Army Couple - Comments, Please

[glennab]

Hi Gurus

Here's the original photo I've been agonizing over for months.



Here's where I am so far.



Suggestions, criticisms, tips & tricks all welcome.  Hubby has ordered a compilation of all military ribbons and medals that will hopefully allow me to determine his honors for sure (Kenny, I still have the set you sent me and may be able to use them, but I have to identify the medal somehow).

My eyes are on fire, so I'm crashing.  Obviously there's much more to do, but I look forward to feedback.  PLEEZE!

GG

[cmpentecost]

Hi Glenna,

So far, it looks really good.  The one thing that stands out to me at first glimpse is that their clothes need some shadow detail.  It will be subtle, but looking at the bottom of her top, and his pants legs, I think you need to add back the crease shadows (if that makes sense).  I also things she needs a soft touch of her bangs on her right side (our left), and a slight touch of gray in his sideburns.

I know this one has been a challenge for you, but I think you are off to a good start!

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Glenna, What a great job you are doing on this photo, the only pick I would have at present is that the hair lines are a little too sharply defined, I usually have trouble with this too, what I have found is that if I select the area along the hair line and then use a wide feather, 5-10 pixels depending on image size, and then paint with the hair brush along the hair
line the feather seems to blend it well, better than when I have tried burning.

Re: the medal, what is the print size of your photo? On my screen it appears as 9.5" x 7"  and at anything under about 10" x 8" I very much doubt if you will be able to identify it in the printed photo, you may be flogging yourself over a detail that will not matter ( by that I don't mean that his medal, is of no importance but will you be able to tell without putting the photo under a magnifying glass?).

All in all a great piece of work, you have preserved the detail in the faces so well, always a struggle, keep up the good work.

Max

[glennab]

Good morning Chris & Max,

Thanks so much for the, as always, great feedback.  I haven't finished with their faces, hair, or (obviously) the curtain area (what's the deal with me and curtains??!!)  I did a lot of work on the bottom area (this is about attempt number 6 or 7) earlier, so the hair is started, but then I cut them out of the photo to do the background repair and haven't blended them back in -- especially the hair.

Chris, I see where the folds got lost on the woman's dress.  Will have to go back and remedy that.

Max, I repaired the faces, didn't like the look, and now they're back to no repair.  I'm going to do very little this time, because you're right, they look more natural right now.

My thing about the ribbons and medal is probably from being of military heritage and being married to a Marine (they're NEVER ex-Marines), and the military honors are the visual record of their service, so we deem them quite important, even though they'll be small.

(I swear, aliens are controlling my computer -- this message just split in half and I had to delete about 200 lines to put it back together.  I wonder if they're furry aliens?)

Anyway, I need to take care of my fuzz butts and get ready for work.  Thanks again for taking the time to critique my latest.

Hugs to you both! Have a wonderful day.

GG

[kstruve]

Glenna,

I second the above comments about your restoration, including the fact that you're doing a very nice job on this!  The first things that jumped out at me were:

The perspective on the recreated carpet pattern is a little off - it looks like the floor is sloping towards us.

The buttons on the chairs are disappearing a little.  Accentuate a little?

The shadows of the chairs on the floor looks scalloped and a little too sharp.  Maybe make it straighter and softer.

It's hard to see what the pot on the left of the image looked like originally, but it could probably stand to look a little rounder.

Below are some of my comments drawn onto your image.



Keep up the great work!

Kurt

[glennab]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for the analysis.  I'll definitely look at each of the issues you addressed. I truly appreciate the time you took to be so specific.  Are you an instructor?  You're obviously of guru caliber!

Best to you,

GG

[kstruve]

Hee hee!  No I'm not any kind of instructor, but thank you for the very nice compliment.  I work as an Architectural Renderer and Designer.  I make pretty pictures of buildings and retail developments before they are built.  My illustrations are used for our design process and for our clients' marketing materials.

Kurt

[cmpentecost]

Kurt,

I love the way you drew everything out.  Kind of looks like a football play!!  Seriously, this is exactly what Vincent Versace does with his photos, when he is working on enhancing a photo.  He draws out his game plan.  It's a smart way to keep track of what needs to be done.

Welcome to the forums!

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Glenna, Kurt is really going to make our life tough, with his keen eye for detail, as long as he realises a lot of us don't have his level of expertise, sometimes you can see something needs to be improved but don't know how to do it. Though it is good to have a new pair of eyes examine our work, you tend to be too close to certain problems in an image at times and just don't see other problems.

That said I have to disagree with Kurt about the pot, I believe the part he wants rounder is actually the cutout of the side of the chair, the light area is the wall behind the chair, the top of the pot is the shadowy area at the level of the seat, the side rail of the seat and the top of the pot blend in the shadow/damage.

There, you are now totally confused not knowing who to believe. :funny:


Max


Max

[kjohnson]

Yes I agree, along with the pointing expertise -  problem solving assistance here at the OPR University is often times needed too. 

[glennab]

Hi Max

Here's how I feel about this Kurt fellow:  he's an excellent analyst of our challenges and is also very succinct and observant.  So when he describes an issue  that we don't know how to handle and makes life "tough," I think we should insist that he explain how HE'D fix it.  Being a designer and renderer he has fine art sensitivity, so he'll be a genuine asset for those of us whose expertise doesn't extend that far (meaning mostly me!).

Kurt,

Now that I've suggested a way deal with your impressive talent, I want to thank you again for your help.  You should be an instructor!  I'm hereby naming you our newest and very much appreciated guru!

GG

[kstruve]

Glenna,

Thank you for your very kind words.  That means a lot coming from a Senior Member.  (My finance' was reading your reply over my shoulder and said "Now don't you let that go to your head."  I thought that was funny.)  I would of course, be more than happy to tell you HOW I would approach a particular problem, if asked.  And, as I was saying to Max in a personal message:

"And as far as making life "tough" goes:  Some of my greatest growths have occurred when someone asked me to do something that put me out of my comfort zone, that I had never done before, and that I wasn't sure I was good enough to accomplish.  That's how you get better."

Max,

You may be right about that area I pointed to as a the top part of the pot, not actually being part of the pot.  After looking at it some more, I'm not sure either "pot" is a pot at all.  If I look at it a different way, those areas could be part of the carpet. Proof positive that the more eyes you have looking at something, the more opinions you'll get!   Sorry to add even more confusion, Glenna, but here's yet another take on it:



Kurt

[glennab]

Hi Kurt

I don't t think the images on either side are carpet, but I'll look at the original closely again to be sure.  They appear to be large clay pots, judging by the texture -- and I assumed so also because of the plants at the top of each and the shape of the shadows cast across whatever they are.  Interesting to have a different perspective.

I was a bad girl last night and went out to dinner with some old friends so was too pooped when I got home to attack the restoration.  Tonight I'm going to knuckle down and will hopefully soon be able to post another version with much more work completed.

I couldn't agree more that the things that make us push our perceived abilities are the ones that make us grow.  That's why I chose to go for the most complex difficult restorations, even though I'd only had experience with moderately damaged photos before OPR.  I'm old enough that I don't want my brain cells deteriorating, so I push myself constantly.  Max does that as well, and he turns out wonderful work, contrary to what he says. He's at times expressed the same discouragement and frustration that I experience when I feel inadequate to the task (more often than not!).

I look forward to further discussion!

Best to you!

GG

[VBrestorer]

From my perspective, the "clay pots" aren't clay pots at all -- they're water damage.

Looking at the chair on the left, you can see the side/leg of the chair through what is being seen as a clay pot.  Of course, this wouldn't be possible if it were a real clay pot.

I would go with Kurt's second interpretation, except I think that the lefthand chair's side/leg should extend to about where Kurt's "carpet?" inscription's arrowhead is on that side.

Good luck.

Larry

[glennab]

Hi VB

You guys are making my brain hurt!  I see what you're saying, and yet I asked my husband study the original with me last night and he still thinks they're plant containers.  (I asked him to look at the image and made no comment -- he's very observant and I didn't want to prejudice him.)  Yet I can see the area you're saying looks like a chair leg.

Here's the dilemma.  While studying the photo, we realized that the colored artifacts in the drapes are mirror images of items in the main part of the photo, so it appears that the original was folded or crumpled and part of the image blended together.  So now I'm not sure if any of the bottom portion in question is affected by that damage.   ( to the man's left as we look at him, the light blue and goldish area is the imprint of his medal, and once that's recognized, it's easy to see that the other shapes and colors come from his uniform.)  I've been looking at this for months, and just figured that out with the help of someone who isn't even a restorer and whose eyes are failing.

So tonight will be another evening of studying all the elements and getting dizzy trying to determine  what I'm dealing with.  You all have excellent points and observations.  Thanks for taking the time to respond to my plea for help!

Have a wonderful day.

GG