Photo restoration or invention – photos with missing pieces.
December 18th, 2008
Let’s say a huge chunk of an image is missing, an object or some ones torso or perhaps a sky. These missing elements can be replaced using other photos taken at a similar time. This is very handy and it can work very well but what if there are no other photos and the owner of the original has no idea what would have been worn at that time or what the weather was doing or what the missing object in the photo was, what then?Restoring is one thing, healing and patching away cracks, removing stains and revealing details hidden by grime and years of neglect, but where does this restoration stop and the inventing begins?.
Its not just about sculpting something out of thin air, is it? When was the photo taken? What were the trends of that period? What were the clothing styles? I try to work out what is likely to be missing and work inventively. It may take while to find what I am looking for, period clothes, toys, furniture, backdrops but it is worth the search.
Most importantly of all when I have found some reference material that can be used I match the grain, the lighting and shadows. I cringe every time I see restorations with beautifully smooth skies or some replaced clothing where the grain and texture has not been matched up and it looks terrible. Shadows are a tell tale sign as well so match these in too and don’t forget the high-lights. The whole idea of a restoration is for it to look un-restored, like it was never damaged in the first place. This is the hardest trick to master, do this and you surely can not put a foot wrong.
Posted in fix my photo, image restoration, old images that need restoring, photo repair, photo restoration, photo retouching, photograph restoration, photographic restoration techniques, restoring old photographs, restoring old photos
Neil – somewhat off topic – but I’m curious as to what scanner model you work with – and/or how you capture the initial image (scanner or camera). In any case, your work and talent is inspiring!
To capture the image I use a high resolution flat bed scanner. In the occasion where an image is A2 or larger I would use a digital camera to capture the image before restoring the digital file. Most of the time though its a flat bed. Scanning the negatives with a flat bed is my answer too as most of the negatives I scan are not 35mm. The one I possess has the ability to scan 5×4 inch negs and bigger, it even takes my custom mounts to disc film and whole host of other sizes. Alas its not sold any more so the make and model is neither here nor there.