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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: dortmund on Thursday 06 October 05 19:04 BST (UK)

Title: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: dortmund on Thursday 06 October 05 19:04 BST (UK)
Hi

can anything be done with this please

trevor
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: Emjaybee on Thursday 06 October 05 20:12 BST (UK)
Can you post the original without the paint work please?
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: kizmiaz on Thursday 06 October 05 20:48 BST (UK)
Meldrew,

I would think this is the "original" in as much as this is the picture as it probably came out of the studio when it was originally produced without any extra work done recently. It looks to me like another example of a chromos or crayon portrait like this one (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,68650.0.html) posted by ajbaker back in June.

It's a rather scary looking picture, and I doubt if the studio could have been very good at its job if this was the sort of thing it produced.

Unfortunately I think poor Hildreth has been well and truly obliterated under the painting. I doubt if even she would be able to recognise herself, and the only thing that can probably be done with this picture is to use it as the basis of a sketch..

Here's a quick sketch over the top of her to show roughly what I mean, but the chances that this looks even remotely like her are pretty slim.
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: Iria on Thursday 06 October 05 20:51 BST (UK)
Hi Kiz

Can i ask you what software you are using as your work is wonderfull..??

regards

Iria
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: kizmiaz on Thursday 06 October 05 21:10 BST (UK)
Thankyou, Iria. You're much too generous.

This was done using Paintshop Pro 7 and my new favourite tool, the clone brush. I now use that to the almost total exclusion of every other tool, apart from the Freehand selection tool.

I always work on a 400% enlargement of any picture, and then at the end reduce back to 25% to get the original size. I just select a reasonable sized round clone brush, set opacity to about 50% and then just keep clicking away, backwards and forwards in small movements over the same tiny area which acts to blur all the spots, dots, smudges and marks into a softer, smoother area. Its a LOT of work for a little reward, but over a whole picture it looks quite presentable.

I've been using PSP for so long now that I have difficulty with any other software, but now I've got Photoshop CS, I think I'll try to move over to that. It seems to have much more functionality.

Glen
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: Iria on Thursday 06 October 05 21:53 BST (UK)
Hi Kiz

Many thanx for the Tips..I've still got a long way to go to produce your wonderfull Pics.. :) I have PSP 8 and still finding it difficult to use..

Regards

iria
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: kmo on Thursday 06 October 05 22:13 BST (UK)
Tried colouring it in.
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: PrueM on Thursday 06 October 05 22:18 BST (UK)
Hi all,
Glen is right, this would have been "touched up" in the studio before it was handed over to the sitter.  Not sure if she would have been particularly pleased with their efforts!!  It looks pretty heavy-handed to me, in fact I've never seen one quite so bad  ;D  and I get to see lots in my job - maybe it was a newbie who had a go!
It's made worse by the fact that the original photo has faded back somewhat, making the overpainting stand out even more.
As usual, Glen is doing a great job on his own so I think I'll leave him to it  :P

Cheers
Prue
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: deadants on Friday 07 October 05 00:40 BST (UK)
The artist in Glen is shining out more than the restorer. I wish I had that talent. Keep going Glen, It's been a sheer pleasure to watch you rebuild these photo's from next to nothing.


deadants
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: kizmiaz on Friday 07 October 05 01:37 BST (UK)
Well, thank you

It was such a shame that the photo lab decided to let the Work Experience kid loose on this picture. I'm sure the normal line painter must have been off sick.

I thought poor old Hildreth looked so miserable after spending so long as just a few lines on a faded piece of card, so I decided to take her away from her misery and give her a nice day out in the countryside.

God only knows if she looked anything like this, but its a fair bet to say she didn't look anything like the remains of the image above.

Hope you like it.
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: deadants on Friday 07 October 05 01:47 BST (UK)
Well, I don't know what anyone else thinks but I think she looks great. The original was like The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Excellent job.
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: dortmund on Friday 07 October 05 08:10 BST (UK)
Hi All,

Thank you for the excellent job that you all have done for Hildreth. She was like the first 'Photo' when I recieved her on a CD from a very distant cousin.
I can now see what she would have looked like.

Thank you all once again

Trevor
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: Emjaybee on Friday 07 October 05 13:56 BST (UK)
Did she actually have that hair?
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: uk2003 on Friday 07 October 05 18:03 BST (UK)
Replaced eye to take away "scary mary" look - and spend ages trying to get her complexion right
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: uk2003 on Friday 07 October 05 18:16 BST (UK)
The face under the mess
Title: Re: Hildreth needs looking at
Post by: uk2003 on Monday 10 October 05 11:08 BST (UK)
Another bash at this. Reduced black lines and added course canvas effect