2. The burst of laughter when I saw that I was left with too many legs!
3. The finished image, lovingly restored.
4. Another detail of a 'rescue' image, before...
5. AND AFTER!
A LABOUR OF LOVE.
All about ‘restoring’ old and damaged images.
So very often, they are all we have left, those all important images, to stimulate, conserve and trigger our memories.
You may have forgotten about an event but you see an old photo and it releases a whole string of lost emotions.
Also, they can be portraits of family, people you know stories of, but that you never met… long gone…
You may see resemblances with far relatives… either in yourself, in one of your sons or daughters, even in grandchildren!
Those photographs, in attics, drawers, old shoe boxes… yellow and brown, dirty and damaged, can become so precious… some people find a photographer willing and able to lovingly restore them!
Because it IS a Labour of Love.
I, with my nature, become emotionally involved! I scan the old small print on as high a resolution as possible, makes the ‘clean-up’ easier, that also means that I work on the person sometimes BIGGER than life-size! Each little speck in the eyes, on the nose, lips, I get to know each inch of that face intimately! It is a slow process and you have lots of time to let your thoughts wander…
It takes a lot of time if you really want to do a fantastic job, get rid of EVERY spot, crack, tear (held together with tape??? LOL). Hours and hours of cloning and cleaning, till your eyes water!
Nowadays though, we are so privileged with the ‘digital darkroom’; it makes it easier to clone out all things ‘unwanted’, like someone else in the photo.
That brings me to the uploaded images.
A fun anecdote.
I asked the client if she wanted the gent in the back gone, she was surprised I even considered that, but eagerly agreed.
So I started, thought at some point I’d finished the job and was quite satisfied! Till I brought it to the ‘normal’ size… I burst out laughing; I was left with tooooo many legs!
What an oversight, well it was with a big grin that I continued and eventually was satisfied, the job was DONE!!!
I told the client and sent her the ‘mistake’, she thought it was hilarious!
To come back to the subject, if you are going to do it, do it well! It means so much to the relatives.
They got large prints, nicely framed, yes, the photos were given a new lease of life!
CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE HOW BAD THEY WERE, and they were NOT the worst I've ever had, and how good the were after I finished, lol!
Hope you've enjoyed this.
THANX, M, (*_*)
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