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OPR Workshops => Difficult => Topic started by: Ausimax on July 20, 2007, 08:38:43 AM

Title: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on July 20, 2007, 08:38:43 AM


My latest project.

(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3016/tatumuc2.jpg)

(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7638/tatum02yb9.jpg)

Comments and suggestions please.

Max
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: John on July 20, 2007, 08:53:42 AM
wow Max, that is really nice.  nice job.  The only really nitpicky things that I would try to tweak would be to smooth the edge on the overhead balcony and maybe add a little bit more shadow?

Again, those are so minor it might not be a big deal, but those were the only two things that caught my eye.

Still a 10 out of 10 rating from me.  Excellent work.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: schen on July 20, 2007, 09:01:02 AM
I am getting really picky on such a nice restoration.

If I brighten the balcony, the kid's T-shirt seemed long and the floor tiles did not align well.  If you just print as is, you probably can't even tell.

(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z298/schen_album/tatum02yb9a.jpg)
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Juliet on July 20, 2007, 10:21:59 AM
Wow, great job.  The only thing that stuckout for me was the boy's shirt.  It still seems a little damaged, and there is a lide across where his should blades are.  Great job though, I'm working on a picture of the same little boy.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: phischer on July 20, 2007, 10:52:19 AM
Great Job on this one Max. I agree that the overhead could be softened a tad and maybe some little cleanup on the boy's shirt. I was wondering if you have CS2 and considered using the vanishing point tool to fix the bricks. This seems like a great candidate for it. I've always wanted to try the vanishing point feature in a real world situation, but really haven't found the opportunity yet.
In case you are not familiar with it, here are some video tutorials. (Actually this page is a great resource for all around video tutes)
http://wikivid.com/index.php/Photoshop#Retouching
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ratz on July 20, 2007, 11:09:53 AM
Looks great to me Max :up:
another brilliant resto!
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: schen on July 20, 2007, 11:13:21 AM
Wow! Perspective tools in CS2.  Now I have to start saving money to upgrade my old PS7.  Thanks for the link to the tutorial.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on July 20, 2007, 07:53:21 PM
Great job Max. :up2:
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on July 20, 2007, 10:47:02 PM

Hi Folks,

John, the jaggies along the roof-line are a compression artifact, they don't occur in the full size photo, you are right about the shading though.


schen, I don't know if I should be complimented that you had to go to such lengths to find something to pick, or slighted that you felt you had to.

Juliet, the shirt still needs a touch up, and is probably too long,will most likely give him lighter blue shorts.

Phischer, I have CS2 but I haven't used the vanishing point tool yet, I think that comes in a later lesson, it may have been handy on this though, I could only clean up two rows and copied them, sounds easy but did it take some work to make them fit, I may darken that area again - I had to lighten it up to be able to find the detail, though it probably won't be visible anyway as it is only a 4x6,  thanks for the link will check the tuts out, the trouble with PS, too many things to try and learn.

Thanks Ratz and Tassie D

Max


Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: sanbie on July 22, 2007, 09:28:38 AM
I think you have and are doing a fantastic job on this! Well done..

Sanbie
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: John on July 22, 2007, 11:02:41 AM
And I'd just add that I think the tiles are a non-issue.  The randomness seems natural to me and I don't think anyone would ever notice.  The reflection you added at the end of the tiles is perfect also.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on July 22, 2007, 10:51:25 PM
Thanks Folks,

This is what I sent home.

(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8123/tatum03py4.jpg)


Max
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: glennab on July 22, 2007, 11:03:31 PM
Awesome, Max.

I don't know how you do it!  One would have to really study this one to see the retouching.

Cheers!

Glenna
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: sanbie on July 22, 2007, 11:40:56 PM
 :wnw: Now that is awesome!! Well done Max!

Sanbie
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: klassylady25 on July 22, 2007, 11:47:24 PM
 :up:
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on July 23, 2007, 02:52:55 AM
Perfect Max. :up:
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: darthfuzzy on July 23, 2007, 09:29:39 AM
Noob question, Max about how long did you spend on this?  I am working my first pic and I think they are generous if they think 2 hours or more for a difficult picture is an average.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: John on July 23, 2007, 09:38:32 AM
Quote from: darthfuzzy on July 23, 2007, 09:29:39 AM
Noob question, Max about how long did you spend on this?  I am working my first pic and I think they are generous if they think 2 hours or more for a difficult picture is an average.

you know, you bring up a good point.  I think this would be an interesting statistic to keep and maybe we can start getting people to indicate how much time they spent on their work when at the time they upload them to the gallery.   
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: kiska on July 23, 2007, 10:04:42 AM
Good idea, guts. BUT, I have found that I can have 2 images of the 'same' damage, and one just falls into place and the other is a real time consuming struggle..........could be the moon, tho.  :cool:

So, I guess what I'm saying is ..............I really don't know. Maybe the time spent is not necessarily indicative of the difficulty.
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: sanbie on July 23, 2007, 07:59:00 PM
Yeah and some you have a real feel for and they fly through..the ones that don't you struggle with!

Sanbie
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: glennab on July 23, 2007, 08:47:18 PM
kiska

You could have something with your mention of the moon!  I know when there's a full moon (and I believe we're going to have one this coming weekend) my cats go totally berserk.  They fight, barf more than usual (I didn't think that was possible!), and zip-flash everywhere.  Hubby & I tend to get a bit edgy, too.  Back in the 70s I had a friend who was a hairdresser in a nursing home.  She said she absolutely hated when the moon was full, because the old folks were totally out of control.

Also, Mercury has been in retrograde toward the middle of this month, and that affects communications, any difficult work and accomplishing projects without their getting screwed up.  Sometimes I think that's when most of us have the worst time with our restorations.  I have a friend who's into astrology, and she says that when Mercury is in retrograde (and I have no idea what that means, physically) she won't sign contracts, make any important decisions or attempt anything by which she could be hurt.  She just had her knees replaced, and she wouldn't sign a single paper concerning the surgery until Mercury was out of retrograde. I had a widget set up to let me know when we had a retrograde, but then I realized I didn't want to know (self-fulfilling prophecies. yadda, yadda).  Yet every time I have a rough go with communications, restorations, whatever, I check and Mercury is in retrograde.  Uncanny!

And Darthfuzzy (how did you come by that wonderful name?  and can I name my next cat after you?) -- first of all welcome to the crew.  As to your question about the time it takes to complete a restoration, I don't see how we can accurately gauge that.  A lot depends on the volunteer's level of experience, knowledge of software, speed of computer and especially the level of difficulty of the restoration. It's a constant source of amusement to me -- only because I deal with the same thing every time I nab one of the doozys -- is how many people say that their restoration didn't look that difficult until they downloaded it.  The last one I grabbed is taking me forever, because I didn't realize how confounding it is to recreate areas that have become distorted by emulsion run and total lack of image in critical places.  I've had to walk away from it several times just to clear my head.  I'll spend several hours just scouring the image using different methods with channels, layers, etc. to try to pull up the nigh unto impossible missing pieces.

It would be interesting, John, if people wanted to kept track of their time.  I did at first, and it was so disheartening that I quit.  Too many pixels, not enough hours!  But I might start logging in and out again out of curiosity.  Could be very enlightening!

Glenna
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on July 23, 2007, 11:27:21 PM
 Hi Folks.

Thanks for your generous comments, much appreciated,  darthfuzzy, its nearly a case of how long is a piece of string, this one I would guess I spent 20-30 hours on it and it was a reasonably easy restore because there were no people to repair, however there was a lot of tedious cloning, pasting and transforming that all seems to take up heaps of time.

This is one of the few that I have managed to to complete in only two PDS files, I often generate 1-1.5 Gig of files trying different approaches and wandering off on fruitless pursuits. I don't have a fixed work-flow, I tend to evaluate each image and decide where to start, sometimes I start on the easy bit usually the background and work my way into the image, and other times I start with the most difficult feature, figuring if I can't repair that successfully why waste time doing the rest of the work.

I guess what I am trying to say is that more experienced members with an established method and work-flow would complete the same work in a fraction of the time it takes me, every image seems to be a new learning experience.

One of my problems is I am not a good learner, probably I lack the patience, to sit down and learn by doing exercises and have trouble applying myself, yet when it comes to an actual restoration I seem to have limitless patience for repetitive work, and as a result, have to do all my learning on the job.

Its hard to keep track of time when you are working, you get involved and time becomes meaningless, and you suddenly discover its getting cold because you have let the fire go out so I don't have an accurate idea of how long I take.

It would be good to have an idea of how long others take on their restorations.

There thats the short answer, if anybody is interested in the long version I will send it in PDF. :funny:


Max

Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: pcraft on July 23, 2007, 11:42:33 PM
 ;D  Does that mean you're going to be a restoration artist and an author?? 

Best of regards.
Robert

:cool:
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: cmpentecost on July 24, 2007, 11:05:07 AM
I did a survey last August on the amount of time spent on restorations, but I think that was probably too early within OPR to get good results.  I'll go ahead and do another survey, and it will be interesting to see what the results are.

Christine
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: sanbie on July 24, 2007, 08:12:54 PM
Yep and I voted!

It will be interesting to see what everyone does...

Sanbie
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on August 05, 2007, 03:59:04 AM

My latest disaster, still a lot of finishing to be done, but comments and ideas would be helpful.



(http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7093/oursorlt4.jpg)


(http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/5287/oursor07tx3.jpg)


Max

Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on August 05, 2007, 06:22:34 AM
Yow, a nice messy one Max. Looks like the 2 other ladies are wearing hats too. Pillbox hats I think they called them?
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: klassylady25 on August 05, 2007, 10:48:59 AM
Think of it like this with the hats;  If this family is coming from Mass, the ladies will have something on their heads.  To me it resembled a doily, but not being Catholic..... At least the two younger ladies appear to have something like that... could be pillbox, but there is something there besides hair.   
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: glennab on August 05, 2007, 01:29:02 PM
Hi Max

You really know how to pick 'em!  You said you're not finished yet, but I want to throw in a few observations.

The two women to the left each appear to have their respective feet relatively parallel, rather than either having one foot turned to the side. The third woman from our left appears to have "feet front" and the second from the left has her feet turned slightly to coincide with the position of her body.  I think the 3 sets of feet in the middle are too small.

I think the gentleman who's third from the right has more "dome" in the original.  His head seems rather "squished."  And he appears to have a large smile on his face.

I'm guessing that you intend to add contour, folds and texture to the bottom of the restoration, as right now it looks quite flat.

I suspect that this is a small snapshot, so I wouldn't be surprised if the details are really difficult to pull out.

For what it's worth...

Carry on, mate!

Glenna
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on August 06, 2007, 11:00:03 PM

Hi Folks,

Thanks for your input, Tassie D you are probably right about the hats, the one on the left (our left) has a net or veil visible across her forehead, any idea what these hats should look like? I can find nothing to support hats in the image.

Candy, I very much doubt they have been to Mass, I'm not catholic but i don't think ladies wear flowery hats and corsages, nor men wear buttonholes to Mass, more likely it was a wedding, maybe the lady with the corsage was the bride, these are all the things we don't know.

Glenna, Yes the feet are still a work in progress, they look visible at low resolution and when you get to 100% you can't find the detail,plus I think they are standing in grass and I end up with them on grass, they could be a bit small, the middle chaps are, I don't want to make the ladies too big footed, I'm sure every lady would rather her feet looked a size smaller rather than larger.

The chap in the middles face doesn't have enough detail to restore without risking making him look like somebody else, he does have a smile though, will get that back. The real difficulty with this one is going to be getting all the restored areas to blend with the rest, its a 5x7 so if you are viewing on a 19" screen it is slightly larger than print size.

Max
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on August 07, 2007, 01:09:55 AM
Here are a couple of pics of pillbox hats Max.

http://www.tias.com/568/PictPage/1922724913.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillbox_hat
Title: Re: Max's Latest
Post by: Ausimax on August 07, 2007, 01:35:23 AM

Thanks Tassie. :up2:

Max