From the Desk of Klassylady

[klassylady25]

Instructions were: I would suggest not too much paintbrush (usually takes away from the photo a bit). Better to leave more undone than not looking the same.

[glennab]

Hi Candy

Before I get too involved in my restoration, I wanted to give you some feedback on these guys.  I really like the background and their faces & arms.  What bothers me is their uniforms.  They look very painterly to me.  Is there any way that that part of the photo can be smoothed at all?  I doubt you have much detail. I sure don't see any, but I'd lose some of the texture at least, so the areas of their bodies, especially the edges, are smoother.

For what it's worth from a half-blind cranky old lady!

Typo at ya later,

GG

[klassylady25]

Through trial and error, it will come together. 4 hours & 5 shutdowns later  *I'm running an older system with very little RAM and that's as far as it came together last night. This morning before leaving for work I moved the photo to a more powerful computer and this was as good as it got at 2am.   It's not where i want it to be, so I did like any good perfectionist.... I started over!

And to think I asked for this one!!   :D

[cmpentecost]

Hi Candy,

I played around very briefly with your photo, as I'm quite tired tonight.  However, these are my thoughts.....

Before you do any repairs, I think that doing a color/contrast correction is best.  This can be done via curves and hue/saturation adjustments in PS2, assuming you have this.  This may be available in other versions, but I'm not sure.  It's always best to color correct before repairing.  This picture has a very significant amount of damage, but I think that after color and contrast adjustments, you'll have a better starting point.

Keep in mind that with any adjustment layers you do (from the layers pallet), it always gives you a layer mask (in PS).  You can take a paint brush and paint back in at any percentage you'd like (if layer mask is white, you paint with black or a % thereof, and vice versa).  So, if one thing looks great, but another doesn't, and you have a layer mask, take advantage of it.

If you have questions or are confused by what I am saying, please don't hesitate to contact me.  I just came back from the most amazing week of Photoshop instruction from Nat'l Geographic photographers, so I'm trying to apply as much as possible to what I learned!

Christine

[klassylady25]

It's been a while since I've worked on this photo but today I sent it home.  Life came first around the Roy home.... it felt good to work on a project.   Here's hoping that the soldier that this belongs to is satisfied, too.