I've started restoring vintage photographs for hire. Since I have been living and breathing Photoshop and photo manipulation for the last year it seems a natural progression for me to offer this service. Whether you have old family photographs or have an instant ancestor you would like to "revive" I can assist.
For a sample of some of my work I have decided to use a sweet little photograph offered at The Graphics Fairy - just about the coolest website on the Internet for free vintage photographs and graphics!
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| Cynthia and Co. Photo Restoration - photo from The Graphics Fairy |
The original photograph, above, is ever so cute but a little grainy and has some white spotting where the original was damaged. Through photo manipulation those flaws can be removed to provide a lovely image that looks (almost) good as new!
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| Cynthia and Co. Photo Restoration - vintage photograph little girl |
In the midway photograph, above, you can see how the little girl's face has been smoothed, the white pixels under her chin have been removed, and the background has been touched-up. For this example I chose to NOT paint her face but leave her in a more natural state. Many times, when tinting a photograph, I will paint the faces, clothing, etc. of the subjects but she seemed like a more natural kind of girl!
At this point, I could have left the image alone. I've removed most of the flaws that appear and I've brought her face out into the light. She looks good.
But...
Think how cute the photograph could be if it were "altered" just a little...
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| Cynthia and Co. Photo Restoration - vintage altered photo Victorian girl |
OK, depending on your taste, this could be considered more than "a little" altering but this is how things fell into place while I was working on her...
You might wonder why I went to all of the work to smooth out her face if I were going to cover it up again with a graphic. I didn't plan on adding a "mask" to her face but when I added the background graphic I liked the way part of it layed over her face...like a Mardi Gras Mask...so I left most of the lines and didn't erase them. The birds were taken from an old Victorian Postcard that originally was in full color - since color wouldn't have worked here I "desaturated" it and used only a portion, the birds, for added interest. The perch, that the birds are sitting on, is from the background graphic just shown in a different position. An outside border was added for interest and the overall photograph has a slight yellow / ecru tint to make it appear warmer.
I'm pleased with the "after" version. I believe I stayed true to the emotion of the original vintage photograph and used images appropriate for a little Edwardian girl.
For more information, if you would like to use my services, the Etsy ad is in the top right of the home page...just click the image. Or click below:
If you would like a copy of the "midway" version of the photograph without the "midway" watermark just email me and I'll email it to you "free of charge".
If that is too much trouble and you just want the image in it's before state click below:
Thanks for visiting. Enjoy!!
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| Cynthia and Co. free vintage photo restored just for the asking |
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