Opinions please...

[GP]

This looked like a quick one, but boy was I wrong again  :wow:
I need some fresh eyes, please let me know what you think.....
Thank you in advance  :)

Gerlinde

               

[Hannie]

Hi Gerlinde,

You have done an amazing job, I love how the little fur that the baby is sitting on turned out!

The baby's jaw appears just a little larger than in the original, you could perhaps  just use a little dodging on the dark shadow just under his jaw line and neck.

Hannie

[Tess (Tassie D)]

:up: Great job Gerlinde, very fine finish.

[Ziaphra]

Good job so far!  :up: The jaw line does need looking at as does your contrast. Hope this helps.

[klassylady25]

Wonnerful Wonnerful!!  (Lawrence Welk sends up the bubbles)  Someones going to need the kleenex!   

[Johnboy]

Gerlinde,

Good job. I think the restoration is a little on the contrasty side. I like the look that Ziaphra posted. It seems to soften the look a little more. I also see a spot at the top in the dark area above the baby's left shoulder that is showing a little damage yet. Other than that it is looking good.

Johnboy

[glennab]

Gerlinde,

I think you did a wonderful job on this beautiful baby.  I'd like to see a combination of your version and Ziaphra's.  Ziaphra, you're contouring, color and shading are amazing.  Very natural looking.  I do, however, think his (her?) mouth is fuller, as in Gerlinde's image.  You two make a great team!

Glenna

[GP]

Glenna,
thank you for the encouragement. I fully agree with you regarding Ziaphra's version, I hope she will be posting how she did that. I started over and this is my current version:

                         

I'm not completely satisfied with it yet, but it's getting close. It looks always blotchy after conversion to a jpeg and I can't figure out why that is.
Gerlinde

[Hannie]

Hi Gerlinde,

That is such an improvement, you managed to ever so slightly show the little dimples in the cheeks that are present in the original photo, well done!  :up2:

On the blotchiness:  that is probably JPEG artifacting and is caused by over compressing.  There is not much you can do about it apart from using the high quality compression in JPEG.  I"m sure you already convert to JPEG at the very last stage of editing at 300dpi.  If the blotchiness is really present in the final result you could try a slight blurring on the face, arms and legs.
There are programs available that deal with JPEG artifacting but I have no experience using them.  I'm always worried that programs like that are destructive to the image information.
Maybe the experts here are able to shed some light on the matter!

Hannie

[Ziaphra]

Wow...that's is looking wonderful! Good job! I only ever work on a jpeg file...?

Here's my steps:

1. Adjusted the curves, toning down the reds and upping the blues just a tad.
2. Toned down the saturation.
3. Cloned spots at about 53% from different areas...this helps the cloning to blend in more.
4. Cloned, smudged and c&p'd the left background to the right and blended it in with the smudge brush.
5. The ear was cloned in from the top bits of the ear. Use pictures of babies as reference if necessary to shape it with your smudge brush, using a higher strength and harder edges when necessary.
6. I used the smudge brush at about 55% strength to blend in the shadowing from the cheek down into the neck and under the chin.
7. I use the smudge brush at about 48% strength to blend in the cloning and the shadowing and the overall picture.
8. Burned the little shadows a little to give more depth...I did this with his mouth too and toned down the saturation there then smudged to blend it together. I also dodged the whites of his eyes and the highlights in his eyes.
9. Once image is clean and smooth and ready for upload, just add a little noise to the whole image.

[GP]

Ziaphra, thank you so much for posting your version of this restoration.
It helped me so much to get  the job done even without knowing all your steps involved into the process. It's always funny how many ways are leading to Rome!
I ended up with the basic same work flow but different tools. I also did a curves adjustment first ( not as successful as yours though ) and used the patch tool to cleanup his face and all the little spots on his clothes and the chair. Used the blur brush the even out the skin and burned/dodged the shadows and highlights. For the background I made pattern brushes in different shades of brown and blended them together with the patch tool. I hand painted his ear and blended it in with what ever was left of the original ear.
As for the jpeg.... I start out with the image in jpeg format, but then I save in psd format until I'm finished. Before I upload it to Christine I convert it back to jpeg. I guess the problem with the blotching comes in when I make a low res version to post here.
So thank you all again for helping me out here! I started one more time to try out some of Ziaphra's tricks - if I can get it better than it is right now I post again, - if not I will stick with the current version.
Gerlinde  :up:

[GP]

OK, this is it! Now I'm ready to let it go :up: Thank you all again for helping me and special thanks to Ziaphra  :loveit:

Gerlinde

                             


                                 

[Hannie]

Beautiful!

[Ziaphra]

Only a pleasure hun. ;)

[Hannie]

Ziaphra what is a pleasure hun?