Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Old Color Photos



These two photos started the same color influenced by the time of day of photo and era of processing.

The coloration of these original photos make it more complicated and require multiple adjusts of exposure, saturation, and temperature.

Factors of concern during the transition process: exposure and time of day/sun direction (see shadow that may/may not be left in photo); time of year and skin tone; clothing color; and sharpness of facial features as well as degree of sharpness of environment distance/depth. The time of year the photo was taken being winter, I chose to alter the sky tone and brought greater contrast bare ground to snow.

Since it is a family joke regarding how many pictures have been taken over the years, generation after generation, with the shadow image of the photographer also in the photo, I may leave the photographer's shadow as part of the photo. For family historical purposes (part of the story behind the picture theory), often the image of the photogragher can be identified.

Finding the balance between these factors impacts and reflects the quality of the restoration and much is personal preference.

To complete the restoration, note the film/paper aging showing up as spots on clothing. There are spots of color fading on the ground also but due to the coloration, exposure and saturation adjusts I made previously on this photo those seem to blend natural into the environment of ground and sky. But the clothing color fade/loss spots distract too much from the photo and decrease the appeal or value of the photo so those I would take the time to remove/color blend using a program such as Adobe Photoshop.


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