New photo restoration course, recreating missing pieces has just gone live, the 5th in the series.
Here is how it appears on the pages of Lynda.com
“One of the most challenging photo restoration tasks involves recreating missing pieces of a severely damaged photo. In this course, master restorationist Neil Rhodes steps through examples of severely damaged photos. He shows how to reconstruct missing faces and body parts, as well as objects and background details. Tools used with Photoshop’s Patch command, content-aware toolset, and the Puppet Warp tool.
Topics include:
- Evaluating and planning the restoration
- Straightening and cropping
- Using the content-aware tools to replace missing details
- Rebuilding arms, faces, and hands
- Using Puppet Warp to recreate photo elements”
Photo restoration course, recreating missing pieces
I will be bringing you more in the future so do stay tuned. As always you can view the whole course at Lynda.com or if you are not yet a member you can sign up for a free 10 day trial.
Here is a snippet from the opening video.
“- In this first chapter, we’ll assess the damage and plan our route to the finished restore. You should’ve opened damaged family photo_01_01 and then we can asses the photo. This photo has a high degree of damage across some critical areas. With any complicated restoration, we need to look at the damage and break it down into smaller, easier to manage sections. With such varying degrees of damage and some easier to restore than others, it’s best we start with the easier areas and repair the lighter, less complex sections.
This will clear the way to visually understanding the more complex areas. Tackling each of the more complex areas one at a time, we’ll have a manageable and workable solution that is not too daunting. To cover the bricks in the background, we can use our Clone tools. For any cracks in the background, we can use our Patch tools. We can then move onto the easier foreground damage using the same tools, tackling the jacket and the skirt. We should now have a clear view of what damage is left. Skin and faces require the most amount of attention in any restoration.
We will need take heed to the number one restoration rule, if an image looks restored, then we’ve not done our restoration well enough. Good enough is not going to cut it. We’ll always need to be one step above. We can then tackle the arm that needs new skin and move onto the faces. Fortunately, for this image, it contains enough faces to use some clever techniques to borrow areas and replace missing details with donor parts. By flipping some areas, or by patching from another area, we’ll be able to use our full toolbox of techniques to repair the missing face details.
Perhaps the most tricky is the hand. We’ll need to paint in the shadows and match in the grain, fill in the fingers and make it all blend in. Of course, I will guide you through the process. We should now be fully clued up on the processes involved and have our pens or mouse at the ready. Let’s get started.”
What a great start to the new year for you to sharpen up, or learn new skills. You can see this post about fixing missing pieces if you want to read more on the subject first. Or for other courses try these posts on fixing stained colour and damage and scanning oversized photos or try a course on replacing backgrounds.
All the best