BeigertS_12_08 Review

[Rbm]

Greetings and Happy New Year,

I think I'm about done.  Is there anything else I can do for this one.

Thanks,
Richard Mayes

[dle]

What a lovely restoration, Richard!

There's nothing I can see to change. The people are going to be very pleased with it!

The way you've handled the light on the newly synthesized carpet is very natural. How did you do it?

[Pat]

Very nice work Richard!

[Bambi]

Beautiful work, Richard. This restoration was no walk in the park! Two tiny suggestions: Open a Threshold Adjustment Layer and move the slider all the way to the right to check your highlights. If they are blown out anywhere, it will show up as white spots that can easily be corrected. And there is just a hint of a cast in the large art behind the couple. Use a Burn and Dodge layer to blend the lighter parts a little better. Very small points that don't detract from the amazing job you have done already.

If you have never used the Burn and Dodge layer technique, here's how: Make a New Layer and fill with 50% Gray. Set the Blend Mode to Overlay. Set your Foreground and Background colors to Black and White. Using a soft Brush with the Opacity and Flow set somewhere between 11 and 33 percent, paint over the areas to be lightened with White and the area to darken with Black. Be sure you make each revision in one continuous stroke. Since you are working at less than 100 percent flow and opacity, overlapping strokes will show. It's a great technique that you can use often.

There is a slightly more sophisticated explanation of this technique on Forum, http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,4097.msg36198/topicseen.html#new.

Bambi

[Rbm]

Greetings Bambi,

I checked the Threshold Adjustment Layer like you suggested and I didn't find any blown out areas.  I did some burn & dodge work on the art work behind the couple.  Is this "more-better"?

I also lowered the brightness of the bride and groom's white clothes.  I thought it was just too bright.

Below is the latest version.

Thanks,
Richard

[Rbm]

Greetings Dave,

I used areas of the carpet in the non shadow area to make a patch that would cover the original shadow area and the corners of the photo that had been cut off.  I then merged all the carpet patches and original carpet into a new layer.  I added a new layer above the carpet layer to create the new shadow areas on the left and right sides of the photo.  I used a soft edge brush with a diameter in the range of 1300, opacity of around 15% and color set to black.  Using the "outer edge" of the brush I dragged it over the carpet areas to gradually build up the shadow.  Does that make sense?

Thanks,
Richard

[dle]

Hello Richard,

Yes, your technique makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing it.

I always like to know how folks do things and usually learn that there are more ways to do any one thing than I would ever think of! In the case at hand, my default would be to add a layer above the carpet filled with 50% gray and set to Soft Light blend mode at around 50% opacity. Then I'd use a soft, low opacity black brush to darken things. But obviously, your technique works well.

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Bambi]

That's a technique we can all use—often. Thanks for sharing, Richard. And thanks for Asking, David.

Bambi

[Mhayes]

Richard, beautiful restore and thanks for the feedback on how you did it!

Margie