Hi, I'm new to OPR and would like to show my work so far for a little feedback. I chose this one thinking it wouldn't be too bad. That was one of the worst judgement errors I have ever made in my life. :D
Here's the original:
(http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1194/originalse5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-01
Here's my work so far:
(http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/264/wip701jf6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-01
Here's a detail closeup on the face:
(http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2555/facecuat5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-01
I think the face has come out pretty good so far. My concern is with the fact that this one was originally an 11 X 14. I don't know that I will ever be able to restore this to a state where they will be able to make a decent print of it that size. I think it would look ok at half that size maybe. Does anyone know a way that I can smooth out the face a little? Any suggestions for recreating the left hand/arm and foot? What is she sitting on? Thanks in advance.
Phil
Hi Phil,
Really giving yourself a baptism of fire aren't you. This is a bit I did on your face, it was all done with the healing brush tool on a separate layer with the tool set to sample all layers, all the work was done with the brush indexed to the spot with the cross on the forehead, work following natural contours as much as possible, using a small brush (about half the size of his eye) at 100% hardness.
When working near other colours use a very small brush and you can get very close then you have to use the clone to avoid colour bleeding. you may have to work an area several times to blend in the colours working from good to bad, you can always improve you colours when you have the damage repaired, by creating another layer and setting the mode to colour then painting with various sampled skin tones.
I think you need to move the right eye a little more to the right, he looks very cross-eyed at present
(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5905/facecuat5ko1.jpg)
Hope this is of some use to you.
Max
Maybe his left cheek is too square?
This might help with the 'healing'.
Here's how to make a texture pattern:
http://www.oprworkshop.org/forum/index.php?topic=712.msg6174;topicseen#new
http://upload.pbase.com/image/81529202 (http://upload.pbase.com/image/81529202)
(http://i.pbase.com/o6/93/579993/1/81529202.uUl2D9I4.phischer.jpg)
Thanks for your replies.
You've both referred to this child as a boy. Am I missing something? I thought it was a girl, for sure.
Max: I can appreciate the cross eyed comment...I was up late working on those eyes last night and I just couldn't get something that looked correct. Each eye looked fine if you cover up the other eye, but when I look at the pair I knew something was off. When you say her right eye needs to move to the right I'm assuming you mean the right as we look at it, correct?
Kiska: Can you explain your layers a little clearer for me? I've made that texture you've sent the link to. (Thanks for that!) Now I use the healing tool set to pattern (with that new pattern) and then I can just brush along the contours of the face? What is the second layer you have there. I'm a little confused. Or did you clean up one little area with the pattern and then sample that area and use it to clean other parts of the face?
Thanks again.
Phil
Phil,
the texture pattern will smear along the edges between different tonal ranges, just like the regular healing brush. It is a good tool to get some texture started when the damage doesn't show any. I first used the healing brush set to pattern to get a small area of texture (layer 1). I then set the heal to 'sample' and sampled from that pattern texture area (layer 2).
The texture pattern is really useful for totally botched backgrounds.
Don't know if the kid is a boy or girl. They all look the same to me. :funny:
Let me know if you have questions. Good luck!
Here's where I am at now. Am I proceeding in the right direction?
What should I do about the hair?
(http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3127/facecu2ba3.jpg)
Ok, so I'm operating on the assumption that most of you opted for "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" ; )
I hear you loud and clear and I've started over. I worked on the legs and was able to get a nicer skin texture from them and apply it to the face. I've been working it over and over again, and here is what I have now. Please let me know how I am doing here. I am trying my best and am starting to think that maybe this is out of my range of ability. (Although I can't stress enough that I do not want to give up!) I actually think that what I have here is good. Should I continue with the rest of the photo or give up now and get something that may be a little easier?
(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4548/facecu705jf2.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-05
Also, is that damage or a little tuft of hair sticking out of the top of her head? Any suggestions on doing the hair here?
Thanks a bunch. You guys are awesome and I can only hope to be a little part of your admirable community.
Phil,
Would you mind posting a high-resolution crop of the baby's head from the original file? I would like to see if I can find any more details hiding in there. Thanks!
Kurt
Quote from: kstruve on July 05, 2007, 03:35:08 PM
Phil,
Would you mind posting a high-resolution crop of the baby's head from the original file? I would like to see if I can find any more details hiding in there. Thanks!
Kurt
No problem. Thanks for looking.
(http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/6705/facecuorigsw8.th.jpg) (http://img159.imageshack.us/my.php?image=facecuorigsw8.jpg)
Phil,
This is what I've been able to find hiding in the channels:
(http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9287/babyheadchannelsqi6.th.jpg) (http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=babyheadchannelsqi6.jpg)
We can much more clearly make out her eyes and other features. I think that her face would be a good candidate for color replacement since most of it has been either destroyed or yellowed. But there's enough of her skin tones on her mouth, chin and forehead to sample and use on a separate "Color" layer.
Take a look at these for tutorials on how to do this.
http://www.oprworkshop.org/forum/index.php?topic=434.msg3712#msg3712
http://www.oprworkshop.org/forum/index.php?topic=415.msg3277#msg3277
I hope this helps!
Kurt
Now that's what I call teamwork!
No matter how many of these I look at I'm amazed at the detail that can be 'discovered' via different techniques.
:up:
Sorry, I should have explained how I got this detail out of the photo. It's a composite of the Blue Channel and of the Yellow channel. I took the best parts of the two and combined them, then I did some dodging and burning to smooth out the blotches a little bit and to add in some shading where it didn't look quite right.
Kurt
P.S. Phil, please feel free to copy this image and paste it into your Photoshop file if you'd like.
Wow thats amazing..I will have to keep that tip!!
Sanbie
Hi Phil --
Please don't assume that if you don't get responses from people that you're not doing a good job. I tried over and over to find something that could help you and couldn't come up with a thing. So it's not a matter of "if you can't say anything nice..." It's more, if you can't help, get the heck out of the way and make room for someone who can. Kurt is one of our resident "eagle eyes" and gurus, so he's someone who can usually jump in when the rest of us are scratching our heads. He's been busy getting married, so he's not been around until this week to keep us on our toes. It's great that he was able to get more detail for you. This is among the worst of the damaged photos I've seen, so take pride in the fact that you've kept at it when the rest of us were baffled!
Glenna
Hi Phil,
I must have missed your subsequent posts, sometimes seems to happen but we/I weren't ignoring you - boy? girl? Don't ask me, I was recently working on a teenage girl, until everybody told me it was a boy, so I can't claim to be any sort of authority on gender differentiation. :-[
Max
Thank you everyone for your comments...I appreciate any help I can get.
Kurt, I am amazed at the detail you were able to pull out of this. I am truly humbled. Thanks for your tips, I will try to rework it again.
PS: This is only the face! I still don't know what to do with the rest of this pic! It has been consuming my thoughts since I downloaded it. I even think I dreamt of ways to work on this image!
Quote from: kstruve on July 05, 2007, 07:05:13 PM
Sorry, I should have explained how I got this detail out of the photo. It's a composite of the Blue Channel and of the Yellow channel. I took the best parts of the two and combined them, then I did some dodging and burning to smooth out the blotches a little bit and to add in some shading where it didn't look quite right.
Kurt
P.S. Phil, please feel free to copy this image and paste it into your Photoshop file if you'd like.
I think I will paste this into my version. A quick question though....should I still be using the dodge and burn tools to fix the remaining damage on the face? Or is it ok to use the healing tool like I've been using on my other variations of the face?
Sure, I think it's just fine to use the healing brush to repair the damage to the face. I would just be mindful of not healing over details that shouldn't be healed, like edges of eyes and nose and mouth etc. And also try to keep the overall shading intact. I would create a new layer and set your healing brush to "Sample all layers" and do your repairs on the new layer to keep the other one intact in case you mess something up. Also, make sure "Aligned" is unchecked and Alt-click on an area that has a texture you like, then as you heal over the image, it will always sample from that same area.
Kurt
OK...so as I was working on this for the 6th or 7th time ( ;D) I finally decided it just wasn't going to work by retouching the color version. So I had to do it in BW and next I will work on re-coloring it. I've done this before with some old BW photos, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. (Knock on wood) Here's my current state. Anybody notice anything I should fix before proceeding with color? I will most likely be re-working the face once again, because I'm not thrilled with the way this version came out, but If anyone notices anything, please let me know. I'm not entirely sure that I got her right sleeve correct. Thanks everyone.
(http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/4032/712bwmp7.th.jpg) (http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=712bwmp7.jpg)
You probably already realize this, but the first thing I notice is how sharp the shoes are compared to the rest of the image.
Why not hand in a B&W version AND the recolored one. Let the family decide which works better for them. The color seems to be a killer a lot of the time...
Quote from: OPRDave on July 12, 2007, 08:51:01 PM
You probably already realize this, but the first thing I notice is how sharp the shoes are compared to the rest of the image.
Actually I just looked at it again right before coming on here and that was the first thing I noticed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Quote from: OPRAng on July 12, 2007, 10:03:33 PM
Why not hand in a B&W version AND the recolored one. Let the family decide which works better for them. The color seems to be a killer a lot of the time...
I was actually going to ask if that was allowed. :) I hope I can colorize it ok, but if not I think they will be happy with this. I'm fairly confident that this is pretty close to what this child looks like. ;D
Hi Phil
I think you've done an amazing job on this little cutie. I do agree with Dave that the shoes are much too prominent for the rest of the photo. Maybe reduce the saturation and put a slight blur on them. Another thing that pops out at me is that her head needs to blend into the background better. The edge is a little too sharp. If you have a mask on that area, you can slightly blur the mask and that does a nice job of blending the object with the background. Or if you've cut her out of the background, try going to the layers pull-down, and all the way at the bottom there's an item called Matting, Defringe. Sometimes if you defringe by just 1 pixel you'll get a good blend. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it's a perfect solution. (These are Photoshop techniques, since that's the software with which I do my work.) And only a little furthermore... I'd even the texture on the stool just a bit more.
It's small stuff -- refinements on a restoration that I'd have been intimidated to tackle and on which you worked nigh unto a miracle.
Cheers!
Glenna
Quote from: glennab on July 12, 2007, 11:05:12 PM
Hi Phil
I think you've done an amazing job on this little cutie. I do agree with Dave that the shoes are much too prominent for the rest of the photo. Maybe reduce the saturation and put a slight blur on them. Another thing that pops out at me is that her head needs to blend into the background better. The edge is a little too sharp. If you have a mask on that area, you can slightly blur the mask and that does a nice job of blending the object with the background. Or if you've cut her out of the background, try going to the layers pull-down, and all the way at the bottom there's an item called Matting, Defringe. Sometimes if you defringe by just 1 pixel you'll get a good blend. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it's a perfect solution. (These are Photoshop techniques, since that's the software with which I do my work.) And only a little furthermore... I'd even the texture on the stool just a bit more.
It's small stuff -- refinements on a restoration that I'd have been intimidated to tackle and on which you worked nigh unto a miracle.
Cheers!
Glenna
Thanks for the compliments. I do agree about the head. I actually didn't really bother blending it in with the background because I do still need to smooth out the texture a little more. I worked on the head first in a separate file so I wouldn't be distracted by all of the other chaos that was going on with this pic. ;) Then when I brought the head into the cleaned up version of the rest of the photo, I realized the texture didn't quite match. I guess that's a definite drawback to working an a part of a photo in a separate file. Lesson learned. Good point about the stool texture, I think it does need to be evened out a bit. Thanks again.
Ok I think I am finally just about done. Anything I missed before I send this one home?
(http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/5272/faustccolormz1.th.jpg) (http://img249.imageshack.us/my.php?image=faustccolormz1.jpg)
Here's the original again for reference.
(http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1194/originalse5.th.jpg) (http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=originalse5.jpg)
:up: You've done an amazing job with very little to go on. I notice in the original near her left shoe that the floor is grey. Maybe put a little of that color along the floor to show it up more?
Her arms look a little bit off to me. Looking at the original, it looks to me as though she has long sleeves on her dress. Otherwise, looking pretty good!
Kurt
Quote from: kstruve on July 16, 2007, 11:26:25 PM
Her arms look a little bit off to me. Looking at the original, it looks to me as though she has long sleeves on her dress. Otherwise, looking pretty good!
Kurt
Hmmm...I'm not positive that I got the sleeves 100% correct. Especially her right sleeve. I don't think this dress had long sleeves though.
True, the sleeves may not go all the way to the wrists, but I think they are definitely past the elbows.
Kurt
I can't see that..they look to me to go to just above the elbow...I think if the back of the sleeve was longer it would put it in more proportion perhaps? and the arm to have some lighter shading on it also..
Sanbie
I did a few more tweaks and some clean up. I think I could probably spend another 3 weeks on this if I wanted to, but I think it's time to send this one back. Woohoo! 1 down, ????? to go. I'm just not too sure I can handle any of the remaining pics ???
I'm giving a BW and a color version for the powers to be to choose from. Here are the final versions.
(http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/9606/faustc33webcolorsl2.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-17
(http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/5324/faustc33webbwzc5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By phischer (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/phischer) at 2007-07-17
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n95/pcysmith/faustc.jpg)
It looks very good. The only thing that I would change is to highlight her right arm to give it a more rounded shape. It looks kind of flat the way it is.
Paula
Yep I agree that lighter shading makes all the difference!
Sanbie