Levels adjustment and Printing

[Hannie]

Hi everyone,

First I want thank all volunteers for working so hard trying to get their restores uploaded before the end of our printer service in February, great job you're all doing!

Somewhere the story originated that we do not have to worry about levels/color adjustment on our restores... not!   
Lately new volunteers have told me that they thought that levels adjustment is not necessary because the printers would take care of it.   I think that story must be somewhere in one of the older topics but I can't find it anymore.

To clear up any confusion about this issue: no, our printers do not adjust levels and neither do they correct color balance.  (wouldn't it be great if they would though!  )
We have to do that ourselves when we restore a photo! 

Margie has written a great PDF where you will find a tutorial how to do basic levels adjustment and color correction.  It is usually best to do these adjustments before any damage repair.  This way you are less likely to have clone marks appear because of slight color differences.

Thanks for listening,

Hannie

[Mhayes]

Thanks Hannie. I would say doing a color correction first is the best start in restoring your photos. I thought that any previous mentions of not color correcting had been removed, but I did find one in the FAQ section under "OPR Volunteer FAQ. . . a living document." We will get that either revised or dropped, especially under Restoration: 1. and 5. This was a 2006 post and some things have changed.

There are printers that will do a color correction, but you pay extra for that service. This is a service that is going to correct wrong settings in the camera when the photo was taken, not photos whose colors have been destroyed by damage. Plus, by the time a printer would get our photos, they don't have the benefit of the original. If the restored photo has a hosed up color correction, the printer really doesn't have much to go on.

Margie

[Hannie]

This topic needs another bump up, I still get restores back with the same problem!

Hannie

Tess, I just realized I started this topic from your office instead of mine! 

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Moved it for you Hannie.

[AllenH]

There is a comment on page 14 of the OPR handbook stating "Final color correction will be handled by Quality Control and the printer." that could lead to the assumption that close is good enough as there are color correction steps being done after a photo is turned in.

[Mhayes]

Allen, you have a point about an

assumption that close enough is good enough, since "Final color correction will be handled by Quality Control and the printer."

The last part about the printer is incorrect and hopefully when there is more time I will correct the Handbook. However, I would hope that volunteers read the  sentences that preceded it: "Most of the photos you will restore need some basic color correction. Because of water damage and age, this could be tricky. The following example will show you a few easy ways . . ." From page 14 to page 18 are examples of color correcting that are quite apparent that color correction is very important. I would also hope that most volunteer want a first rate restore and not just a "a close enough is good enough." Between the distributors and one person in Quality Control, we would rather not spend our time correcting what should already have done by the volunteer.  Most of the time we will send an email back and ask that the volunteer rework their photo. I think when you take a look at the Before/After photo gallery, you can't help but be impressed with both the restoration and the color correction.

Margie