"Non Restore" Cha!lenge!

[G3User]

Awesome Tori :up2: :up2: :up2: :up2:

Athol

[seekingoz]

non-restore-challenge-jw by Pixagrafix, on Flickr

This is an amazing challenge. I tried to keep track of things I did but I ended up with two working images and dozens and dozens of layers. I tried all sorts of techniques. Some worked, some didn't. I did a lot of cloning and healing, a little bit at a time.

This seems like one of those images that needs a reference photo.

At least I learned how to upload a photo to the forum.  :up2:

Judy

[G3User]

Looks good Judy but Yahoo wants me to create an account before I can see the full sized repair.

Maybe another site to store the image would be more friendly ;)

Athol

[Tori803]

Yahoo is doing something weird. I used my Flickr account a couple of days ago, but now I get a message that I have to reactivate it because I haven't used it in so long.

[Mhayes]

I can't say I like Yahoo, because it won't let you click to enlarge, but you can right click and download the image. Only problem is that the download version comes in at 6.944 x 3.625 @ 72 dpi. The other one posted was 14.22 x 9.472 @ 72 dpi. With the larger you can use the crop tool at 300 dpi and set for 5 x 4. However this one is too small and you can't go from 72 dpi to 300.

Judy, I agree it is looking good, but too bad we are having problems accessing it.

The Duck

[G3User]

I have always used Photobucket. Towards the end of last year they announced that they would be holding full size images loaded from that date.

The original could be recovered by downloading from the site, there is a mention of selecting size but I can't see where.

The image I loaded for the challenge was 1209 x 918 440K, what I can download is 1024 x 777 120K so it certainly been compressed. It isn't clear what size image will be displayed when you left click on a thumbnail in a post but it look to be similar in quality to the more compressed image.

Is there some restriction on OPR storage which makes this necessary Margie?

Thought you might like a new avatar ::)

You know who.

[Mhayes]

Athol: or He who messes with fire.

Tess will be better able to answer that question as I don't know.

The Duck

P.S. I clean up better than that!  :cool:

[seekingoz]

non-restore-challenge-jw by Pixagrafix, on Flickr

I've reloaded the full-size image on flickr and changed the access. I don't use flickr very often so I probably made some mistakes. If this doesn't work, I'll get a photobucket account and try that.

Judy

[Tori803]

Thanks Judy, that worked.

[seekingoz]

Terrific.  :up:

Judy

[G3User]

Much better Judy, I was able to download a full sized copy.

Like what you have done with the RH divider and the whiteboard

Just a thought. Your restorations of the background are perhaps still a little artificial. For instance, the original wall is brighter in the centre from the flash and floor in the LH corner should also get darker to the edge. Same for the bottom of the divider

I know of two ways to tackle the wall.

Copy and heal using samples with differing brightness to best match what you can see of the original. This preserves the texture which is most important but it can be difficult to create the smooth transitions across the wide area. I used this approach for the example I posted and have a method to help with the smoothing, let me know if you are interested.

The other is to create a circular gradient on a new layer using samples of the brightest and darkest parts of the original. This will produce very smooth transitions, is much quicker but must have texture/noise added to make it realistic and that can be an art in itself.

Let me know if you would like to see examples.

Does anyone have any other methods?

Athol

[seekingoz]

I'm definitely interested in learning your smoothing method and see examples. It's always easier for me to absorb a new technique if I can spend time on each step. The circular gradient sounds like an interesting idea and one I never would have thought of. I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks!

Judy

[G3User]

Judy, I use two methods , either do the bulk of the repair using the clone and healing brushes or use the gradient tool to produce a new layer and add noise to match the original

In both cases I use a zig zag curve plus a levels layer to emphasise unwanted variations in levels in the result. It is easy to create, open curves and pull the curve up and down as many times as you can. You should get something like this, name and save it.



When added as the top layer in a repair it drastically increases the contrast of those pixels which under the sharp rise and fall of the curve. Those pixels occurring near the top and bottom of the curve are not emphasised so adding a levels layer below the curve and adjusting the centre control to say 1.2 will effectively move the midrange of the image sideways so the previously un emphasised pixels can now be enhanced.

It takes some time to get used to the effect but it is worth it. Provided you set your tools to use only on the current layer, the two layers have no effect on the edit and they can be toggled on and off independently to allow the different views of the repair. If you can't see a problem with any combination of these two layers, there isn't one.

I will use them in the following examples and apply both routinely to all my restorations, as well as helping with repairs they assist in locating damage which otherwise might be missed, assessing noise in an image or to confirm that any blending done is smooth.

The original


The following repair was done using clone and healing brushes.


Zig Zag view


Using it has allowed me to accurately select undamaged areas of appropriate brightness with the clone tool and duplicate the change in brightness across the wall due to the flash used when the photo was taken. Any abrupt change I cause really stands out and can be corrected immediately. This method is the most accurate, needs a relatively undamaged surface and can be time consuming

Because there are substantially undamaged areas of the wall, they can be used as the source for the healing brush to apply authentic texture/noise.

The next repair was done using the gradient tool, the circular gradient was selected because of the flash. Use the colour picker, set to 5 x 5 average to load the lightest area as foreground and the darkest as background. On a new layer guess/estimate where the centre of the flash was pointed, click on it and drag to where the darkest point was selected. You may have to try more than one centre point.

I usually put colour samplers at the darkest and lightest points and set the display for them to HSB, it makes it much easier to see how the result compares with the original. A levels, curves or hue/saturation layer can be attached to the gradient layer to trim it for the best match with the original, using the warp tool can also help.
I added noise at 2 pixels and Gaussian blurred it at 0.8 pixel

Gradient applied, with mask


Zig Zag view


This method is best when there is a large amount of damage

In both cases the aim is create a repair which the average viewer will not identify as such. I often print my repairs at the correct size to see how near (or not) I am to that.

My first attempt at a tutorial so let me know if anything isn't clear

Athol

[seekingoz]

Hi Athol,

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I have a very busy day ahead of me so I won't be able to get to this until tomorrow (Friday). I'm intrigued by the zig-zag curve you used. I use a variety of curves patterns when I'm looking for dust and dirt on my photos. I plan to spend a lot of time walking through each step to make sure I understand them. If I have questions, I'll let you know.

Again, thanks for your help on this!

Judy

[Tori803]

Those are interesting techniques Athol. I think I like the result from the zig zag curves better, but it's a little strange to work with  :)

Tori