Hi Folks,
Last night Diane came to the club at short notice to give us a talk on photo restoration.
Diane said, it is so important to preserve memories, unfortunately photos fade or lose colour but in Photoshop and other software it is possible to bring old photos to life again.
First of all the print has to be scanned in to a computer it is important to stick with RGB colour.
When restoring a photo try to keep the natural look.
Sometimes you can replace a piece from another photo if part of the original is not recoverable, in this example a poor quality dress is replaced.
Even faces can be used from another picture.
Some pictures are more tricky.
In this picture the photographer had thought a ghost had appeared in a shop window, the print was sent off to the supernatural society. The experts said it was a ghost but although it looks as if there is a face, on closer inspection with current technology it is obviously just noise.
Other people have asked Diane to do the impossible and in this photo, to turn the character around lol.
So after the lead in talk, Diane then gave us a demonstration on how to restore this picture.
Diane using Photoshop, repaired the background using a bridging method across the cracks (cloning as we know it, creating several bridges) and then using the ‘patch’ key to fill the area in between the bridges made. This method avoids smudges that a straightforward patch often creates.
Here the patch is being used on the left of the picture, seen here by the dotted circle.
The eye on the left of the picture was not recoverable, so a copy of the other eye was layered over it.
Further work of cloning and bridging was used to match different parts of his face.
The second picture this evening rescued by Diane was photographed in its original frame which had damaged hanging wires and the picture was faded and had damaged areas.
In Photoshop Diane got the picture area in a grid and then raised it up to level it all.
Diane then changed it into monochrome and used colour levels to make a shade of sepia that was suitable.
Then Diane worked on the background using the bridge and patch method.
Then enhancing the image and darkening the hair
So now we have the start and finished picture to compare.
Coffee Time
Diane had various work on display to show us
In the second half, Diane showed us various ways in which enhancements can be done in Photoshop, there is no right way or wrong way and it can become trial and error if one way does not work. However, experience will usually find the correct methods that work best.
Another faded picture.
One of the Curve methods Diane used made the clothes far too white to do further work on in this picture. However, Diane used the separate colour curves in this example.
Then it was changed to monochrome. Diane always works in layers and if things go wrong keeps all changes so she can go back a stage.
The image was then changed to sepia using the colour levels
Next was the green lady picture
I think an average colour adjustment was selected and that reduced the green effect.
and then bridge and patching around the feet was done to create complete shoes as they had got chopped off in the original picture.
The red baby
Diane reduce the red effect by changing it to the reverse colour in blend mode which I believe is cyan
adjustments were made using the histogram level sliders.
Finally, Diane had this old picture of her family
Diane first changed it to monochrome
Then using layers Diane picked a colour for the girl’s dress
and using a special soft brush then coloured in the girl’s dress, picking a low opacity level so that the creases show on the dress.
If the colour of the dress was not liked, we were shown how it was possible to change the colour.
Finally the completed picture.
Diane said you have to be careful with face colours as cheeks tend to be a darker pink and therefore it is not just a straight colour change.
Thank you to Diane for doing the talk it was very interesting and I am going to try the clone, bridge and patch next time rather than just the clone.
Next week is
Competition: Club Challenge Round 1/Beginners Course Part 3
Tuesday October 30, 2018 from 20:15 to 22:15
Theme (Two Things) and Open Categories
Digital
Judge: Chris Sargeant (Chesham)
In the backroom we’ll be running the final week of the beginners course.
What a brilliant evening. So interesting and informative. I think we all learnt something from Diane. I thought she was a very good speaker, and worked well with her audience. It was nice to have the interaction. She said she has got lots of talks on the subject so I hope we can have her again sometime to learn more about Photoshop and restoring images.
It would be great to get Diane back for more of her expert skills. As you say, she was an excellent speaker and interacted week with us – it was easy to ask questions. I think she could be high on the list for Part II of her talk.