WW1 Soldier

[Candice]

It's a start.

[Shadow]

Wow Candy!

[Candice]

It's a start.  I was able to find the WW1 certificate online, but I don't know how it looks at full size.  It was half the size of the original from the gallery. So now what I'm doing is rebuilding from scratch as much as I can.  Two ways to work.

[Jo Ann Snover]

Couple of thoughts on this one. I think it looks better, subjectively, if it isn't too super-bright. This is very subjective, but I think printing at that time didn't render colors quite as realistically as would be possible today, so it seems more "real" if the colors are somewhat muted.

On the restore itself, I have a suggestion for restoring the original handwriting and a concern that you've accidentally scaled the soldier anamorphically, making him a little more vertical than he originally was.

The restore had a different sized image, but even after I got the sizes the same, the face didn't look the same as I turned the restore layer on and off over the original. To try and check my visual impression, and make sure I wasn't imagining things, I lined the two images up and put a bunch of guides - top of forehead, bottom of chin; inside of ear and outside; through the center of the eyes and through the center of each coat button; on the outside of the jacket pockets, etc.

You can see that the image has been stretched vertically.




Visually, I think it looks a little odd not to see the oval of the cutout of the photograph - an armless man floating as it were.

On the handwriting, I used a curves adjustment layer set to color burn blend mode with a black mask. With a soft edge brush, I wrote over the faint writing on the mask. I then used the Minimum filter on the mask (1 pixel radius) to shrink the edges a bit. Here's a comparison of the original, the enhanced and your Work In Progress:



I realize your writing is neater and sharper than the original - so better in a way - but coming closer to the original seems preferable to me, even though the writing is "worse".

[Candice]

JoAnn, by no means am I to the finish line.  Heck, I've just barely begun and Margie is likely to give me a whoopin' because I took this one, but I just hadda!!   What is posted is my starting point.  There'll be a great many changes before I send it back to Jonas.  You need to know this, to me your suggestions are a bit foreign.  I am self-taught, still use a mouse, and am on CS4. I will do a great many changes before this young soldier goes home. 

I've taken a screenshot of your suggestions so I can look back on them while I work.  Thank you for sharing.   :)

[Candice]

Here's where the certificate stands. There are little thing still to be done.   Thoughts?

[Hannie]

Looks really good Candy!  :up2:

[Shadow]

Very nice work Candy. The family will be so happy.  :up:

[Candice]

Thanks for taking a peak guys.  More than likely I'll finish up on it today and send it home.  This one took many steps to bring it to this point. The blue  background had to be rebuilt but there was enough good to create a new patch which I expanded while other just needed a little work with clone and heal.

I tried to do the writing several ways, as I always do, but in the end lettering was all painstakingly set on a new background and all the garbage erased, leaving the handwriting in its original manner.

Final:

[coopmj]

This looks great! You did a wonderful job.

[Candice]

Many thanks, Coop.

[WollyR]

it's woow!

[Alvo]

Now that is something to be really proud of...Great Job!!

[Lynnya]

Beautiful Candy  :loveit:

[Candice]

Thank you all!  It's on it's way home to Jonas.