The Old Folks

[Charlene5]

I love the expression of quiet pride on Grandma's face.  She is wearing some sort of ribbon rosette on her dress.  I thought it was for taking the Grand Championship at the county fair for her strawberry jam.  Her husband has a "Isn't she something?!" look.  This picture was a big challenge.  It was on honeycomb paper and when it got wet it deposited thousands of neat black and white dots all over everything.  I did a lot of by-half compromises in this one.  I used Noiseware to remove half the dots so that their damaged skin wouldn't look any more mumified than it already was.  I left a lot of them, but I checked at print size and they're not obvious.  The curtains were a real dog's dinner and I did the best I could with them.  I never did figure out what was going on in the left background.  There are tchochkes floating in space and maybe two lampshades and something else I couldn't identify.  The irregular damage required careful pondering - was it damage or part of the scene?  Chris, if you get an outraged communication from the family claiming that some volunteer removed a valued family heirloom from the picture, please tell them I put Grandma's wart in a safe place and it'll be easy to pop it back on.   Please look and critique so I can send them home.

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Great job on the photo. :up: The owners will be really pleased with it. I wonder if he has a moustache? I know there is some damage there but it looks like a white moustache going out partway over his cheeks?

[glennab]

Hi MJ

This was a doozy!  You did one fine job on the background.

And the Mrs looks great, too, but you might want to reassess her hands.  It looks to me as if she has arthritis, and in the restoration they seem fuzzy and in need of more definition around the knuckles.

I love her expression, too. They both look so contented.  Lovely and heartwarming! (I'd like to think she looks so smug because her ribbon is for bull-riding – to heck with wussy cooking!)

I compared your original with what you've done, and the main pick I have is that I think the Mr. needs more work on his face.  What I'm seeing is too much ear on our left and not enough on our right.  His left cheek seems more pooched out than in the original – in fact, his face looks somewhat misshapen to me. I suspect it won't take many tweaks to correct the odd look he's sporting.  A little more depth around his eyes and slightly darker eyebrows might help.

The only other thing that jumps out at me is the carpet on which they're standing.  It still looks damaged to me.  I wonder if a more uniform shade would be better than the splotchiness that's there now.

I wish I had your knack with backgrounds.  It really is awesome. (I'll bet the item you can't identify is an ashtray stand.  Haven't seen one of those in many, many years, but that's what it looks like to me.)

Cheers!

Glenna

P.S. Tess, you were posting while I was rambling.  I wondered if he had a moustache, too, but the more I studied the original the more it seemed as if the white is damage rather than a "brush."

[Mhayes]

MJ,

Great Job! Now I can see why Chris ask for some help after seeing the request on how she is going to respond to the family about a missing heirloom.  ;D There are two things I would work on and that is to have the couple's eyes the same darkness. Grandma's are really sharp and Gramp's are a lot lighter. This is a small nitpick, but maybe shade in the small nick in Grandma's elbow. You might also want to shade in a little darker the curtains and window area. I think the family will really be happy with this one!

Margie

[Charlene5]

Tassie I thought at first that there was a mustache in there as well.  I did a little hue/saturation adjustment on the white streak and could see no evidence of manly hair under there :)

[Hannie]

Nice restoration MJ! I like your accompanying comments as well, fits exactly what this photo portrays.

Hannie

[Charlene5]

Did some reworking with your comments fresh in my empty head.  The background is darker, the rug is tidied a bit, and I toned down what I call the Coloring Book Look - the black outlines of age around things - on Grandma's arms and slimmed down the left side of Grampa's face.  Margie I didn't understand your comment about their eyes.  His are something light - gray or blue or green - and hers are quite dark.  I don't know how I could make them similar?  I made his a little darker and sharper and hers a tiny bit lighter.  There was other minor stuff that I can't think of (old age) and here's the result:

[Hannie]

MJ, I think the eyes are perfect now!

Hannie