From: DaEyeGuy@xxxxxxx
...
I have a 1915 fantastic portrait of my grandfather... he jerked it and
ripped it straight down the middle of the nose..into 2 pieces!
...I have PhotoDeluxe 2.0 as well as Adobe Photo Shop 4.0
so I guess I'll be digitally burning in and replacing pixels?
First off, forget PhotoDeluxe if you have Photoshop 4 available --
and consider upgrading it simply to get multiple undo levels and
history painting, where you can paint selected portions of an older
version of your work back over a mistake -- much more useful than a
sledge-hammer like "Undo" in many cases.
Get to be on intimate terms with the Rubber Stamp tool -- and I mean
intimate! Learn how to control feathering the edges and making your
own feathered brushes. Learn how to use feathered masking to protect
areas you don't want to re-touch.
If you're serious about this, invest in a pressure-sensitive graphics
tablet -- it need not be big for re-touching, since you'll want to
work in "relative" mode -- vs "absolute" mode that you'd use for
tracing or original artwork. I personally think Wacom are the best,
and since they have come out with a new line, their older ones have
crashed in price. I would guess a used 4x5 Wacom might set you back
$50, a 6x8, under $200.
You might think a tablet is only a convenience, but it really is
essential if you're serious about digital re-touching. You can do
things with a pressure-sensitive tablet that you simply cannot do
with a mouse. For example, you can map pressure to transparency
and/or brush size, and carefully press harder or softer to get just
the "right" effect. With a mouse (or even track-pad), you click, and
it's over, and you gave to undo and start over if it was too much.
That all said, I think there is considerable charm and meaning in
damaged photos, especially when accompanied with stories like yours!
I've digitized about 300 old family photos and distributed them to
family members on CD-ROM, and limited my re-touching to subtle
things, like bringing out detail in shadows, or minor despeckling.
I've left the tears and blotches as-is. You can see these at:
<http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/edna>
(Obligatory Olympus content: I doubt that any of these were taken
with Olympus cameras. :-)
The only "heavy" retouching I did was to a copy of
<http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/edna/292.jpg>. My dad looked
at that photo, which was of my mother and he, just before their
honeymoon, and said, "She took that damn ukelele everywhere. I'll
tell you, I had other things on my mind than that ukelele!"
Then I did some editing and said, "Gee, dad -- it looks like YOU were
the one with the ukelele!" and showed him
<http://www.bytesmiths.com/Art_Gallery/edna/292a.jpg>.
...is this an arduous process?
As with photography, you get out of it what you put into it. You can
do some simple things to clean up a photo in a short time. Then if
it's a hobby or a labor of love, you can spend the other 900f the
time it takes to do the last 100f the project... :-)
: Jan Steinman <mailto:jans@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: 19280 Rydman Court, West Linn, OR 97068-1331 USA
: +1.503.635.3229
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