Post by mart44 on Aug 15, 2023 16:28:23 GMT
This is a photo of my wife's Aunt and Father that I restored and coloured. It seems to roll away the years when this is done. The colours have to be guessed at and I can't be sure there was ever wallpaper on the walls. A real close-up of the photo shows at least some of the background to be true. This was restored and coloured using an early version of Corel Photo-Paint, a program I started using many years ago and still use sometimes now. Version X7 (Home & Student) is installed now. It was the background that took most of the time as much detail is missing. Much careful masking, cutting and substituting was done.
The colouring looks very messy when it is being done. I prefer no transparency on the layer created for colouring. Give it transparency during the process every now an then to see how it's going but make it solid while working. I think the colour looks better for this. I find that colouring with transparency in place all the time can leave holes in the paint. The image underneath the photos shows the process...
1. The photo.
2. Convert to greyscale, do repairs and any cloning etc. that is needed to make it a good black and white picture. Use it as a background.
3. Make a layer on top of the background and add the colour
4. Give the colour layer a large degree of transparency so that the background cam be seen though it. Not enough transparency can flatten the detail.
5. The finished photo.
It can be necessary to carry out some basic enhancements afterwards to bring out more detail and add the finishing touches.
The colouring looks very messy when it is being done. I prefer no transparency on the layer created for colouring. Give it transparency during the process every now an then to see how it's going but make it solid while working. I think the colour looks better for this. I find that colouring with transparency in place all the time can leave holes in the paint. The image underneath the photos shows the process...
1. The photo.
2. Convert to greyscale, do repairs and any cloning etc. that is needed to make it a good black and white picture. Use it as a background.
3. Make a layer on top of the background and add the colour
4. Give the colour layer a large degree of transparency so that the background cam be seen though it. Not enough transparency can flatten the detail.
5. The finished photo.
It can be necessary to carry out some basic enhancements afterwards to bring out more detail and add the finishing touches.
- Here's a restoration that took lots of time to do because of so much damage. It was done a good few years ago using Corel Photo-Paint. I thought it looked better left black and white.
