Good with PhotoShop? Want to help a fire victim?

[famousdavis]

At work this past week, a co-worker (whom I do not know) had her house burn down to the ground 8O -- a total loss. As I said, I don't know the woman, but I believe she is a single mom with a son.

Out of the rubble, she was able to salvage about a dozen photos that were in picture frames. Some of the photos are in good condition, some aren't. She has only one picture of her father (an Olan Mills black-and-white portrait that I think was pencil-colored -- probably 1950s-era) , and a lousy B&W photocopy of her mother. The rest are of other family members.

I've scanned her photos into my computer so I can burn a CD for her, and I can take care of fixing-up a few of the slightly scorched or soiled photos, but the two photos of her mother and father are way beyond my ability to help. The father's portrait, in particular, was a beautiful portrait before the fire, but now it is still damp, smoke-scented, and covered with black and gray ash.

If anyone here is a PhotoShop whiz and would like to donate a little time to try and repair these photos, PM me and I'll email them to you.

Many thanks for whatever assistance you can offer to her!

[famousdavis]

At work this past week, a co-worker (whom I do not know) had her house burn down to the ground 8O -- a total loss. As I said, I don't know the woman, but I believe she is a single mom with a son.

Out of the rubble, she was able to salvage about a dozen photos that were in picture frames. Some of the photos are in good condition, some aren't. She has only one picture of her father (an Olan Mills black-and-white portrait that I think was pencil-colored -- probably 1950s-era) , and a lousy B&W photocopy of her mother. The rest are of other family members.

I've scanned her photos into my computer so I can burn a CD for her, and I can take care of fixing-up a few of the slightly scorched or soiled photos, but the two photos of her mother and father are way beyond my ability to help. The father's portrait, in particular, was a beautiful portrait before the fire, but now it is still damp, smoke-scented, and covered with black and gray ash.

If anyone here is a PhotoShop whiz and would like to donate a little time to try and repair these photos, PM me and I'll email them to you.

Many thanks for whatever assistance you can offer to her!

[arnage2]

email callforhelp@techtv.com, and they might do it for you. (im not very good at photoshop)


sorry about the fire. :cry:

[David Prahl]

I would PM Justin "Honda_Civic_si" - he's very good at Photoshop and might be able to help you out.

Very sorry about the fire - let us know if we can help.

[JustinGTP]

Yep, I PM'd him this morning. I hope I can do something with the files Maybe I should PM him my email address lol, Ill do that right now

-Justin.

[Steven Cedrone]

Too bad you can't get some of the Fark Photoshopers to help you. Some of them are quite good...

Steve

[famousdavis]

Originally Posted by Steven Cedrone

Too bad you can't get some of the Fark Photoshopers to help you. Some of them are quite good...

Steve

What is a "Fark Photoshoper"???

Anyway, thanks to those of you who've PM'd me. I'll wait until Monday evening -- to allow anyone else who'd like to help to PM me, too -- and then I'll distribute a 2 photos or so to each of you to see if you can enhance/repair them.

Honda, it sounds like you may be my best bet for tackling the hard stuff -- I'll be curious to see your reaction to the photos when I send them to you.

Actually, rather than sending them to you (they're BIG photoshop files), I'll post them to my website and you can download them from there -- that'll keep the original scanned images intact (eg, I won't have to condense/resize them just so I can email them).

Again, thanks to all who've offered to help!

[David Prahl]

I know they're very personal photographs, but I'm sure many members would be interested in seeing how much restoration takes place. Could you post a sample when (and if) they're done? (Nothing personal of course)

[famousdavis]

Originally Posted by David Prahl

I know they're very personal photographs, but I'm sure many members would be interested in seeing how much restoration takes place. Could you post a sample when (and if) they're done? (Nothing personal of course)

Okay, let's see if I did this correctly....

Here is where you'll find the original photos that I scanned over this weekend. The JPEGs on the web page are condensed and smaller than the original scans. On the webpage, you'll find a hyperlink to each of the photos in Photoshop format -- much, much larger files (up to 22MB each).

I'll reply to the PMs I've received thus far and ask for specific help with specific photos. Some photos aren't too bad -- some look worse as you examine them more closely. Some are in bad need of help.

Again, thanks to whoever can help with this endeavor.

[JustinGTP]

Famousdavis,

I can see some need help - but others seem fine. Im downloading most of them, but the KB/s from your site is about 30-40, so it will take a bit. You can even help me by explaining what wrong and Ill inspect them closer up. Also, I think most are managable


-Justin.

[Pat Logsdon]

Yeah, most are manageable, but that one of the father is really a challenge. I've made a good start on that one (part of the hair, the eyes and the nose), but there's just a large percentage of the image that's been wiped out by the damage, so it's a time consuming process to extrapolate the data from the intact sections and apply it to fill in the damaged areas.

It actually helps that the image is an older style - the fade effect around the edges of the suit can be moved up a little to compensate for some of the missing pieces. The background should be pretty easy to clean up compared to the photo.