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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: DeComyn on Monday 23 January 06 10:10 GMT (UK)
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Could anyone please do anything to tidy up this image of my late grandmother. My grandad carries it round in his wallet and so it has suffered badly over the years. This is a photo of it as the original is in Italy, so I am hoping it is good enough to work with.
Thankyou very much, it would really be appreciated.
Francesca
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Hi Francesca,
My attempt
Cheers
Keith
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Here's my go of a clean up.
Sharon
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Here's one with a little bit of colour.
Sharon
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Thankyou for your work, both of you. It's lovely to be able to see her properly.
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Things I am not happy with still, but am tired :-)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/anneymouse/colourworked.jpg)
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Sorry, I've just realised I erased your grandma's pocket, hope there wasn't anything important in there ;)
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Thanks too to Anneymouse - sure she had nothing useful in her pocket! You've all been very kind. :)
Francesca
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As far as I am concerned, I just like fiddling, so no worries, but what the hell did you have it wrapped in? kitchen roll???
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As far as I know, it's been in grandad's wallet since the 40s, It was only when I was taking pics of all of his photos while I was with him this summer that he showed it to us, and so I photographed it too. It's a shame it's in such a state as it's one of the nicest photos of nan, but at least her face is intact!!
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Hi Francesca
Here's about as much as I can do on your grandmothers face. I cheated a little by opting for the vignette look rather than tidying up the rest of the picture, but I am still working on that bit of the picture. I thought you might like this part while you are waiting.
BTW, I think the person who invented that horrific knobbly photo paper deserves to suffer in the pits of Hell for what he has done to ruin perfectly good photos. What on Earth was he thinking! Awful stuff and a nightmare to repair. Grrrr!!!!!
Anyway..
Hope you (and especially grandad) like it
Glen
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Glen
Thanks a million, I can't believe you spent so much time on it. I completely agree about the horrific knobbly paper, but then perhaps a wallet isn't the best storage device either. I shall print this off for my grandad so I can put it with the things I am sending over to him for his birthday next week. He will be thrilled with what you've done. (So will the rest of the family, they will be clamouring for copies!!)
Thanks again
Francesca ;D
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Yep, those knobbly bits were a nightmare, I spent four hours just getting shot of those, by the way Kiz, how did you do it? (I used smudge, zoomed in, and done each one singly, but am sure there is an easier way)
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It involved a great deal of clicking and extensive application of my old favourite, the Clone Brush, to get the majority of the little pesky bits off, but the hair was a slight cheat and was borrowed from elsewhere and merged into the original picture.
Once I get into a rhythm (right click, left, left left, left, right click, left left etc) the time just seems to fly by and before I knew it several hours had just slipped away. Such an enjoyable way to pass the time, and it gives my brain a chance to wander off into trying to answer those niggly little questions I've been meaning to solve...
If only blemishes were this easy to get rid of in real life. We'd all be millionaires!
Glen
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Glen
You have a rare talent and an artists eye.
Russell
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Ahh, I have used clone brush, but never thought of doing it to clear the bobbles :)
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Nice job.
Must of been like doing a 1,000 piece jigsaw only having to make 500 of the pieces yourself.
I tried doing her face, but she ended up looking like Lilly Savage. :(
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Kiz, please tell me that you cut and rotated those eyes from another piccy? If not, howwwwwwww??? ;D
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Nope, the eyes were not cut from anywhere else.
The only bit I cut from another picture was the hair. I tried to repair the hair in the original but it came out too blocky and didn't look natural.
Any time I try one of these repairs, I resize the picture by at least 400% to get as big an image as my poor old computer can handle. This lets me zoom in, and I can then see the individual spots easier. It just took some careful cloning, but the info was all there in the original picture, if a little obscured by blobs.
Its always a good idea anyway to enlarge the picture beforehand. It gives you a lot finer control over the tools available.
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Hi Glen
This is Francesca's husband, Andy. I'm absolutely blown away by what you've done. I just can't stop looking at it. I just wanted to say thanks and also tell you how much this means to Fran, she is so thrilled with it. I don't think she imagined that someone would do such an amazing job and spend so much time. I have printed it out onto photo paper, and the colours look even better. I can't wait till her Grandad sees it on his birthday, I'm sure that he will shed a tear. I don't know whether you do this professionally, but you should. I think reckon you must have a great portfolio of before and afters to show people.
Thanks again
Andy
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Update - Grandad received the photo this week and was really really thrilled with it. He didn't even realise it was the one in his wallet, he kept saying "I don't know where you got this beautiful picture, I've never seen it before"!!!!
(There's only one computer in the village where he lives, and that belongs to an American rather than an Italian, so to say that he hasn't the faintest about computers and what can be done with them is an understatement!)
Just wanted to let you know that you made his birthday, thanks so much ;D ;D
Francesca
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Hi Francesca,
Thanks for the update, and I'm so glad that your grandad liked the picture.
And thanks everyone for the nice comments. Not the easiest repair, but hugely satisfying in the end
Regards
Glen
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Had to jump in and say what a remarkable job there Glen! Fantastic effort!
Nina