A Restoration Story

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Susana Weber in Image Post Processing, Photography

Tags

mementos, memories, photo editing, photo preservation, photo restoration, photography, Photoshop

A friend asked me to help her with a photo of her father and his mother that was cherished but in very poor condition. The photo had been printed long ago from a transparency and had faded in its frame to the point where the faces had become dark shadows and bright blobs. In addition, the top of her father’s uniform hat had been cut off and she asked if it could be put back on. After a little Google research on Marine uniforms, I was able to affect a reasonable improvement of the photo but… I’d wondered if they could find the original negative or slide. I was sure I would get more “information” in a good scan of whatever original they could find. Here’s the photo from the frame and the temporary fix… still very poor.

Scanned print from a framed snapshot.

A little bit better but not by much. At least I was able to complete his hat!

Huzzah! My friend’s father came up with an original slide transparency of the photo. I was hoping that the original had the rest of the hat… that whoever printed it had just cropped it badly… but… NO, it was taken that way in the camera. The good news was it was not scratched nor overexposed, so… there was lots of information in the image and little spotting to do.

Lots of color and detail in the old slide but… still had the hat cut off.

This time the detail had to be there when I repainted the top of the uniform hat. A few color blobs wouldn’t do the job. With a bit of Adobe Lightroom adjustments and Photoshop the faces came out of the shadows which is the whole point of an image like this… a cherished memento from a happy time with a loved one from a long time ago. The details are what makes the experience of being transported back to that moment.

Restoration.

Did I get it right? I don’t know yet. My friend is happy with the results but I want to hear from her father. Is the day right? The light? Can he feel the pressure of his mother’s white gloved hand on his arm? Does he remember pinning on her corsage… or watching her face as she pinned it? Does he remember feeling the pride that is so obvious in the expression on her face?

I hope the new print will bring back wonderful memories for a very long time.

Leading the eye…

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized

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arts, clouds, composition, cropping, inspiration, landscape, leading the eye, learning, nature, outdoors, photography, special place, sunset

I noticed something odd while I was editing a few recent images that I found interesting and thought I’d share… We’ve had some spectacular “cloudshows” lately and I stopped to capture one in the parking lot of my local grocery store. I liked the angle of the cloud formation and the overhead, umbrella of the massive formation on the left. While looking at it on the screen, I made a duplicate copy to try a different crop so I could look at them side by side. The two images aren’t that different but… it occurred to me that I was looking at images with two different subjects!

cropped version

In the cropped version above, the eye is moving down the dark column on the left and finally rests on the bright sun in the sunset at the bottom. To me, the subject of this image is the sunset, the color and drama in the distance.

original version

In the original, it’s just the opposite… the eye is drawn down the thin clouds from the right and back up to the bright spot at the top. The eye is being lead in a completely different direction. (See the black and white images with the arrows.) The subject of this version of the image is the overwhelming scale of the scene, the height of the column of clouds, aided by the bright edge at the top and the tiny light poles at the bottom. A completely different feel. The actual sunset is secondary.

I’ve never seen as dramatic an example of the effects of knowing where the eye is being led and how much a simple edit can change the subject of an image. It’s important to know where the viewer’s eye is going in the composition of an image. You want the viewer to see what you see… to experience the impact of the scene as you did… or at least as close as you can assist them to see and feel.

Which image conveys what I wanted you to see? I’d have to pick the original. While I cropped the duplicate to make it a stronger composition, I lost the subject I wanted to present… the scale and feeling of being a tiny being on a beautiful planet… a very special place, even in the grocery store parking lot! :)

Agree? or Disagree? Your thoughts?

Saving Mid-Day

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Photography, Uncategorized

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Tags

art, arts, bright light, dark shadows, fashion, landscape, learning, Lightroom, mid-day shooting, model, nature, outdoors, photography, Photoshop, plants, post processing, saving images

I don’t have many shoots where we’re outside after 10am in the brightest sun of the day… but it happens. In this case, we only had mid day on the hottest day of the summer in New England. We were all sweating our clothes through… except the model who never broke even a drop of sweat!! How did she do that??!! Anyway, our limited time found us outside in a garden with clear primary colors and heavy dark shadows… extremely bright highlights and an impatient and sweltering crew. A year later and I’m looking at these images with new eyes in light of having installed the new Adobe Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 6.

I’ve been testing the new features as I find them… or need them and the new organization in LR where “Fill light” is broken into Whites and Blacks, Highlights and Shadows… 4 separate sliders that really let you put your finger on what an individual image needs. In addition… in PS6 there’s a whole new “Blur” gallery that will simulate the lensbaby effects but with more precision about where the image will be blurred, what direction the blur will take, by how much, etc. Very controllable and fun to play with! There’s even a “Tilt/Shift” blur! Cool!

There’s lots more but I’d rather share some of the results of trying to do something more with all these mid-day shots. Some alternative treatments to the first which is the original. Suggestions welcome… what would you try?