Time for input

[Johnboy]

Here is my latest restoration. Mainly wanted to get your input on the boy's head with the most damage. I have been doing brain surgery with the patch tool. I know I'll need to try to smooth out the hair more but for now I am just trying to get it fulled in. I still have his ear and back ground to do. There were also tons of small dots all over, and I used the healing brush on most of those. Thanks Kenny for the earlier tut on this tool. It took a while to pick the best grey tones but once I found them I could really move along. I put all the healing brush work on a separate layer also.

Like always it didn't look that bad when I picked it. Then I enlarged the image to work on it and things went from there.

Original:


Progress so far:


I have drawn lines where I think the top of the head may be, and where the hair line and forehead meet.


This is a fine group of gook looking boys. (I assume the baby is a boy.)

Let me know what you think. Thanks for the help.

Johnboy

[sanbie]

All the boys seem to have the same hair cut..so I think you can safely assume his would be the same...

Doing well so far...and don't you just loathe those white dots...

Sanbie

[Johnboy]

Sanbie,

Ya I assumed he had a short hair cut like the younger brothers. At first I thought I might have to create some hair to go over the edge where the healing on the forehead meets the hair line. But looking at the other boys I may be able to get away with a little blur in that area when I am ready.

White dots can be fun. But I still find more as I look over various areas of the photo. I am cautious about repairing too many of them as some may have been in the original such as specular highlights in some of the hair. Some on the skin could be just the way the skin is to look. The ones in the clothing got and get repaired. In fact I started to repair one large one until I realized it was a button on a shirt. I erased that one off the layer.  They are most noticeable when I enlarge to 200% to work on it.

My first restoration had a bunch of dots and blemishes all over it, and the patch tool seemed to work there also.

Johnboy

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I'm with Sanbie and you're doing a great job on it.  I tried out just copying his hair on the left side, mirrored it and rotated to fit. Then just used the smudge tool to create the hair in the middle.

[klassylady25]

That looks good Tassie, there is just a bit of texture difference on the forhead.  At least from this vantage point. 

[Mhayes]

Johnboy,

Besides the patch tool, you might try making a selection on the good side of his head of what you would like to duplicate. You can use the lasso tool to do a rough selection and then add that selection to it's own layer. Once that is done you can transform by scaling and rotating (transform>flip horizontal) where you want it. If you have duplicated your original layer, this will give you a chance to try different options. Another option might be to make a selection of the brother next to him, as the top of his head has good detail. Once you have more detail, the patch tool is good for cleaning things up.

It's looking nice.

Margie

[rockthumper]

Like always it didn't look that bad when I picked it.

I'm with you on that one!

Nice work so far, btw.
RT.

[GP]

Hi Johnboy,

I think you could take advantage of the fact that the younger brother's hair looks almost identical as the older boy's. So why not copy it to a separate layer set to "overlay" or try any of the other blending options and play with the opacity. But I would probably do that at the very end, once you have repaired as much as possible of the damaged area.That should give it a very natural look at the end.
Good going so far  :up:
I was looking at this picture too to pick as my next candidate, I really love the portrait!

Gerlinde

[kiska]

Looks like everybody has their hair brushed up right in front. A 'serious' family cowlick??

[Ratz]

It's looking really good Johnboy!

[Hannie]

You did a great job Johnboy!  Aren't those boys the healthiest looking bunch you've ever seen?!

Hannie

[Johnboy]

Thanks for all the ideas.

Tassie, I never thought of the option you mentioned. It looks like a possibility with some additional touch up.

Margie and Gerlinde, I already have the younger brothers hair on a separate layer. I was mainly using the top as a guide to get a general idea where the head outline might be in that severly damaged area. The right side (our left) fits reasonable well. I even created a halo of just the background from the same boy for the same purpose. So far the head has been the most useful. I used the hair layer last night to fill in some small sections at the merge of the back of the head and the background.

Again thanks for the input. Now to get to work.

Johnboy

[Johnboy]

I have been working on the boy's head trying to get a general shape that may look OK. I made outlines of the hair on the brother to his right (our left) and the younger brother holding the baby. Using Free Transform I maneuvered the head shapes to more or less fit the boy's head. Using portions of both head shapes I have come up with Hair 1. Hair 2 is the shape from the brother to his right (our left) which elongates the head to the back. Hair 3 is the head shape from the brother holding the baby which I think works well with the back of the head. I used Hair 3 to get the back over to the boy's right and Hair 2 to do the side down to the good portion of the sideburn. Comments please.

Hair 1


Hair 2


Hair 3


I am mainly looking for comments on the head shape. The hair needs to be darkened. I was trying to get an outline to work with through the damage.

Thanks for the help.

Johnboy

[Ratz]

I think the head shape is fairly spot-on Johnboy :up:

[glennab]

Hi JB

I'm with Vicki.  I think you've got the silhouette of the little guy's head on the money.  Can't wait to see the finished restoration of these handsome kids.

Cheers,

Glenna