the filter. Yep, its made by the FWW filter company.

It's just amazing how retouchers like Ziaphra can get under all that stuff. 

[cmpentecost]

Ziaphra,

The work you have done on these photos is positively amazing.  Any step by step instructions you can give would be great.  I've been quite humbled by this entire OPR experience, and have realized how much a talented person like yourself can offer.   You obviously should be proud of what you have done, and I can only hope that we can all learn from your talents.

Christine

[Ziaphra]

WoW! Thanx for the wonderful comments! In answer to your question Glenna, I had only done about 4 restorations before joining OPR.

I was lucky with the above photo as there was very little damage to the right side and I was able to copy and paste and clone alot of the background without too much trouble.

First, I use PaintShop Pro v9. I find it more user friendly and absolutely ideal for restoration. The main tools I use are the clone tool, smudge tool, dodge/burn and change to target brush (not sure if this is available in CS)...all varying sizes and opacities. Considering the extensive damage to the photos we are working on, I do not consider texture on the original photo to be important. However if you are going to smooth it out, make sure you do the whole photo and be careful not to make it look soft, ie lose your defining lines and shadows.

I start off with my change to target brush and sample the colour I want and paint over and over the spot at about 10% opacity until I am happy with the colour match. Then I usually clone at 50% strength and keep going over a spot until I am happy with it. Once I am done with the cloning I use the smudge brush at between 48% and 58% to blend in my cloning...here I try to keep the brush going round in circles to avoid drag lines. When doing this, always follow the contours and the original shadowing. When I want to 'draw' a line as you saw in the video (the jaw line) I use my smudge brush at about 75% (watch the size of your brush here) to pull it and if necessary use the burn tool to 'draw' it in. I always use the the dodge and burn tools to add highlights or shadowing. Once I am happy with the overall work of a photo, I zoom right in and use the smudge brush at about 48% usually in a small brush size to get rid of any drag lines. When all is done and I am happy with it, I add about 4% noise and sometimes a further 3%...only do this once you are absolutely certain you have finished.

I downloaded a screen capture to record a bit of my work in progress...unfortunately it hung for a bit so I had to stop recording but it should give you some idea of my workflow. Next time I will do a colour one so that you can the change to target brush in action. You can go here to view it:

http://www.twango.com/media/Ziaphra.OPR/Ziaphra.10001

I need to find a better screen capture recorder (free of course) as the one I have becomes a HUGE avi file which I then had to compress as most sites only allow a max upload of 100mb. Maybe mpeg would be better? So if anyone knows of one, please let me know.

[kiska]

Ziaphra, your work is great! On a mac, to take a screen shot, you use SHIFT+COMMAND+4. Don't know about a pc.

[kjohnson]

Thanks for the tutorial Ziaphra.

As for screen captures, I like this free program, PrintScreen.

As for using the one that comes with Windows, just hit the Printscreen key, but it captures the entire screen & with this other one you can easily crop your capture.

www.gadwin.com    PrintScreen is found on their products page, its free.

Gadwin PrintScreen captures the contents of the screen with a single keystroke. The captured screen can then be sent to the printer, or saved to disk as a file in 6 different graphics file formats. Gadwin PrintScreen can capture the entire Windows screen, the active window, or a specified area,

[Ziaphra]

Does it actually record a video?