9.21.2011

From old to new again

First, I wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU to all of you amazing people who've been so kind as to read my blog of late.  I trust you are enjoying it and getting something out of it or you wouldn't be here.  All the same, I want you to know that I REALLY appreciate your time and comments.  So blessings on all of you and thanks again.

Second, I've added a little poll today as I'm trying to learn about you and why you visited.  Would you take a moment to answer.  It's just to your left.

Third, today, I thought I'd just show a little something I did last week.  My father-in-law has a favorite photo of my lovely mother-in-law.  She was 19 and that was quite a while ago.  They've been married 44 years so you can guess on the math.

At any rate, some fading had occurred and the original now looked like this



That was the scan of the original.  Lots of damage to the photo as you can see, but its dad's favorite so we must dooooo something.  I took it into Photoshop Camera Raw and messed with it a fair bit, including reducing the exposure, adding the blacks back in, and using the recovery feature in Camera Raw.

And this was the result:



Next, you see all those icky brown splotches and funny spots.  Those are dust artifacts that the scanner sees, even though I don't see it with my own silly eyes.  You have to remove those with the healing brush.  I did that on each individual dot on the skin, hair, and blouse.  However, for the rest of the photo, I cut the body out with the drawing tool, feathered my selection, copied it and layered the body back over the top.  Then, I blurred the image beneath so those icky spots that remained blended into the background.

And this is the result:



Finally, I took it to color adjustment and messed with the color and then into RADlab to bring back some definition and smooth the remaining flaws.

And this is the result:



I have to tell you that I think it's the best thing I ever did for my Father-in-law. You should have seen him beam with pleasure.  It was about an hours worth of work but what a beautiful result!

Oh, and mom says the colors are just right.  Pretty cool eh!

25 comments:

  1. Photoshop is definately on my christmas list! I must have it now if I was not sold before! YOu did a great job with the picture! Awesome! Thanks for sharing! -Amanda

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  2. oh i have to learn photoshop --i have it but don't know how to use it--problem is no time to play iwth it

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  3. Hi Ursula :) Thanks for stopping by my blog and your kind words :) Photoshop is on my "I-want-to-get-oneday" list, love what you have done with the photo and I love why :) Glad you took the time to comment, I hope to be back and 'get to know you' :)

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  4. What a lovely thing for you to do. I'm sure he really appreciated that! I wish I were that proficient with PS!

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  5. What a great result, I'm not surprised he was so pleased. I really must continue to get to grips with photoshop! Becky x

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  6. I dabble in Photoshop, but haven't worked up to photo restoration yet. Great job! :)

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  7. WOW Ursula that picture looks amazing!! What a blessing it was for you to do that for him. I'm sure he'll treasure that picture for many years to come...
    - April

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  8. You did such a great job with this picture! :)

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  9. This is wonderful and what a special gift for your FIL!

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  10. That is awesome, Ursula! You did an amazing job and I can just imagine the look on your FIL's face. Amazing how photos can make us feel, huh? :) Have a great day!

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  11. Great job and what a beautiful girl she was. Photoshop baffles me so TFS!

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  12. Fantastic work and a beautiful picture.

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  13. Great job with that photo! Such a cool pic!

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  14. That is a really special gift for your FIL. I'm obsessing about the cats in the photo - I had some of those as a little girl that my grandmother gave me. I'm like 16 years younger than your MIL, but I still had those, I know it! Brings back a memory!

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  15. That turned out great! What a nice gift!

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  16. You did a great job on the photo. What a great gift you gave them. Thanks for sharing. Hugs

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  17. How neat! I love when people do stuff like this. You did a beautiful job! What a great gift for him! :-)

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  18. Great job! I don't have the patience for much Photoshop but you're great at it!

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  19. that is great! i have several photos like that which could use some photoshop help!

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  20. Oh my goodness, I am so impressed with your final result.
    I know nothing about this type of thing, but my daughter went to school and learned this. I am so impressed with what can be done.
    Such a sweet, sweet thing to do for your FIL.

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  21. I hope to learn photoshop one of these days! Your outcome on that photo is FABULOUS!

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I really enjoy your feedback, so thanks a bundle for taking the time to leave it.

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