Feb 14 2009
Very Special Project
I have not written much lately because I have been working on a very special project for my momaw. A few months ago, momaw’s nephew found an old picture under a matress and it turned out to be a picture of my momaw when she was about a month old being held by her mother. This was such a special find because my great-grandmother died when my momaw was just 2 years old and momaw did not have any pictures of her mother. The picture was on a cardboard backing and it was badly decayed. Over the years, people had tried to tape it together which made it even more deformed. I didn’t think there was much that I could do but I took a picture of the picture and got a a friend to try to help me restore the picture using Photoshop.
We began by lightening the picture and using the patch tool to try to correct sone of the worse areas. Then we put a soft overlay on the picture to add to the antique flare. Some areas were too badly decayed to fix, such as one of the baby’s eyes and the mother’s pinkie finger, so we drew a closed eye and used a copied layer of the index finger and resized it to make a pinkie finger. We then kept adjusting the levels, brightness, color balance, and contrast until we had finally created a picture that we were pleased with. This project took massive amounts of tiral and error but in the end, it was well worth the effort. I then printed a 16 x 20 picture on convas and framed it for Momaw. Needless to say, she loved it and actually so did I.
This is what the picture finally looked like when we finished it.
I enjoyed the sense of accpmplishment that I got from this that I decided to start someing else for Momaw’s birthday (yesterday). I went back through all the old photos that I could find and created a book for her. By using Photoshop to edit the pictures and software that I downloaded from Mpix, I made a book that began with my great-great-grandparents and ended with pictures from now. All total, there were six generations of our family in the book. The thing that I like about the Mpix software is that you can also add text so the book turned out more like a story of her life with pictures as the added bonus. The book is hard-bound and had 20 pages inside. If you are interested in projects like this, I definitely recommend Mpix for the publishing. Check it out.
5 responses so far
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This is fantastic! It is amazing that you can restore such a deformed pic. using Photoshop! Great job, I am sure momwa was very excited with the results.
This was a nice story to start my day. I be your mamaw was beside herself. I couldn’t imagine getting a treasure like this!
How long did it take? Where can you find Mpix to create a photo book?
The link to the Mpix book software is http://mpix.com/Product.aspx/customhardcoverbooks
From initially finding the pictures, editing them, organizing them by date, organizing the pictures on specific pages, and writing the captions, it took about 3 months total. Now that I know a little more about what I am doing it might not take as long but I was very meticulous because I wanted it to be just right. With the software, you can choose to layout the pages how you want or you can use pre-set templates. Creating the book itself doesn’t take that long. It is the preparation (& especially the photo restoration) that takes forever. Glad you liked it.
Wonderful project! I bet your grandmother loved the book, and especially loved this photograph. You did a great job and it was a big accomplishment when looking at the original picture. You should be very proud!
Isn’t photoshop wonderful? This picture turned out fantastic. I’m glad you were able to restore the picture the way you have. It may not be the original, but the way it turned out more than makes up for it. WELL DONE!