I need eyes and opinions, please.

[glennab]

Hi!

Here's my latest.  The main thing that concerns me is the tree.  I really fudged on what's damaged and what's decorations, as well as splotched some green as best I could.  The white item that's draped around the tree didn't look like damage, even though it's not the same as the silver garland.  It could be popcorn.  And I can't tell if the dangly thing at the end is damage or an ornament.  So any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks so much!

GK


ORIGINAL:


COMPLETED?:

[Mhayes]

Hi GK,

I think you did a great job repairing this one. I would agree that the white garland looks like popcorn. I also agree that the white "dangling thing" by the girl on your left is damage. In the same area is a green coloring that I would change to match the rest of the tree. Very small pics on a nice job!

Margie

[glennab]

Margie, thanks so much for your observations.  I'll hold off until this evening to see if anyone else has any comments, make the suggested tweaks and send them home.

Hugs!

GK

[JTJB]

Hi GK,

Hope I am not too late to put my two bob in.  I agree with everything Margie stated above.  Is it just me or does the top right hand corner of the tv screen look a little dark?  Either way, it looks great.

JB

[Johnboy]

Glenna,

Nice to see you back working again. You certainly have had it rough lately.

I think you have done a great job on this. I agree with Margie about the long blob. It is sometimes hard to tell as families have special ornaments they put on their trees every year. I now we do which reach back to the early days when the girls were in the younger elementary grades. The are adults with there own families now.

I also agree with JB (another one of us) about the TV screen. It looks a little uneven. Probably from damage repair over most of it. I imagine a little patch tool work and it will look like a new one.

Johnboy

[AppalachianGrannyMagic]

I just wanted to say kuddos on matching and repairing the paneling. The photo I'm currently working on had a lot of background damage on knotty pine paneling and it really kicked my butt. Very nice work.

[glennab]

Hi all

Thanks for the feedback. I already had sent the restoration home before anyone commented on the TV screen, so I hope QC finds it if they think it's distracting.

Granny, thanks for the kind words on my paneling. I don't know if this'll work on your restoration if you have knotty pine paneling, but I used a huge brush and cloned most of the paneling, getting rid of the vertical lines and everything - as well as evening out the color as best I could.  I found an area with a good sprinkling of noise and then used the healing stamp tool to add the noise back to the whole wall (the original was too heavy and ugly).  Once that was done, I went back to the original (which I always keep as the background layer for reference) I placed guides on each one and placed the panel lines on another layer by sampling the original and darkening the color a little (start at the top, go to the bottom and click.  You'll get a straight line).  I used bevel and emboss to get a subtle look I liked and then took the opacity back until I was okay with the color.  It didn't take a lot of time, and I was pleased with being able to get some noise and not just a flat background.  I did the same with the carpet.  I wonder if with your paneling you could get a good calculations version of the knotty areas and then incorporate the rest of my technique and paste the details in on a separate layer with whatever blending mode and layer effects work.  Might be worth a try.

JB, it was good to hear from you, as well as our new JB.  Do I have to start calling you Johnboy now to avoid confusion? 

It's wonderful to be back.  I've missed doing the restorations.  While I was getting myself back together, I was helping a group of young singers and a composer from all over the world by creating artwork and retouching some of their photos. They're on FB, and are called Wild Blossoms, the "first international internet girls singing group."  I recently created an ad for the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (like old times!) and have been attending every webinar I can find, as well as watching tutorials on all things Photoshop. So between times of being flat on my back, I've been pretty busy.  Learned so much.  And love Photoshop more and more.

Cheers,
GK

[AppalachianGrannyMagic]

Brilliant! I have used a similar method for carpet, grass & other background elements-(it's amazing what a little carefully added noise can do!) but adding the knots back into the repaired areas rather than working around them hadn't occurred to me.
It looks great & saved me loads of time.