Suggestions Please

[carolp]

Hi Everyone, I wanted to get some opinions as to how this restoration looks and suggestions from you as to how I can make the subjects faces look more natural.  Faces are the most difficult thing that I have restoring when I have no idea how to place features and shading.  Did I clean up the photo too much?  Thanks for all opinions and suggestions.  CarolP

Sorry, having problem uploading photos, can someone help me?  Thanks

I finally figured out where to put the code , thanks ladies!  Now I'm working on getting his original shirt as clean as possible.


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[glennab]

Hi Carol

Welcome to the forum!  Great to have more newbies coming in.

I use Photobucket to post my restorations.  Go to photobucket.com, register, and once you're registered you'll have a gallery into which you can upload any image you choose.  Click on "Browse" to find the image on your computer and then click upload -- you should see the image in your gallery.



If you choose the last address below the image you've uploaded, it'll show in your post.  You won't see it while you're writing your post; all you'll see is the address



Once you post, your image should be visible.

Again, welcome to OPR!

Glenna

[carolp]

Glenna, thank you for answering so quickly.  I really must be missing something here on the post page.  I don't see an attachment or upload button on this page.  When I click on the insert picture button, nothing happens.  Please let me know what I am doing wrong.  I have registered and have my pictures ready in Photobucket.  Thanks again, Carolp

[Hannie]

Hi Carol!

After you have registered at Photobucket you log in with your username and password.  Then you click on the "My Album" tab.  That should get you to the page that Glenna is talking about.
Hope this will help you!

Hannie

[sanbie]

Yep..you copy the last link in that box..then come to your post..right click... paste..and hey presto your image will show up!

Sanbie

[carolp]

Finally got the photos up and I promise my feelings won't be hurt if opinions aren't good ones.  The only way I can improve is if I can get an honest opinion.  Still, if there are any suggestions of what I can do to make it better are welcome also.  Thanks!

CarolP

[rockthumper]

Great cleanup Carol, particularly of the background and the little girl.  :up2:
There are a few things that strike me - the far edge of the door should be parallel with the near edge, probably vertical. The dark area behind the seated man  - there does seem to be a wall covering slightly lower which appears between the couch and the door frame but most of it should be, I think, the back of the couch though it's hard to tell what that is made of. The original shirt would be preferable and you said you're working on that. The little girl is nicely done but her chin looks a bit off-centre to me and there are some buckles missing from her right shoe. The biggest problem is, as you said the man's face which looks a lot younger than the original. I'm not sure what to do about that, perhaps put a few wrinkles back and add some noise? The shadow of his head is missing or very feint which changes the look of it too. Hope that helps!

[Charlene5]

Hi Carol,

I'm sharing one of my deepest secrets here.  My cloning leaves LOTS to be desired and sometimes people end up looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy after I get through with them.  I stumbled upon this technique to hide my ineptitude.  I make a copy of the best channel in the original, color corrected copy - in this case I used Lab Lighness - and use it as an overlay on my work.  On yours the layer is Soft Light, 50%.  It gives back what I managed to clone out.  In this case I'd use the man's overlay face to fix the restore layer.  It would mean a little more cloning on the overlay to clean up original damage that comes through but it gives a very nice result.  Is this making any sense?  I don't often tell my secrets :)


I wasn't too clear about this so I went back and did some minor cloning and cleaning on the gentleman's face with the overlay in place.  (In a real situation I wouldn't have used the whole picture, just selected out his face.}  That was an honest 15 minutes of work and he needs a bit more, but I think he looks pretty good :)

[rockthumper]

Good technique Charlene but I reckon he still needs another 10+years.  ;)

[Hannie]

Hi Carol!

Wow you sure picked a hard picture to restore!  You have done a lot of work and really cleaned it up!
I agree with RT and Charlene's tips.
In my picture I marked an area in the neck of the man where you could add some shadow back to make him look his age.  I also marked the hairline on his forehead, it seems to me that it is a bit more to the left?
It is so hard to restore photo's that have this kind of damage.  I would try not to over restore and as hard as it is, try to leave some of the original info (damage really) intact.  I know that it is hard to do.  If possible, clean it up a little and after add some blur and noise but leave the eyes and mouth sharp.
Carol, you did an amazing job cleaning up!  Hope I could be of some help.

Hannie

[rockthumper]

I tried to get a better idea of the features by cleaning up the shadows of his face. I'm not sure if it's any use to you but this is what I came up with: