Christmas 1964 (restored family portrait)

J.E. · Dec 23, 2006

Just as my sister gave her boyfriend a photocalendar that I did, I did a second one to give to my grandma. Of course it contains a slightly different kind of pictures...

I scanned and redid old photographs that have a meaning to her, like this. That's Christmas 1964, the baby is my mom and the couple is my grams and gramps. The pictures were in a pretty bad condition, as you cans see, and it wasn't a family shot, but two individual parent-child pictures.

I decided I'd give them a makeover to create a family portrait. Here's my result. Comments and critique would be trendemously welcomed, as I've never done this kind of restoring photoshopping before and I need some kind of feedback on how I did. :blushing:

Anyway, see for yourself:

Thanks for looking.

woodsac · Dec 23, 2006

You did an excellent job!
Very wonderful image you created. I'm sure she will absolutely adore this :thumbsup:

TBaraki · Dec 23, 2006

Very nice work!

LaFoto · Dec 23, 2006

woodsac said:
You did an excellent job!:thumbsup:

Quoted for emphasis! (Or QFE ... took me ages to understand this abbreviation

.

You did brilliantly.
You apparently know your Photoshop A LOT better than I know mine ... I really only know the very basic basics, no more. I would not even know where to BEGIN to create a (FLAWLESS!!!!!!!) composite such as this one.

No critique possible.
Perfect work.

gizmo2071 · Dec 23, 2006

Awesome job.
I'm sure she'll love it.
A very special gift indeed.

oCyrus55 · Dec 23, 2006

Excellent Job!

J.E. · Dec 23, 2006

Thank you, folks!

I'm glad I did well. Pays off to be a perfectionist, doesn't it?

I now understand why it costs half a fortune to get old pictures redone by professionals, though. It's a trendemous amount of work. Too bad nobody pays me... :mrgreen: But grams will love it and that's what counts the most.

Here's another one... the one I intended to redo first. It was impossible to save, though, because of all the grain. I couldn't get rid of the grain. It's the same date, one year later. My mom's almost two in this pic. The sitting couple is her grandparents... my GREAT-grandparents. Too bad I never knew them. Well, anyways, in the end I decided to try to do some selective coloring (which I found out is quite a challenge if you don't have a color version of a pic!!) and give it to grams as a little extra that didn't make it into the calendar.

So here's Christmas 1965. What do you think?

LaFoto · Dec 23, 2006

Enormous!
You even do PS-handcolouring.
Wow.
I am in awe.
I know next to nothing about Photoshop in comparison!
Way cool!

WinterHawk · Dec 23, 2006

Most excellent photoshop work, very impressive :thumbup:

IrishDame · Dec 23, 2006

Wow. I wish I could work my PS like you can. Holy cow. Awesome work!

Brokepilot · Dec 24, 2006

WOW! I just purchased a version of photoshop and am trying to learn how to use it. What version are you using and are you self taught?

Those are awesome. Thanks for the motivation. I have several old photos from the '40s with my dad and great-great grandfather that I would like to touch up. You have given me hope that it can be done by an individual and not just by a studio.

J.E. · Dec 24, 2006

Thank you, Corinna, WinterHawk, IrishDame and Brokepilot, for the good words!

Corinna, I really don't know that much about PS at all. It's all basically the cloning tool and the paintbrush with varied transparency. You could do it, too, I'm sure.

Brokepilot, I actually don't work with the 'real-deal' Photoshop, because I can't afford it. PS is like flying first class. I can only afford economy. My software is called PhotoImpactXL, but it works much the same way as Photoshop. It's basically the same tools, only not as much special effects and stuff.

I'm entirely self-taught, by the way. I didn't even read the manual. I just jumped in and discovered more and more tools as I moved along. Being much of an autodidact that was the best way for me to go. But there are some good tutorials out there, too. Keep going for it. It takes a little practise, but it's worth the effort!

Brokepilot · Dec 26, 2006

Cool! I can't really afford to get the full version of Photoshop either. I have Elements 5.0. It has been hard enough buying a camera that was so expensive let alone a program that is as expensive as PS. I think that would push my wife over the top. She already threatened to make me sleep in my Jeep in the driveway ("and take the damn dog with you" I think were her exact words). Thankfully she was joking, but I am not going to push my luck.

I am going to try my luck with the old photos and see what I come up with. Thanks for the inspiration.

mavrik · Dec 26, 2006

This is good stuff - if you like doing this for fun, you should contact Operation Photo Rescue (think the site is operationphotorescue.com ) They do restoration on pictures that were maimed during hurricane Katrina. You can see some of what they do here:

http://operationphotorescue.com/portfolio.html

You'd be great at it

Ripnowell45 · Dec 26, 2006

mavrik said:
This is good stuff - if you like doing this for fun, you should contact Operation Photo Rescue (think the site is operationphotorescue.com ) They do restoration on pictures that were maimed during hurricane Katrina. You can see some of what they do here:

http://operationphotorescue.com/portfolio.html

You'd be great at it

That is really cool... If I knew how to do it I would help out...

Sorry to go a little off topic but did anyone else see the kids hand in the one sample pic?