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Kenny's Workshop (Advice Please)

Started by Kenny, July 02, 2006, 12:49:43 AM

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Kenny

I'm a little aprehensive because this is my first restoration for this project and I'm not a professionial in any manner. I'm entirely self taught, so go easy on me.

The original had some pretty bad spots, especially on the right side of the face.




This is what I was able to do with it. I welcome any suggestions.





I look forward to hearing any criticism because the quality of work is what's important to me, I just want to turn out the best image I can.

Thanks...Kenny


But why is the rum gone?

Dave

Slasher,

This is a tough one. Maybe a little too tough to take on for your first restoration out of the gate. The restoration that you created may resemble the person in the photograph, but it no longer resembles the photograph.

With that said, this certainly displays the fact that you have considerable skills. Not to mention dedication, because it looks as if you spent considerable time on this. However, if I were in your shoes (and I'm not ... I gave up restoration due to lack of skill), I would start from scratch on this image or throw it back into the pool. If you throw it back, grab something less challenging so you can feel the success that you deserve. Then you can always go back to something that will test your abilities.

There's no shortage of challenges in this line of work.

Good luck.
Dave
Dave Ellis
OPR Founder
[email protected]

Kenny

Thanks Dave. I feel the same way. I understand that the restorations need to bring back the memories of the original photograph. I really don't know where to quit restoring. My problem is if I see a flaw, I tend to fix it. This photograph had so many I basically had to render most of it. To me it now looks more like my rendition of the original than a restoration of it. I'll throw this one back in the pool and let someone else have a crack at it. Thanks for the input!


But why is the rum gone?

havril

Hi Everyone
I am new to the site and waiting for my first photo so I thought I would try this one. Am I going in the right direction.

Harvey Fish.


havril

p.s. I know there is additional work to do on this but wondered if you thought it was worth it.

Harvey

John

I think you may have something there.  Just keep in mind this is the lo-res version; so you'll have to do it all over again on the hi-res version... just don't want you to do double work, that's all.

What is your approach on this vs. what Slasher did?

havril


Hi Mr. siteadmin
I have no problem re-doing it at a higher res.   I assume you are thinking in terms of 300.
To repair the facial features I enlarge the pic to the largest poss so as to repair while changing the minimum. When I use the tools  I vary  the opacity and flow a great deal to try and avoid a too flat look.
Where you have items like the guys jacket in this picture that are almost beyond repair I replace. reshaping and recolouring to get them as close as poss to the original.

Harvey

havril

This is the completed hi res pic. Feedback please.

Harvey

Kenny

Here is the original. As you can see, there is a lot of damage and he's basically missing an ear.



Here is the first draft:



I'm pretty pleased with it so far. It doesn't look so much like a painting like the last difficult one I attempted. Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...Kenny


But why is the rum gone?

vhansen

Great job on his eyebrow! It's tough doing the area around the eye.

There are just a few issues that I see. The repair to his cheek and ear are not proportionatey correct. If you look at the original, you can see his ear is quite a bit larger. The cheek is too large and far back.  Try flipping the image horizontally to get a fresh look at your work.

The contrast is quite strong (the lights are too light, and darks are too dark). Perhaps it's a monitor calibration issue on your end.  I usually leave those types adjustments until I've repaired the work, and unless the image is severly faded, only make minimal changes to the contrast as I like to keep it looking as much like the original as possible.

You might do a search for images of uniforms, as his cap does not seem correct.

Kenny

I thought the ear looked a little off. I'll try to fix it later on. The contrast is much, much better in the High-res version, it looks really off on this, but It looks perfect in the larger image. As for the cap, not much of the white part was left to work with. I researched and used part of an image from a correct cap for that period for the top part of it (the white part). The insigina, band at darker parts are original to the image, only repaired. What is it about the cap that seems off? I'll put up another pic when I get his ear and cheek touched up a little.


Thanks, Kenny


But why is the rum gone?

vhansen

I think it's curious that the contrast would look different in the hi-res version. It should look the same. My guess is that you are using a profile other than sRGB in Photoshop(Adobe RGB), thus when you post to the web (sRGB) it looks different.  I don't recall seeing anything posted by Admins about what profile to use, but it would seem that sRGB would be preferable to Adobe RGB.

Sounds crazy, but the cap reminds me of the halos one sees in religious images. It lacks dimension and looks flat, as if it's behind him and not attached to the brim.

Kenny

Actually, I've always wondered why it does that. It's set on the default settings from when I installed photoshop; 8bit/channel  RGB. Whenever I save for web it always turns out darker, so I have to allow for it. The PSD looks fine, but I always have to adjust when I save it as a jpg or whatever.

On the hat, I think I can probably just add detail and shading and make it look better.

Any tips on my color profile would be appreciated because like I said, I'm self taught and it's probably something very basic that I never knew about, lol.

Thanks, Kenny


But why is the rum gone?

Kenny

I'm really having a dilemma with the ear on this photo. I know we're not supposed to use body parts from another person. I'm having trouble rendering a convincing ear. However, I did find a drawing of an ear I can use and set it to darken and set the opacity where it gives a suggestion of a proper ear without looking obvious. Any ideas?


But why is the rum gone?

Kenny

Here's the pic with the new ear and I've shaded the hat somewhat and adjusted the contrast. The ear isn't from another person, it's a drawing that I reworked so I'm not sure if I can use it or not.



But why is the rum gone?