I Need Your Eyes

[Ausimax]

Hi,

This is my latest challenge.



The instructions with this photo was to clone the faces from other images, this is the source photo for the mother & father the small girl comes from my last restoration.



This is the working image at this time.



The photo of the parents had to be mirrored to suit the destination image, and scaled to fit, as a couple they were too close together to fit the new situation and had to be separated to work, and that required a lot of cloning to remove his hand etc.

The background is a problem there is considerable damage in the foliage that is not conducive to successful cloning, so I have placed most emphasis on the people, the damage to the bottom of the image leaves me with no idea of what may have been in the background, so at this time I have just cloned foliage from the left side to give it some texture.

I would prefer to crop the image close to the girls, however the house in the background could have much significance, any suggestions for the background area?

The colour is off in this image, the originals are in RGB and I didn't think to convert to sRGB before I uploaded, I would like to get your thoughts on this image before I progress it much further, I figure it is better to get ideas now, rather than having to rework the whole disaster.

So if you would be so kind as to run your eyes over it and make any suggestions as to how it can be improved, I would be most grateful.

Max

[milanab]

max i think you have done a tremendous job with this photo. maybe a little soft focus to the background would help what you are seeing in the cloning.  it sort of looks like a photography studio background to me so the house probably isn't important but who knows.  otherwise the only thing i see is a little subtle shading on the older girls arm maybe needed and a little bit of something to blend the little girl into the photo more, she looks a little bit more cut out than the others.. but i don't know how to tell you to do it...i bet something with layers....i have got to sit down and learn how to do that someday ::)  i think this is wonderful though  :up2:

[glennab]

Hi Max

The thing that jumps out at me immediately is the obvious pattern in the cloning of the background.  If you can get rid of that by cloning around the patterned areas until it looks more random, I think that'll help. I also agree that a soft blur on the bottom part of the background will be a good way to focus attention on the family and make it less obvious that the area is cloned. Select the cloned part, give it a good feather and blur until you think it looks right.  The feather will help blend that area into what was there before.

The older girl's arm definitely needs some contour, and a little light shading will probably take care of that.

Here's one of the best Photoshop tricks I've ever learned for blending a cut-out portion of an image into the background -- it's not a secret, but for some reason very few people know about it. Select the layer you want blended (and this works best if you have a relatively clean edge), choose the Layers pull-down menu, go to the bottom, choose matting, defringe and give it a 1-2 pixel value. You'll be amazed at the difference.  It doesn't always work well, depending on the edge's definition, but I think your little girl will blend in well with this method.  Try 1 px first.  That's usually all you need.

Great job of blending all the elements.

Only one other thing bothers me, and that's the woman's shoulder closest to the man.  It looks very narrow.  I can see that her shoulders look narrow in the photo of the two of them, but the composite looks more pronounced. Maybe it's the perspective.

Tough one!

Best wishes

GG

[vhansen]

To my eyes, the added images look too small.
Also, it's very important to retain the shadows that fall on the people in the back row. Notice that there are no shadows on the son's shirt in your version, but are there in the original.  Keeping these helps to keep it realistic and less pasted in.  Shadows are so important....that is what is missing from the girl's arm.  Without shadow and highlight the object is flat and one dimensional.  I noticed that you have replaced the small portion of her arm that was good.  That should be left alone and any additional arm added should match what was there.

It looks like your version has been sharpened, the contrast adjusted, and saturated.  I would take all of those back a bit.    My thoughts on this are, since this is not a "retouch" but rather a "restore", those strong changes are altering the original image rather than restoring it.  Aside from repairing the obvious damage to these images, the only other major change should be the correction of the smokey/yellowing color.  Anything more, without consent, is the restorer's interpretation.  With regard to these OPR images, my guess is that the owner's are expecting the images to be repaired and not altered.

As always, I hope my comments have been of help.
Vikki

[Ausimax]

Hi,

Thanks for your input, another point of view is always helpful. milanab, you may be right about that being a studio background, I had not thought of that, all the other photos were taken against backgrounds, and they are all wearing the same clothes so it was done on the same day.
Yes I know the girls arm is crook, despite how it looks in the photo the original is hopeless, that is her left arm mirrored from another photo and unfortunately the outer edge I wanted is cut off in the original, trying to make a clean shape with a jumpy mouse is not good, will probably start again with the arm.

glennab, thanks for the advice about the background, and about blending in the cutouts, I will give that a try, you may be right about the shoulder, my wife says it needs the shoulder of the dress puffed out more,

Vikki, The added images have all been measured to make sure they are the same size, and when they are in the same aspect, I reduce opacity and adjust until the eyes are aligned, possibly it is because they are nor facing in exactly the same direction that causes that effect.

Yes you are right about the shadows, as I said it is very much a work in progress, I have yet to work out if I need to show the top of the boys jeans, the shirt may be going a bit low, as far as changes to the image there has been no colour correction, contrast or sharpening done ( the OPR instructions are to not colour correct or sharpen) the only exception being the mother and father have been adjusted with curves to make their colouring better match that of the lighting in the original image, I agree with your sentiment about restorations, however with the damage done to some of these images, I am sure they understand that we can only do the impossible, miracles belong to god.

Thanks again for you good advice, I'll post again when I progress the job a little more.

Max

[Ausimax]

Hi,

I'm back, haven't had a lot of time to work on this in the last couple of days, life intervenes.

I have made the changes suggested, and this time I managed to work out how to convert it to sRGB so the colours are better, so would you have another look, and and give me your opinions please.





Max

[paula]

You have performed a miracle.  They will be thrilled. :up:

[Kenny]

Excellent!  :up:

They should be very happy to get that back



Kenny  :)

[milanab]

max this is WONDERFUL, you are  making somebody extremely happy, and giving them back a family treasure.  great work

[glennab]

Hi Max

I only see three things I'd tweak.  Mom's shadow on the boy is too hard -- I think the edge needs to be softened.  And I'd make a comparable shadow on Sis where the little girl is  - to make her blend better via the light source.

I still think there's too much pattern in the lower areas - it's too obviously cloned (It looks like a carpet).  I'd definitely eliminate as much of that as possible.

How did the matting work for you on the layer with the little girl?  I hope that helped.  I can't see those edges well (old eyes!).

You're a champ for tackling this tough one!

As always, my best to you!

GG

[rcarey2]

For the background where you are having issues (behind dad and youngest daughter) I see a couple large chunks you could copy that would require minimal cloning.


You can use those three sections I have outlined in red. You can use the left-most one to fill the area behind dad. Rotate it a little and use a small amount of cloning to blend what you have with this new piece. You can use the middle section to fill any missing stuff behind dad or behind sis. The right-most selection should work well behind sis. If you need a larger image I can send you one, this is my first attempt to include an inline image.
paz y luz
ron

[Ausimax]

Hi Folks,

Sorry I haven't replied before, a lot of things have been intervening, that said, here is the latest version, I imported some grass for the lower background, I think it looks a bit more natural, softened the mothers shadow and added one for the little girl - there is still a little touching-up to do on the original before it is sent home.

In general I think this is just about it, have a look at it and see if there is anything else that need attention, thanks for all your good advice, it has helped no end.

glennab, yes I tried the matting, it worked well, seems to take away the sharp edge and allows it to blend better, thanks for the clues.




Max

[glennab]

Hi Max

The grass is definitely an improvement.  No more "carpet."

I'd still work on the shadows on the son and older sis.  I looked at the original and it appears that Mom's shadow comes up as far as the V in the boy's shirt.  You can set the clone tool at about 20-30% opacity and flow, make the brush fairly large (maybe 40px) and push the shadow up just a little farther with a soft edge. I think that would do it.  Little sis needs a similarly soft and large shadow.  If you used a drop shadow, take the opacity way down and move the shadow up and to the left -- maybe add some size to get softness.  If you have the drop shadow window open, you can grab the shadow in the image and move it to wherever you want without having to go by the numbers in the pallet.

Kudos for all your effort on this.  I think you'll have made one family very happy!

GG