Real beauty isn't retouched

A Photoshop action to create awareness about heavy photo retouching used in advertising. This nifty little hack 'reverses' the airbrush action. I understand that retouchers are doing a job, condoned by marketers and advertisers, therefore are not at fault for producing perceived beauty rather than natural reality, however, the tool used plays a big part in how this is done. Because of this, I can appreciate what Dove is trying to do, without so much targeting the photoshop artist.

Restoring old photographs.

I was tasked a few years ago by my mother to restore a few photographs of my grandparents. The images dated from more than a few decades ago. The job was complex and took a lot of time, but in the end, the result was more than great. We were able to print them and deliver them to the family on time for an important anniversary.

I never got around to post the before-after shots of this work, and since I have some time today, I decided to finally share this and get some opinion and thoughts about what you see.

My process was fairly simple. Scan, Retouch, Export for print. Prior to 1999, Scanners were not so great and inkjet printers were mediocre. The best we could do to get a descent export was to expose the digital image back onto a film negative, and then print it back onto black and white paper in the darkroom, thus inheriting the grain of the transfer film. This could be good or bad, depending of the initial quality of the image. 

So without further ado, here are some of the images retouched.

Before: The aging damage on this particular photo was not too bad compared to others. Mid-tones and highlights faded, and shadows losing details with too much exposure to sunlight for over 60 years.

Before: The aging damage on this particular photo was not too bad compared to others. Mid-tones and highlights faded, and shadows losing details with too much exposure to sunlight for over 60 years.

After: Some serious reconstructive surgery on this one, I was able to rebuild the image with a slightly different background, a new dress-line for my grand-mother. The image remains clean, while maintaining the same mood as the original. I used some sepia toning to try and keep the age aspect of the photo.

After: Some serious reconstructive surgery on this one, I was able to rebuild the image with a slightly different background, a new dress-line for my grand-mother. The image remains clean, while maintaining the same mood as the original. I used some sepia toning to try and keep the age aspect of the photo. 

Before: This image was in fairly good quality but required basic reframing and minor cleanup.

Before: This image was in fairly good quality but required basic reframing and minor cleanup.

After: I decided this one would benefit from a clean black & white treatment.

After: I decided this one would benefit from a clean black & white treatment.

Before: Crinkles and folds

Before: Crinkles and folds

After: Re-crop, white balance adjustment, contrast and brightness along with some cleaning and skin retouching for sunlight damage and lack of a proper album.

After: Re-crop, white balance adjustment, contrast and brightness along with some cleaning and skin retouching for sunlight damage and lack of a proper album.

Before: This one was a tough one. Part of the image was missing, so I had to re-compose the shot.

Before: This one was a tough one. Part of the image was missing, so I had to re-compose the shot.

After: Recropped and cleaned.

After: Recropped and cleaned.

Tools used: AGFA scanner, Photoshop (CS3).

If you have any questions about retouching and restoration, send me an email at info@bhookun.com or on facebook.com/kevinbhookun.photo, also on @kevinbhookun

In

Winter Fun Family Photos

We are lucky to have a lot of snow this winter. What's winter without a lot of snow, snow forts, snow-ball fights? Here are some photos of my girls from last week on a walk to the trails. [Note for the techies: 50mm/1.4 Nikon Lens, A little color adjustment in LR4 and that's it]