Dave's Workshop

[Dave]

I originally was only going to work on the medium images, but with so many difficult ones I thought I would give some a try. This image was really bad quality so I had quite a bit of trouble, I would appreciate any advice or suggestions :)

[Dave]

After:

[Carol]

Hi Dave,  I have a few suggestions for you. 

Are you using Photoshop?  If so, I would suggest boosting density of the image as it is very flat.  An easy way of doing this would be to make a levels adjustment layer and simply click OK (without making any adjustments).  Then set the blending mode of that adjustment layer to  "multiply".  You can then adjust the opacity to suit your taste. 

The healing brush could be used to blend the light/dark blotchy areas in the background.  Alternatively, you could try using the cloning stamp on a low opacity.  Simply Burning/dodging might also give you acceptable results.  I would even consider replacing the sky with a new one and adding noise to match the rest of the image.   There is no detail in the sky, so I don't think anything would be lost by doing this. (Just a thought)

Have you tried cutting and pasting the 'good' arm to replace the damaged one?  You might need to make some adjustments to the shadow and will need to mask some areas, but I think it might look more natural.

Good luck.  Hope these suggestions are helpful.

Carol

[Dave]

I would like some advice on how to fix the nose in this picture please, it always ends up flat looking no matter what I do lol  :D

Before


So Far

[Ziaphra]

To be honest I think the colouring in the original looks better...

[Dave]

Yeah I havent got to the final polished version yet, I will probably add a sepia tone to it. I changed the colours to make the nose stand out a little better so you guys could advise me :)

[Ziaphra]

I pretty much clone with a very small brush following the shading and then smudge it til it's smooth...

[vhansen]

Regarding the nose:  It could be that you are removing the highlight that is under the damage running down the nose (can you post your efforts?) Also, it may be that his nose is a bit flat.

[Ziaphra]

I very quickly did the nose with my method of cloning and smudging...

[Dave]

nice, that looks good.. I shall have a go :) thanks  :up2: