The goals of this assignment are to demonstrate your mastery of image editing skills, color, and composition as well as the use of images to tell or illustrate a historical narrative. The narrative should be an account of the steps that you took to achieve the effects. Note that combining techniques in a single image is perfectly acceptable. For this assignment, create a web page that includes the following:
The Original
I should have chosen an easier photo to work on but this is one of my (I think) ancestors and it's one that I've been wanting to restore. I've been calling it a tintype, but I now tend to either an ambrotype or a daguerreotype. I was also trying to date it from the dress but that's become harder than I thought. I still want to put it to the third quarter of the 19th century, actually earlier in that quarter than later. The original size of the image with frame is 2.855 by 3.335 inches which I scanned in at 600dpi. The larger images are 600dpi, the thumbnails are 72dpi. (Once you have loaded the larger image you can enlarge it yet one more time for a really really large image.)
The Restoration Begins
It was difficult to work on and very time consuming because I couldn't figure out what was going on at the bottom of the photo (especially in the lower right-hand section) and also what was going on with the boy's coat/jacket/whatever? Here is a screen shot comparison of the original and the one in the works. I basically used the same functions: healing brush tool or spot healing brush tool, clone, brush tool, and smudge tool to do the restoration. I worked on a duplicate layer, not the background layer.
Work in Progress/Enlarge Image
And here it is restored--I think. I will honestly admit that I still do not know what's going on with the boy's coat/jacket/whatever! I had to make something up.
Before and After Restoration
Cropping and Vignetting
Next I cropped the restored image from its frame.
And next I vignetted the cropped image. Now, Prof. Petrik will have to tell me why when I started the backspacing in the vignetting process the background turned black? I assume it had to do with the "inverse" command, but I don't remember anything happening to our backgrounds in class when we vignetted?
Coloring
I have started coloring the restored photo but I cannot get the skin color right. It looks very bright, too bright. So I have started coloring everything else but have a long way to go. It's very tedious, detailed work and my hand tends to numb up after several hours! Anyway, here's what I've done so far. I think the ribbon is too bright as are her lips and eyes but even though I have lessened the saturation drastically (using the hue/saturation function) it still seems bright. I basically used the brush tool and smudge tool for this, and of course there's always use for the clone tool that I depend on heavily.
As finished as it will get I guess.
