So What About the Baby?

[lurch]

I haven't really started working on this one yet - just spent the afternoon 'finding the image'. It appears the baby is sharply and more or less selectively bleached out (some of Mom's arm is gone too, as well as a hand and part of her skirt - I think).  Anyone have any slick suggestions for getting baby's tone back to match the rest? And is he/she holding a doll?

Original:


WIP (ignore the background; it's just there because the original one was too distracting while I worked):

[Mhayes]

Lurch,

Do you have the feeling that I tricked you by saying that I thought the details would come out? When did it hit you that perhaps I might have been terribly off the mark on this one? I think you have as much detail as you are going to get. I have tried everything to get more detail on the baby and what he/she is holding. I'm thinking a doll too and wondering if the back of the doll's head is what we are seeing. I think you will have to bring the tone in line with the others, but I think you can only hint at what might be there.

This photo is probably about the same age as some of the others shown in the video Jan posted--1904. I will ask the owner to see if she knows what the baby is holding. It will be interesting to see you progress on this one. Good Luck!

Margie

[Hannie]

Hi Lurch,

I used a little burn on the baby's eyes, nose, mouth and ears.  They are faint but visible!

Hannie

[glennab]

Hi lurch

Here's another work-around.  I used calculations, combining gray and the blue channel set to multiply at 100%.  I copied the newly-created alpha channel as a layer, duplicated it 4 times and set each layer to overlay.  Of course, everyone else is way too dark, but you can discern more of the baby's features. I then desaturated each layer.  Most of the color layers are garbage. My suggestion would be to pull as much of the baby as you can out of the darkened layers, make a new one and mask him/her off, then reduce opacity on the rest of the family until you get them to a comfortable setting.  I also wouldn't remove the background, as the new one is too stark compared to the texture in the family.



Another way-out-of-the-box possibility.

Good luck!

GK

[lurch]

Here's what I've done so far, though it's nowhere near done yet. Obvious areas for further work are The Baby, hands (ugh), and cleaning up the mask. As before, ignore the background, as it's merely a place-holder and even funnier-looking since I evened out the tone from side to side. I need eagle eyes for splotches, and more opinions on The Baby. If I remember right, photos of babies from that era showed them in dresses (usually white), regardless of sex. Am I correct?

Thanks for the ideas, GK. What I ended up doing was very similar, but with the lightness channel in Lab, which was much less noisy than the blue.

[Mhayes]

Lurch, Kudos to you for picking this difficult one! I think you are gaining on it. What I see the most challenge is to get the right contrast and highlights in this photo. The other thing is trying to get their faces not to look so ashen and at then same darken up the middle boy's face. Post your progress as you get further along.

Margie

[lurch]

Here's where it stands so far. Not sure I should take it any further - there's a fine line between restoration and imaginative reconstruction. At any rate, all comments are welcome as always.