Restoration from a Walk By Snap ... :)

This photo of -don't know how many greats- grandma was lost, long story of it being in a shared apartment, moved out and went back for it it could not be found ... the only record of it was a random snap one of the family members took of it while walking by.

The first thing to do was adjust the perspective, the photo wasn't taken square to the wall so it was a little distorted by the viewing perspective.  I placed the same line around both the original image on the left and the adjusted image on the right to show the adjustment ...

After retouching out all of the room that is reflected in the glass, adjusting / painting in better colors here is the finished restoration ... Not really sharp as the original was so far out of focus, but otherwise I was really happy with this job. :)

Not Perfect, But Happy :)

We like to make all work perfect! :)  But with every job though there is a trade off between time and perfection ... which translates to both money and my own feelings that the image is not getting that much better for the time put in ... I have a lot of patience for detail work, but keeping it real I can reach a point where it becomes more of a challenge to keep going.

This was a tough one ... faded with very little detail...

Photo Restoration from Mount Lassen Family Vacation

Last June we scheduled a family vacation / celebration for my wife Joan, to celebrate her 70th birthday.  We booked a rental cabin in the Mount Lassen Park area months in advance with deposits and everything - and we were told by the people renting that they would contact us for the final payment a week before.  Well they didn't, and I emailed and I called and I sent text messages and heard nothing (later found out that were stuck in Nicaragua, sick in a hospital - they made it fine and contacted me when they landed in the US and got the messages).  So the day before our trip I got on the web and finally found someone who had a cabin we could rent (daughter and son-in-law flying from Florida, vacations ... schedules and such we just had to make this happen) - and they were super sweet and the place was fantastic (and even dog friendly, we had scheduled to bring our dogs)  ... Info Here

And yes, Joan had a fantastic birthday vacation, but on to the restoration story ... There are family photos all over the house, all are in great condition except for one unique 11x14 photo hanging in the master bedroom.  I kept looking at it thinking, gee, if I was home I could fix that color, and having just enough vacation time on my hands I called the owner and asked if I could take it off the wall and copy the photo to see what I could get out of it.  I grabbed a couple of chairs and a board and made this home mode copy stand ...

The Photo on the Wall ... !

The parents photo on the wall had been torn, taken down from the wall, then lost ... the only record of the photo still around was in the background of these other photos.

None of the photos were taken straight to the wall, so the shape of the photos has been distorted.  The first task was adjusting the perspective/shape as it would have been in the original, which after 'squaring' everything up became making a guess on how thin the faces were - played with it with an eye on the above photos, combined parts of each, art work and some noise removal and here we go. :)  Just wish there was more detail, but the client was thrilled to have a special photo they thought was lost forever and I was thrilled to be able to do it for them :)

My fav photo restoration of the year ....

Every once in a while a restoration comes along that is so much fun and just makes me smile!

A friend and client came into the studio with some tiny little bits of photo - most of the pieces made a dime look big. It seems they had a favorite dog that had long since passed and these pieces were what was left of the photo. Could we possibly get some sort of photo from these little scraps of image? If we could, it would be a Christmas surprise for the wife. :)

The dog's name was Zoomer. The next dog to come into the family ate - yes ATE the photo, which is how it got into a bunch of little pieces (I also remember over hearing something about a stomach being pumped, but I don't know if that was because of this photo only, or if other stuff was also eaten ...). Amazing that the pieces were even saved.

So here are the little pieces ...

Photo Restoration and Photoshop - My Educational Sources

Just wanted to post a quick sharing of my favorite resources for learning and figuring out copy & restoration and photoshop challenges. My learning has been mostly reading and online, and these are the two best resources I have found!

Online: www.retouchpro.com - a group with a wide range of abilities and interests, with some of the sharpest minds around! All skill levels are always welcome. From restoration work to commercial beauty retouching and art from photos ...

Books: Anything by Katrin Easmann ... www.photoshopdiva.com and www.katrineismann.com she is the Photoshop Diva!

These are my main sources for learning. Anytime I have a question or want to stretch what I think I know, this is where I go! No matter what your skill level something from these two resources will be sure to bend your brain (mine is twisted - enjoy!).