My second image

[G3User]

Hi all,

Appreciate comments on the above. Really struggled with the blue fungus(?) marks and repair/replacement on the second woman's face.
Have just persuaded myself that I need a tablet and will look for some of the suggested reference books. At least Xmas is coming.

Thanks

[Hannie]

Hi G3!

Great job you did!  The women's face came out looking good!
You will love your tablet, once you get used to it, it makes everything so much easier.  From what I've heard so far about different tablets I think the Wacom Intuos3 stands out as really good. (but really pricy too!)
Back to the topic, you might add a tiny bit of contrast and lower the highlights just very little.

Hannie

[Tess (Tassie D)]

:up: Great job G3User. I agree with Hannie, just tone the highlights down to bring out the detail.

[kiska]

The blue dress lady's nose and mouth look a little off on her right. Turn 'em up a bit?

[Atlantis]

I'm so glad you posted this. I'm working on another photo of the same event, now I can see how the boy's nose looks like and what the lady in blue her blouse looks like.
Other than that I think ýou're doing great but I must agree to the nose & mouth which seem slightly shifted.

[G3User]

Thanks everyone for the input.
Did the brightness/contrast corrections you suggested Hannie, I suspect that I should leave a repair for a couple of days after I feel it is complete and look at it with fresh eyes before thinking about returning it.
Tassie D and Kiska, I have had another go at her mouth and it seems to be more lifelike.
I hadn't done anything to the shape of her nose in the original except tidy up her nostrils but it did dominate her face. I made a minor change in the version, let me know what you think.
Glad it helped Atlantis, having more than one image from a day must be a help
Hannie, I am about to order an Intuos 3 4x5 tablet and am really looking forward to it
Sad to hear of the fires in California, they have really made the news here

Athol

[Johnboy]

Your latest version looks much better. The mouth looks more natural compared to the original. The color looks better also. Good job.  :up2:

Johnboy

[Hannie]

Hi Athol,

Whatever you did to the lady's face, it looks much better now, color is great too!
Great to hear you ordered a tablet.  I have the 6x8 but the way I use it I some times wonder if the 4x5 wouldn't have been a better size!  In the settings of the tablet you can assign the space of the surface to your own liking so that is not a problem.  My tablet takes quite a bit of space on the desktop so every time I type I have to move the tablet to the side.

Hannie

[glennab]

Hi Athol

Nice clean up!

I see some things I'd revisit.  I tried last night to check the woman's mouth on the right by downloading your low-res version, but I couldn't see enough to be sure.  I think she has a big smile, but her mouth is more closed. I took the original, duped the layer, multiplied it and there was a bit more detail from which to see the shape of her mouth, I tried another dupe and multiply, but the image was so pixilated that I then lost detail.  You might be able to get more from the high-res version.  The lighter areas had more definition with the multiply.

Also, where you cleaned up her face there's a line that makes her look as if she's wearing a mask.  A little blending would do the trick!

I think I'd warm up the image a bit.  The people look somewhat ghostly.

I'm through picking!  You did a great job.

Cheers!

Glenna

[G3User]

Hi Glenna,

Thanks for the input. I am still learning about the blending modes, tried your method and it most certainly helped. I think I got her mouth shape nearly right but her teeth are smaller that the original.
I have returned the image but will have another go at it and repost.
I have been printing the repaired images at the original size to test the results of a repair, viewing them on the monitor seems to be less reliable. Any suggestions?
My experience with repairs so far has been with family photos which have faded and do not require reconstruction, they are a whole new challenge. I had a look at Christine's remaining images, I am not that brave yet!!

Athol

[glennab]

Hi Athol

Don't get discouraged about those tough restorations.  I just had to return one unfinished, because it was just too far gone for my capabilities.  It will require someone with a fine art degree and 100 years of experience to get that one right. It was demoralizing to have to give it up, but we have to consider OPR's purpose and the people for whom we're doing this work.  I was holding up a family's photos being returned because I kept thinking "just a little bit more and I'll have it."  NOT!

I don't print my restorations, because I trust that the experts at our printing company will be able to do whatever tweaks need to be made to accommodate their equipment.

I don't know what kind of monitor you're using, but I bought an Apple 20-inch LCD last year and about fell off my chair when I saw the difference between the image on it compared to the same one on my ViewSonic CRT.  I was halfway through a restoration and backed up and did a lot more tweaking when I saw the detail on the LCD.  I guess that's good and bad.  Probably a lot of what the LCD shows won't print, but I do like the detail and brightness of the screen.  My old eyes are certainly grateful.

I'd recommend that you spend time playing with the blending modes.  Some are very weird, yet they all have uses -- some more obscure than others.  I just attended a Photoshop Power Tour seminar, and Dave Cross, our instructor, used the difference blend mode with a 50% gray layer and threshold to determine a definite gray point in a photo (as opposed to guessing, which is what most of us do for lack of knowing any other way).  It was awesome.  I've never found a use for that mode before.

But if you have light areas that still have some image, darken and multiply blend modes are great ways to pull out detail.  Sometimes you'll have to dupe the layer several times and play with opacity, but that's one of my favorite techniques.  Conversely, you can use the lighten and screen modes for images that are dark.  It's amazing how much can be discerned.

Anyway, the garrulous Kraken will give you a break.  Gotta get back to work.  I'm glad you've joined us!

Bless,

Glenna