A Happy Day

[dle]

Here's one that's particularly easy for me to relate to, having been in his position recently. Sadly, a variety of bad things happened to this photo. Luckily, the faces of the two main subjects aren't badly damaged at all. Here's the original:



And here's the first work-in-process:



At this point I'm still thinking about a couple of things. Her dress has lace on it that's been pretty much destroyed, so I found some that looks similar and did some texture mapping. Maybe I should make it a little more apparent since overall her dress looks a little smoother than it probably was. The other thing is the overall orangishness of the floor and the background. I suspect that's largely the way the original was before Bad Things happened to it. But maybe some hue shifting is in order?

Suggestions for improvements are most welcome as I'd like to get this one just so, and I know that after looking closely at a photo for many hours, it's easy to miss something I should have seen.

[Mhayes]

David,

I have sent you a reference photo of the bride where her wedding gown is in good shape. It appears to be sheer all the way down with lace on the bottom. Hope that helps.

Margie

[dle]

Thanks, Margie!

The reference photo is very helpful; I should be able to get the restoration much closer now that I know what the dress looks like. No lace on the skirt part, except at the hemline where it's trimmed with lace. So I need to take the texture mapping off and put a sheer look on.

Speaking of reference photos, I think it would be quite helpful to people doing restorations to have the ability to look at the whole collection of photos that the one they're working on is taken from. I understand how it works now: if, as a restorer, you'd like to know if there is a photo that's a useful reference you can always ask your distributor to look. It just seems like there might be a better -- quicker and less work for everybody -- way. And, as I said, just being able to browse through the whole collection, including the ones that have already been sent out for restoration, would usually do the trick, I think.

[Mhayes]

David, you have a valid suggestion about it being helpful if the volunteers could see the entire collections. However, for the Distributors it is easier for them to have the volunteers ask and if the distributor would consider that with the collection to suggest a reference photo. Ones like yours that are a wedding that would be particularly help. I see no way to do as you suggest without a lot of work and time and storage space on PhotoShelter to pull this off. Let me explain why:

PhotoShelter has an Archive where the originals are stored and what you see in the gallery is a copy of those photos uploaded to whichever Distributor decides to take on. As an Editor who gets all this ready before the new photos are put out, folders are made for the originals and one for the finished photos. When the originals are copied into the Distributor's folder it sets up where the distributor can see comments from the volunteers and once that photo is downloaded, that photo is removed from the Distributor's Gallery. There is no way for us to allow viewing on the other side in the Archive where they are stored. To have a screen print with each family's photos wouldn't work as that would be the size of the single photo now and would not be of any help. 

Being a distributor is really time consuming and I see no way to do as you suggest without it being a can of worms for them. If the photos were not pulled from the gallery, then you could see the whole collection, but then we would be getting comments on ones already sent out. To have a different set up would mean asking Photoshelter to design something special for us and that is NOT going to happen. In the meantime every volunteer has the responsibility to ask if there is a reference photo.

Margie

[G3User]

Hi Dave,

Recently married and time for photo restoration :cool:

Another interesting comparison would be of completed images, particularly where there are a number of shots from the same people/same event. Each restorer is likely to produce a somewhat different result and unless restorations are posted on the forum, there is no way to try to minimize the differences.
Margie's comments about storage and software are understandable but if everyone posted their WIP on the forum there would at least be the opportunity minimize variations before they are returned.

Athol

[Mhayes]

Athol, good point. As it stand now Quality Control has the fun task of getting all the wedding photos to match. I wish more people would post their work as it would be helpful and it would also save the distributor a lot work.

Margie

[dle]

Using the reference photo as a guide, I've removed the lace from the skirt portion of her dress and added a row of lace at the hemline. The difference is pretty subtle and only really visible at full resolution.

Here's what I have at this point. Suggestions?



As for posting work-in-process, I agree that having more folks do so would be useful to all the restorers. Seeing how other people struggle to perfect a restoration and what steps people suggest can be quite instructive. I know I've learned a good deal both from that and from comments on the work I've posted.

Like Athol I'd like to be able to see more finished restorations. We'd need a pretty high level of participation for it to make a big impact on the amount of work QC has to do to make related groups of photos "match," I'd guess.

In any case, feedback on this WIP most welcome.

[Bambi]

Hi, David:

It is a disadvantage not to be able to see the other pictures for reference. But, alas, Margie is right. We just aren't set up to do that in any way that would not become a nightmare very quickly.

Whenever you wish you could see something that's missing in your restoration, just send a note to your distributor. That's why we're here.

I wish everyone would post on Forum. It would be very interesting and a lot less frustrating than working all on your own. We all learn so much from posting our own work and reading about other volunteers' restorations.

Bambi