My latest project (please comment)

[MichiganRob]

Hi y'all

I'm working on this photo from Hannie's gallery and I have a question about the boy's shoes.  Should I clean up his shoes? His shoes appear to be dirty, 12, 13 year old boy they are probably dirty in reality, not as a result of the damage to the photo.  I read the rules and I'm supposed to not fix natural stuff but if I were his parents I wouldn't like the shoes like that.

What do you all think, please.  And any other comments you might have about the restore project.

Thanx
MichiganRob

[startup_eng1]

I think cleaning up his shoes creates a distraction from the composition, which is really about the people (faces) in a Christmas setting. Probably, only his mom would care about showing clean shoes!!! If you want to make mom happy, you could clean them up a little bit but not as bright as you currently show them (maybe remove the color cast). Otherwise, great job!!!

[Hannie]

Hi MichiganRob,

I agree with startup_eng1 that it is better to leave shoes as they are, it is a family snapshot and I think that they are not really that dirty anyways?  (what does that say about me ;-))
You have done a beautiful job already!

Startup_eng1, it is great to see you post on the forum, welcome on board!

Hannie