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General discussion

Desperate for my 18th birthday photos

Sep 17, 2005 8:58PM PDT

Hi all, I'm from Italy, so excuse my English.
I just become 18 years old, and as it's common in Italy I had a huge party with my friends. One of them was encharged to take some pictures of that wonderful and special day. Today I received them and they were terrible (I've never seen anything similar to that before). I'll post you a link with one of the images.Please try to restore it and if you succeed please let me know that with a restored image.
Thank you in advance


http://www.hostfiles.org/files/2005...19_DSCN0961.JPG

Hosta gratuitamente le tue immagini su Hostfiles.org

Discussion is locked

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Bad link
Sep 17, 2005 11:52PM PDT

The link you posted does not work for me.

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heres one for the math freaks ;-)
Sep 18, 2005 12:13AM PDT
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That worked for me
Sep 20, 2005 3:39PM PDT

Jonah, That worked and I was able to get the image.
I do not know how you did it, yet it worked for me. Kind of a nice photo. Needs color correcting in photoshop that's for sure.

-Kevin

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Link failed. However, even if it succeeded, no one is likely
Sep 17, 2005 11:57PM PDT

to do good restoration work for nothing. Such services usually fetch about $100 per hour.

This is one of the better 'Looking for free goods and services' posts I've seen. The sheer chutzpah is amazing.

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A few people ARE likely to be interested.
Sep 18, 2005 12:07AM PDT

So, please post a good link and we will see if the photo can be improved.

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Thanks to the one who are interested
Sep 18, 2005 3:47AM PDT
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Not a hard thing to do
Sep 18, 2005 6:40AM PDT

There are many programs available to you for photo repair and enhancement. Try Jasc Paintshop pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Picture It or any of the many photo programs. I know your young but it is not polite to go into an information shareing sight and ask for free service. It is rude.

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free service? rude?
Sep 18, 2005 1:00PM PDT

wow!
i thought he he came to a help forum and asked for help...

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Hi, Jonah. Usually people come here for help learning...
Sep 22, 2005 6:35AM PDT

how to do things. That's not the tone of the original post (which comes across as "please do this for me!") So I don't blame KP for taking some umbrage. OTOH, the problem may well partially be a matter of tone in an unfamiliar language, since the original poster's from Italy. Meanwhile, I'm temporarily locking this thread to clean it up some.

-- Dave K.

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Dave: Cleaning up ?
Sep 25, 2005 3:39PM PDT

Dave, really not sure what you deleted, yet thanks.
I met with Lee Koo and Dennis Smith today (Sunday, Sept, 25th) in Braintree, MA. on their tour.
I told Lee and Dennis that these posts, from the Digital Camera forum, trying to help out a young kid, was one of the best I have ever been into and read.
Kidpeat was the hero in my estimation. I got into it rather late. Tried to help out also.
Nice forum issue.
Told Lee and Dennis what a great job Joe Randolf
(our Mod) did. The threads were just amazing. I have read them start to finish three times so far.
I'll probably read them again.

Dave, thanks for helping out.

-Kevin Smith

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rude asking for help ???
Sep 18, 2005 10:31PM PDT

I'm young, you're right.However I was told already to help people when they are in need... I don't think I'm rude because that's just a forum, a place when you can express your opinions and ask the others. I wasn't asking any of you for free professional service( in fact I already sent a copy of the picture to a lab) but just an opinion (since I'm not an expert) if there was the possibility to solve the problem with some simple steps with Photoshop.That's all.
However thank you for you post

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Oh, it looked to me like you wanted someone to fix the
Sep 19, 2005 6:52AM PDT

photo, and upload it. You would then have the fixed photo. I did not realize that you just wanted an assessment of whether Photoshop can fix it.

The answer is yes and no. Yes, Photoshop can fix it. No, it not just a few simple steps in Photoshop.

Did you upload any normal photos?

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no normal photo
Sep 22, 2005 3:53AM PDT

I didn't upload any normal photo because they are all ruined

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This response is emblematic of the utter callousness...
Sep 19, 2005 11:57AM PDT

... of contemporary society, where money is everything to the point where a young person asking for help on a public forum is seen as *rude*. Sad-- just sad.

It reminds me of how in a simpler time when baseball players used to give their autographs for free; now young people who want one are sneered at that nothing in life is free, and that they should expect to pay $500 for one. The absurdity.

I'm sorry it annoys some people when others ask for help, but some of us don't mind helping people. If you don't want to help, it's a simple matter of just ignoring them instead of making a big stink about it and trying to embarrass the person or make them feel bad.

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You Are 100% On Target....
Sep 20, 2005 4:26AM PDT

...The other poster(s) here who seem to be having a bit of a caniption because this poor guy asked for a little help are absolutely pathetic and should be ashamed of themselves.
What a drag some people are!!!

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GREAT !!
Sep 22, 2005 3:55AM PDT

Finally there's somebody who defends me !!! Asking for some advices is not breaking the law I think !!!

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amen.
Sep 20, 2005 5:08AM PDT

I agree 100%.

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Photo Rapair
Sep 18, 2005 10:57AM PDT

The photo was taken with a flash.
The flash was too strong or the camera did not adjust properly.

I tried several methods to improve the photo.
I used the PhotoShop Elements 3 program.
I used:
Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Brightness Contrast
and set the brightness to -25

That helped the overall appearance, but that did not get rid of the white highlights on the face.

I used the Clone Stamp Tool set at 50% opacity to blot out the white highlights, and soften the color changes in the face and ear.

I then removed the bright background lights near the ear, with the Clone Tool set at 100% opacity. Those lights were distracting to me.

I still think that the color is a bit orange, but was unable to correct it and keep a natural appearance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/randol9p9/FirstFix.jpg

I then cropped the photo to get rid of some of the background and here is what it looked like after the crop:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/randol9p9/FixPlusCrop.jpg

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That is the best that I could do.
Someone who knows PhotoShop better than I, can probably do better.

Since these are once in a lifetime photos, you may want to get someone to work on the best ones.

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congratulations and kudos!!
Sep 18, 2005 1:01PM PDT

you just showed people what a help forum is all about!


jonah

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Actually, it looks to me like it's got too much green and
Sep 18, 2005 2:27PM PDT

blue. I played with it a bit, and found it needed lots of curve adjustment layers each operating on a different problem. It would take a lot of time to get it looking natural. That's why I asked him to post a normal photo so that skin tones can be seen.

However, time is money or opportunity, so I probably will not do anymore.

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Quite easily?
Sep 20, 2005 4:08PM PDT

Kidpeat, Please do not listen to those people that are not into graphics or photography. Just ignore them as I do.
Thanks for trying to help and your expertise. Welcomed by me.
I was able to download the file with the help from Jonah Jones. I will try to color correct the image using Photoshop V6. The file is low resolution, yet that's ok. Looks like the flash was used and very grainy image. Almost posterization effects

Give me a little time Wed. evening.
Right now, I am posting at 2:10am EST. Kind of late to start up Photoshop. Plus the fact, I want to read the rest of the posts.
Let's hope they are good ones.

Kidpeat, I need an address to send the file to. I could send the file to other members and they could set up a link for you. Let me know.
I could send it to Bob Proffitt also.

Bob, Is that OK with you?

-Kevin Smith

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Thanks for your comments. I use PS CS2 these days, and
Sep 20, 2005 4:53PM PDT

employed 15 mostly color adjustment layers with masks. I also did quite a bit of cloning and patching. I also whitened one eye and one tooth. I think it looks a lot better, but still needs more work.

If you want to send me something, you can send it to kiddpeat at yahoo dot c** where I'm sure you know what the c** is. I'll be looking forward to your results.

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You look a bit too angry man!
Sep 22, 2005 3:59AM PDT

Hey ! Thanks for your trying. However I must say that I didn't oblige anybody to do a long job to fix my photo. I was just asking for some advice for me, so I can fix the other 40 pictures that are as ruined as the one I uploaded !!! I think you should calm down a little.
Anyway...thanks for you nice try

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Link to Kiddpeat's repair efforts.
Sep 22, 2005 6:45AM PDT

I deleted several posts, including his, that turned into mainly an insult-fest, but didn't want to remove the link to the fruits of his labors. I'll also quote the beginning of his message, before the insults, since it helps explain the difference of opinion about the original request.

http://img5.picsplace.to/img.php?file=img5/5/demo.jpg

The (edited) meat of his post: "There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you expect people to take the time to learn to use Photoshop for this kind of work, who are you to DEMAND that they give those skills away?! You don't seem to get it. What is being asked for is a gift. There is NO OBLIGATION to give gifts. Giving can be done freely, but there is, and should be, no sense of compulsion."
-- Dave K.

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thank you
Sep 18, 2005 10:27PM PDT

Thank you very much for your kindness in trying to fix my picture. At least you understood that I didn't create this forum just to save money...(as others could have thought).

Anyway, now that I know that some serious work can fix them I'll try to find an expert to recover them.
Thanks again

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birthday photos
Sep 20, 2005 3:50PM PDT

hi
you download PICASA2 from Google, it is free.
Hopefully your problem will be solved easily because it can be used by anyone even a novice.
best of luck.

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For those who are interested, you should probably
Sep 18, 2005 10:41AM PDT

upload a good photo of the people involved. Otherwise, it is impossible to know what your normal skin tones are.

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i tried...
Sep 18, 2005 3:29PM PDT
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Thanks for the support
Sep 18, 2005 10:22PM PDT

Thanks for the nice try, it looked more natural. Unfortunately I can't post a picture for reference because all of them are like this Sad . I was told that probably the problems are due to a light filter activated in the camera.

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you could always try the ''old fashioned'' way
Sep 19, 2005 4:48AM PDT