Ramblings of a Grouch

We can now see the DigitalMemoriesOnline sample photo taking shape. This image lends itself to dividing into separate sections for restoration purposes and so I have addressed the problems associated with the lady's clothes in this session. The main concerns are the blemishes - mainly dark spots due to ageing (the image, not the lady) - and the dark area of the dress which became noticeable after increasing the contrast using the Curves tool in the last session.

The dark area was addressed first. By selecting the darker area and softening the edges of the selection I was able to make sure any adjustments blended in smoothly with the surrounding parts. A small adjustment using the Curves tool again lightened the shadows a fraction, just enough to stop the eye being lead away from the main interest of the photo - the face. I then started restoring the white lace scarf to get a general 'feel' for the photograph. It can be a bit daunting zooming in at high magnification on a photograph which is unfamiliar. Are those dark areas shadow or stain? Where are the edges of that piece of material? Does the cloth fold here or further along? By zooming out and back in again - from general view to detail view - these questions can be resolved and the restoration will progress smoothly.

I mainly used the Clone tool on the lace area as there is a lot of intricate detail (though fortunately not a great deal of damage to repair). Other tools such as the Healing Brush or the Patch Tool would not allow this detail to be preserved. As the scarf is fairly evenly lit I was able to repair damage to the left side by 'borrowing' parts from the lower right using the Clone tool. In photographs where the light shading doesn't allow this, other methods must be used.

The worst blemish in this area is shown below, along with the same area after repair.

As a finishing touch I selectively 'tweaked' the two brooches on the scarf - there is not much detail on the original photo but they now stand out a little more and add interest to the rather bland, pale area without being too distracting.

Then it was off to repair the rest of the clothing. Here there is noticeable shading from left to right which must be taken into account. Many of the blemishes are really only visible at 3 or 4 times magnification and would almost certainly be invisible at the final print size, but they were dealt with anyway - I like to know that everything is taken care of. The image was then saved ready for the next stage - restoring the face.

And a final point on saving my work as I go. Photoshop allows the use of Layers. A Layer can be thought of as an image on a transparent plastic sheet. Multiple Layers can be stacked on top of each other and combined in various ways to affect either the whole image or just a part. In this case I have saved each stage as a separate layer as it was completed - the original scan, the background fix, the Curves contrast adjustment and now the restoration to the clothes. In this way I can easily backtrack to a previous stage or check the original scan to see what the detail looked like then. After the next installment I shall have a new layer containing the restored face.

Until next time ...

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