Any hope for this pic?

[Cmcburnett]

I have several abused b/w photos from the 20's. I have attached a copy of a photo of my home I would love to do some repairs on. Does anyone have any suggestions?http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/12zQJb5Dn7JFiaHTahiDp39TilR7G_thumb.gif (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=12zQJb5Dn7JFiaHTahiDp39TilR7G)

[Wendy]

Hi Charlotte ...

If this the original or have you smudged in the middle of it ??

It actually doesn't look too bad at all ... and I'm sure that we could fix it :)


Wendy

[Cmcburnett]

Wendy, it is orig pic, no edits at all. I played around w/it but saved the orig in separate file. Never could get to look right.

[Daviskw]

Hi Charlotte

I gave your post a quick try. I sure should have done better on the dress. I made a healing layer and tried to even the texture with the healing brush. Then I painted over areas of the dress with white on a layer set to soft light. I masked that layer and brought back some of the shadows and texture. On another blank layer set to soft light I painted back some shadows to add some depth to the dress... This is where I failed I think.

I used a round hard bristled brush with opacity set to 15 to smudge the skin areas to blend and smooth

I copied and flipped the bottom left corner and blended with a mask in the damaged right corner.

On the rest of the picture I cloned a few areas then stamped a layer at the top of the pallet. I applied unsharp mask with the amount at 20 the radius around 60. This was to increase contrast in the dark areas to reduce the gray spots. Then I masked out over the dress and face of the child because it blew out some highlights.

I then stamped another layer and applied a noise filter

Then I changed that layers blend mode to luminosity and sharpened with settings of 100 and 0.5

I added just a slight bit of tone with variations to soften the harsh transitions

Butch


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/12r1T5vR1JXQGyudIGZj0oF7pdWk0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=12r1T5vR1JXQGyudIGZj0oF7pdWk0)

[Cmcburnett]

Oh my goodness Butch, that's great. You brought a smile to me face. I will copy and save your version for printing and sharing w/my family, no edits needed on your copy. Thank you so much. I will try your techniques on a few more that are in the same shape and see if I can do as good as you did. Wish me luck. :p

[Daviskw]

Glad I could help..I'm sure you will do fine.. It's fun to touchup family pictures.

Butch

[Stringbean]

Must have had cold feet:)

[Cmcburnett]

Stringbean, don't she look pitiful. She got in trouble, they were going somewhere and her mom had her dressed up and while she was waiting on her mom she took her shoes off and played in the mud w/the white dress on. This pic is priceless, mom was born in 1926, so I figure the pic must have been taken in 1929.;)

[Wendy]

Hi Charlotte ..

It really is a delightful image ... she does have that I'm in trouble look :)

Wendy

[Cmcburnett]

Wendy, yes she does have the "I'm in trouble" look. I thought about trying to add mud to the dress and printing it for her, but I'm not that good on that sort of editing yet.;)

[Wendy]

Charlotte ...

Oh that is funny !! :)

Wendy

[Daviskw]

Hi Charlotte

Thought I'd try and add a smudge... not very realistic I'm afraid... mom must have been a little stinker...bet you weren't of course…just a little angel...:rolleyes:


Butch

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1K7ijNcBzuO21mtSqYV9flkzOL3CxH1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1K7ijNcBzuO21mtSqYV9flkzOL3CxH1)

[mom to 4]

When I saw this post on the main page of the forum

"Any hope for this pic"

and right underneath:

Daviskw


I knew there was hope and that it already looked GREAT, Butch had worked on it!!!

Great job Butch!

Love the handprints!!!

[Cmcburnett]

Butch, Oh my goodness, this is the best of the best. You've gone above all expectations. I am going to print the picture, hopefully on an 8x10 or maybe a little smaller and give to all my siblings. My mom will get a kick out of it. Your awsome!! Thanks does not say enough.;)

[Jancy]

You are so good Butch---Great Work
Jancy

[Jancy]

Charlotte,
I just love that photo!
Jancy

[Cmcburnett]

Thanks Jancy. My mom's sister passed away and her son gave my mom a box old pictures and it was in the box w/several others that are in pretty bad shape. I hope to work on them and post in my gallery. May take a while. I still work full time and have one son at home so I'm pretty busy, but its fun playing around in Elements, I'm still a beginner though so I don't quite know all the short cuts. I just bought the Wacom today for my b'day present to myself, so that's something else to get use it, but I'm excited, hopefully I'll be able to figure it out and it will help me in selections.:rolleyes: Wish me luck.

[Jancy]

Oh you are just going to love playing with the tablet. SOOO much fun! Looking forward to seeing your photos--I'm sure they'll be wonderful. Have fun with your new toy!
Jancy