Bride and Bridesmaid

[kstruve]

Well, I'm working on a new image here and it's a toughie!  It's a portrait of a bride and bridesmaid.  All I've done so far is work on the faces and the bride's veil.  I started by isolating the Green channel, which seemed to show the most detail.  Then dialing up the contrast to show as much as possible.  The final may not be as contrasty as my "progress" image.  The dresses will be very difficult I'm afraid.  Let me know what you see in this muck - the more eyes the better!

Original:


My Restoration Progress:


Thanks for looking!
Kurt

[Ausimax]

Hi Kurt,

You are a hero taking this one on, nice work on the faces so far, they both seem to be holding bouquets in front of them to my eyes, the dresses will be a challenge, not a lot of detail present, the bridesmaids dress could be a dark colour, when you look at the area near her arm, yet it seems to have a dark panel on either side down the skirt.

This is another that fits the impossible category I think, whatever you produce is mainly guesswork.Though knowing you it will probably end up looking pristine, good luck with it.

Max

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I agree with the bridesmaid dress Max. It was either a panel dress or there is a long ribbon from the bouquet?

[sanbie]

I think the bride is wearing a necklace and her gown is a V covering the bust...and the bridesmaid dress well..I thought round neck but then I thought I saw a V neck as well..( I like to confuse myself and others!) Definitely looks like folds...But good luck with this..it's a ripper!!



Oh and the bridesmaid looks like her hands are together!

Sanbie

[rjackl]

I sewed some bridesmaid dresses last year and they requested matching scarves or shawls because it was outside in January. To me it looks like it could be a draped scarf which is on her shoulder on our left side and not the other. Only suggesting this as a possibility. I haven't been here long and have little experience analyzing such pictures. It seems a little more likely to me than dark panels in a light dress. I have been looking at all the restorations I could find in the forum and I am bowled over with amiration of your work. Do you work with this kind of task as work as well? Ruth

[paula]

I did some work with this bride.  Her dress is lace and the neckline is scalloped.  The bridesmaid dress is velvet, I think, and has a round neckline.

[phischer]

It looks to me like a round neckline on the bridesmaid dress and it is possibly made from some sort of shiny material. I think its more likely that the areas of light and dark are folds in the material rather than different colored panels.
I think Paula's bride photo should help tremendously.  I don't know if anyone would have found the dress to look like that from the info in this pic.

[kstruve]

Thanks for the input, guys!  I very much appreciate it.  Sanbie, I think you're right about the V-neck on the bride's dress.  Good eye.  I think it's probably a v-neck with a sheer material like organza above it, similar to Paula's photo.  I agree that the bridesmaid dress has some sort of long ribbon on it.  Probably tied around the waist.  I don't think it's just darker panels, because it doesn't go all the way down to the hem.  The neck of her dress looks like a small collar, similar to a polo shirt.  I think both of the girls are probably holding bouquets, however I can't see any details of them at all.  The bridesmaid's "bouquet" almost looks like a fur muff or something.  Ruth, thank you for the compliment!  I don't do restorations as a career, but I do spend most of my days working in Photoshop.  I'm an Architect by training, but now I do Architectural renderings.

Although this is a severely damaged photo, I'm kind of taking a minimalistic approach to restoring it.  There just isn't a lot of information in many parts of the photo, so I'll probably leave them fairly vague.

Thanks for looking!  Keep the comments coming, and I'll post my progress soon.

Kurt

[paula]

As you can see from the originals, the bride does not have a ve neckline.  The bridesmaid has a round neckline with a piping tie and no collar.

[kstruve]

Oh, I'm sorry Paula.  I misunderstood you.  I thought you were just showing it as an example.  It's the very same bride!  I get it now.  Sometimes I'm a little slow.  Thanks for the reference photos!

Kurt

[kstruve]

Paula,

How did you end up restoring the bridesmaid hair?  That's something in my original photo that I can't see at all.  Is she wearing something on top of her head?  Is her hair in an updo?  It almost looks like she's wearing aviator goggles or something.

Kurt

[paula]

To my eyes she looks like she's wearing a hat with piping ties/bows on each side like the neckline.  The hat and dress look like velvet to me for some reason.  Her hair looks like it is done up in back and there are soft waves around her face.

[paula]

[kstruve]

Here's the progress I've been able to make on this photo.  I've started to work some of the dress details back into the image.  I haven't done a whole lot of work on it the past few days because I've been overloaded at work and now I have to go to L.A. for a meeting.  This weekend I'll get back on it!

Progress:


Thanks for looking!
Kurt

[Juliet]

It really seems to be coming together well.  One thing that sticks out to me is the lace flower that comes off of her neckline has switched sides from the reference picture.