Author Topic: The wonders of Photoshop (the before and after thread) (Read 9136 times)

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #50 on:** November 08, 2011, 07:06:25 AM »

That is an amazing job you did! I hope you can recover some of the time spent on it.... ummmm 30 hrs at $20 per hour = $600.00..... you are worth at least that on Restoration...but, you may be competing with "local" business's that send them out also....you know, and charge a couple hundred dollars at most.

lisandra · « **Reply #51 on:** November 08, 2011, 01:01:46 PM »

o gosh yes..

Quote from: vdub_er on November 08, 2011, 05:01:19 AM

Nicely done Lisandra. At what point do you normally decided that you have done enough? I know from experience you can literally go on and on with tweaking here and there.

.I could go forever with these...I eventually get to a point where the amount of work Im putting in there is way past what Im charging so I stop

lisandra · « **Reply #52 on:** November 08, 2011, 03:52:46 PM »

Quote from: M5-User on November 08, 2011, 07:06:25 AM

That is an amazing job you did! I hope you can recover some of the time spent on it.... ummmm 30 hrs at $20 per hour = $600.00..... you are worth at least that on Restoration...but, you may be competing with "local" business's that send them out also....you know, and charge a couple hundred dollars at most.

I dont charge anywhere near enough believe me...mostly because people seem to think I basically scan the photo and then type "restore" somewhere and a program magically brings everything to life. Another reason is that most people that have photos this old (this one was taken in 1943!!) are in their 70s-80s and cant fathom being charged 300$ for a photo.
I still do it for one huge reason: It does wonders for your portfolio. People who understand that this isnt a simple "one click" fix affair are instantly taken by these fixes, they recognize the time and skill it takes to achieve such a feat and almost always hire you on the spot. Even if the job doesnt have anything to do with photo restoration.
That particular restore was from a 3x2 uber destroyed print, I rarely get a negative to play with, and the customer also wanted and enlargement of at least 8.5x11, one in color and one in BW. The prints, thankfully, dont look as "digital" as they do on screen. The color version was painfully difficult, as the mangled photo had little to no color info. I had to completely do the right side and most of the detail on the shirt (which is way more apparent on the print, here it looks a bit clipped). Im particularly proud of the color version's eyes, I did them from scratch and came out respectful. Blow the photo up and see if its visible.

lisandra · « **Reply #53 on:** November 08, 2011, 03:54:33 PM »

Just checked, if you click on it and then blow it up and then look at the eyes closely, youll see what i mean

ratobuhler · « **Reply #54 on:** November 08, 2011, 04:58:14 PM »

voyager · « **Reply #55 on:** November 08, 2011, 06:18:34 PM »

How'd you do that?

lisandra · « **Reply #56 on:** November 08, 2011, 09:32:41 PM »

do a careful selection, then filter/blur/gaussian blur

ratobuhler · « **Reply #57 on:** November 09, 2011, 07:59:26 AM »

Exactly, Lisandra. I made the pulley the mask. On the background layer I cloned the nearby features over the pulley before blurring to avoid "ghosting". I am sure there is a more elegant way to do this.

vdub_er · « **Reply #58 on:** November 10, 2011, 05:38:58 AM »

Quote from: ratobuhler on November 09, 2011, 07:59:26 AM

Exactly, Lisandra. I made the pulley the mask. On the background layer I cloned the nearby features over the pulley before blurring to avoid "ghosting". I am sure there is a more elegant way to do this.

Doesn't matter how you do it as long as end result looks good.

Jason C · « **Reply #59 on:** November 10, 2011, 11:50:55 AM »

Before:

After:

Layers, masks, more layers and more masks. Yes, this is a self portrait...

Jason C

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #60 on:** November 10, 2011, 12:39:47 PM »

Like your Rod...
and the Red White and Blue pin stripe!

lisandra · « **Reply #61 on:** November 10, 2011, 02:06:04 PM »

Quote from: ratobuhler on November 09, 2011, 07:59:26 AM

Exactly, Lisandra. I made the pulley the mask. On the background layer I cloned the nearby features over the pulley before blurring to avoid "ghosting". I am sure there is a more elegant way to do this.

you can also blur a copy of the photo to your hearts content and then cut the subject from the original and place it. no ghosting

lisandra · « **Reply #62 on:** November 28, 2011, 02:11:15 PM »

Doing this gave me a tremendous idea....

Details

voyager · « **Reply #63 on:** November 28, 2011, 06:10:23 PM »

I take it the blue one wasn't what it looked like?

lisandra · « **Reply #64 on:** November 28, 2011, 08:43:36 PM »

The blue one is an extreme white balance and contrast change

asterinex · « **Reply #65 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:07:54 AM »

It could be nice to print the blue and the yellow next to eachother.
Maybe 2 others with it (green and red)
It could be art.

vdub_er · « **Reply #66 on:** November 29, 2011, 05:45:28 AM »

A mixture of the two could be a good image

asterinex · « **Reply #67 on:** November 29, 2011, 11:03:38 AM »

Before

Details

After

Hiding by G.Don, on Flickr

vdub_er · « **Reply #68 on:** November 30, 2011, 04:47:17 AM »

R

Quote from: asterinex on November 29, 2011, 11:03:38 AM

Before
Details

After

Hiding by G.Don, on Flickr

That's a great transformation has really enhanced the original shot.

voyager · « **Reply #69 on:** November 30, 2011, 05:16:42 AM »

I love the after on that photo.

asterinex · « **Reply #70 on:** November 30, 2011, 07:13:46 AM »

Thx guys. It was a preset.

Luke · « **Reply #71 on:** November 30, 2011, 03:06:58 PM »

OK, this is from a long time ago....no not the photo, that was from a REALLY long time ago.

Joe Troy's Saloon by Lukinosity, on Flickr
I was helping my parents go through old photos and they found this wrecked one of a bunch of people hanging out in front of my great-grandpa's saloon. I submitted it to a group on flickr for aspiring restorers to play with. A day later I had 3 or 4 very nice restorations. I was amazed. I had to learn what the Photoshop was all about. Fast forward a couple months, I had learned a few things, but was still pretty green. Another flickr group I was in decided to have a Photoshop contest, and it was not a group that was ABOUT manipulation or "shop"ping so it was all skill levels. Someone supplied this image.....

Elephants by mister_soulsonic [back soon], on Flickr
....and everyone got to play with it in any way they wanted. I decided to send the elephants back in a time machine. Here's what I cam up with.....I know it's pretty crude, but it was one of my first fairly involved works so I'll keep it to remind myself how far I've come (and how far I have yet to go.

the day the circus came to town (and the animals got loose) by Lukinosity, on Flickr
One of my favorite parts is the little baby elephant in the background to the right.....I'm glad I remembered to add a little extra blur to that one.

asterinex · « **Reply #72 on:** December 01, 2011, 12:33:24 AM »

Really very well done ! The B&W colors match.

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #73 on:** December 23, 2011, 08:38:54 PM »

How much fun is that Restoration!

ralph · « **Reply #74 on:** December 24, 2011, 02:51:21 AM »

Might be a bit overdone, but just for fun....

This is what I went for in the end - skin fixed, but not quite as plasticised, and no makeup

Author Topic: The wonders of Photoshop (the before and after thread) (Read 9136 times)

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