Photo Restoration

[chicochaz]

In the thread that got going from my introduction, Snarfy asked me if I would post some samples of photo restoration I've done. To all who are interested, this link will take you to a page I put together this morning.

www.charlieosborn.com/restor/restor.html

The samples are pretty self explanatory. The last 4 images are of a page from a children's book published in 1839. We (I have a part-time helper as needed and he worked on this project with me) scanned and restored the illustrations from the book. This 2-page spread illustration was in rough shape. The page had been torn and actually sewn back together.

As I said in an earlier post, restoration is fun to do, and people love you for it. But, it is tedious. You have to have a lot of patience.

[chrisfotos]

those are some nice examples. i haven't tried photo restoration before. im curious, what are the basic photoshop techniques used?

[chicochaz]

Thanks for the compliment. Techniques used can vary considerably from one project to the next, but here is a starting list:

Tonal Range Corrections: Levels, Curves and Shadow/Highlights

Color Fixes (including stain removal): Selective Color, Color Balance, Replace Color

Image Repair (such as tears, missing emulsion and cracked photo emulsion): Cloning and Healing

Dust & Scrathes and Despeckle under the Noise Filter are very useful, too. Despeckle can be a big help in diminshing cracked emulsion in old glossy photos.

[Snarfy]

Wow Charlie, this stuff is very well done. I love the study of restoration and art history; there's always the question of Restorative Artist License. How far do you take things in restoration without altering the historical effects of time?

I think you've done a great job with these. The level of detail quickly tells to the tedious patience required for this.

[chicochaz]

"Historical effects of time" brings up an interesting issue. Museum's and such in dealing with old photos tend to leave them exactly as they exist. They want the cracks, tears and other stuff to show. I guess it's because it makes the age of the photo seem more real. However, I also believe that old photos should be restored, when appropriate, since the intent of the photographer was not to present a beat up photo. Family photos are probably best restored. Photos presented for their historical significance maybe are best not restored. But all this is based on working with a print. There also is the issue of reprinting from an original negative. The Walker Gallery on my website is all new prints from 80 year old negatives. I correct the deficiencies in the negatives after scanning them. To me, this is entirely legit.

[apple crisp]

Wow, Charlie, beautiful work. I am immensely interested in photo restoration and also in retouching photos for people. I use Photoshop and have a few primo books on working with photos ... and I practice. There is so much to learn!

I hope a discussion group is formed here (did I miss it?) on this topic. And I hope you share some of your expertise!

Thanks,
Layne

[chicochaz]

Originally Posted by apple crisp

Wow, Charlie, beautiful work. I am immensely interested in photo restoration and also in retouching photos for people. I use Photoshop and have a few primo books on working with photos ... and I practice. There is so much to learn!

I hope a discussion group is formed here (did I miss it?) on this topic. And I hope you share some of your expertise!

Thanks,
Layne

Hey, sorry Layne for the delayed response. I'm jamming to get my work done so I can leave on vacation for two weeks this Friday . Being self-employed with no employees, I can't pass stuff off to anyone?

I'm more than happy to offer anything I know to others, so if you have questions, I'll try and answer them. Don't forget about Katrin Eismann's book, "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching."

Later,
Charlie

[imported_JeromeL]

wow, good examples charlie. i could get into this.

[chicochaz]

Originally Posted by JeromeL

wow, good examples charlie. i could get into this.

You mean spend all your waking hours on this forum? Snarfy, how do you find the time to be so devoted!?

Thanks for the compliment, JeromeL.

Charlie

[Snarfy]

Originally Posted by chicochaz

You mean spend all your waking hours on this forum? Snarfy, how do you find the time to be so devoted!?

Thanks for the compliment, JeromeL.

Charlie

hahaha!! actually, i don't spend that much time on here. I log in for about 30 minutes once or twice a day. I used tabbed browsing to speed up the posting process. =)

[Spartacus989]

The restorations are awesome. I'm really impressed with how well you were able to stitch the pieces together, especially when portions of the photos seem to be missing.

[chicochaz]

Originally Posted by Spartacus989

The restorations are awesome. I'm really impressed with how well you were able to stitch the pieces together, especially when portions of the photos seem to be missing.

Thanks. It really helps to have a bit of a painter's/illustrator's eye.

[PXLpainter]

Nice work indeed - Good job!

I used to do photo retouching before computers using an airbrush and other media techniques, so using Photoshop seemed really natural for me - though it took them about 3 revisions to actually give me the tools I REALLY wanted back then! Now with CS3 its really mind-boggling what you can do with an image... or a blank page! ;)