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Restoration and Colorization Photo Circa 1850


ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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This is a photo of an unidentified lady taken as a daguerreotype in about 1850. Source Library of Congress Daguerreotypes collection.
 

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dv8

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The second image reminds me of some horror movie where the picture shows an old photo of the ghost or sibling being present and attacking people. Gives me the shudders. No idea if this is the effect you wanted but it works for me.
 

Jessicayla

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Very nice background restoration! Her skin tone looks a little peachy, needs more of a natural tone to it. The edges look a little fuzzy in some areas. Good effort, though! I really like the color you chose for her clothes.
 

dv8

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Although it hurts me to say it I actually like Pauls version a lot. What can I say Thumbs Up.
 

Paul

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Why does it hurt?
Others will do much better i bet, how about you having a go.
 

dv8

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A complement from me.
 
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dv8

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Okay im getting tired now but im here all weekend ill have a play and join you guys. Ok
 

Paul

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Looking forward to your colourized version mate.
 

dv8

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Before i dissappear maybe a good thing for some Ive lost a tool I really love I was just looking for it. Does anyone have Kais power tools still. If so let me know.
 

dv8

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Thanks for that I did have KPT6 but I cant find it anywhere like the dragon i was just looking for, it would have the job i had in mind wonderfully. no matter theres always another way thing move on.
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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I'm sorry, but not sure I understand your comment. The second image is the original as downloaded. I was not trying to create any kind of an effect. The purpose of the post was to demonstrate the ability to restore and color a formerly greyscale image. I chose it for the amount of damage etc, not necessarily the subject. (she ain't a pretty child but sweet I am sure-bless her heart)
The second image reminds me of some horror movie where the picture shows an old photo of the ghost or sibling being present and attacking people. Gives me the shudders. No idea if this is the effect you wanted but it works for me.
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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Why are you hi-jacking my post?
Thanks for that I did have KPT6 but I cant find it anywhere like the dragon i was just looking for, it would have the job i had in mind wonderfully. no matter theres always another way thing move on.
 

Paul

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I have had a word in dv8's ear, all good now i hope.
 

ALB68

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Jes,
Your right on the skin tone. It was technically correct when I first did it. Looks like the color mix changed after saving etc. I originally saved it in tiff format and then converted to jpg with saving for the web in PS. It was late when I uploaded it and I did not notice it at the time. It is definitely off. Thanks for mentioning it. I just calibrated my monitor on Wednesday.
Thanks for the other comments.

Edit: I made a correction and re-posted it. Looks "not so peachy" now.

Very nice background restoration! Her skin tone looks a little peachy, needs more of a natural tone to it. The edges look a little fuzzy in some areas. Good effort, though! I really like the color you chose for her clothes.
 
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Tom Mann

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Great find, ALB. What a sweet young lady!

Although sepia is the color one usually thinks about re antique photos, the blue that Paul gave her eyes led me to experiment with a blue background for a change.

I'm not very happy with the skin tones I achieved, but maybe I'll tweak it a bit more later.

T
 

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ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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Tom,
Mine also has blue eyes.
Sepia would have been easy but I just like to impart that more modern look. I think it would be a matter of personal preference and if I were doing one for a client I might offer a choice at proofing.
As to the image, there are 1000's of images at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collections/ that can be used for practice or whatever. Many of them have large tiff files as an option for download and best of all, they are FREE.
PS- Your skin tone looks good Master.
Great find, ALB. What a sweet young lady!

Although sepia is the color one usually thinks about re antique photos, the blue that Paul gave her eyes led me to experiment with a blue background for a change.

I'm not very happy with the skin tones I achieved, but maybe I'll tweak it a bit more later.

T
 
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Tom Mann

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Geeze, I'm sorry, ALB. Your version also had blue eyes and a blue background and I completely forgot to mention it.

In my 1st attempt, the highlights on her skin were headed in a blue/cyan direction, and the shadows were too warm, whereas usually, for the nicest effect in a portrait, the opposite is usually the case, ie, cool shadows and warm highlights. Anyway, I had some success with that problem, but now I'm not happy for another reason: Somehow, in the process, I feel like I managed to masculinize (sp?) her face by inadvertently reducing some of the natural shading, especially on the near side of her face - arghhh!

Maybe more later when I get a longer stretch of uninterrupted time to play with it.

T
 

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Tom Mann

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OK ... one final tweak: Darkening the bkgnd even more, a bit of NR, a tiny bit of burning in some shadows, and a bit of glam. glow to, well, glamorize the young lady :)

Obviously, a lot more could be done, but I'm too lazy to do fiddly things like reduce the impact of some of the scratches and other blemishes in the emulsion, so I'm gg to call it quits now.

T

PS - For side-by-side comparison, I also appended the original to this post.
 

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