This is a cousin’s photograph that has seen some better days. I’m not sure how it ended up torn and missing the top, but Tina and I decided to provide some digital TLC.
I scanned it in and both Tina and I worked on it on and off restoring it. The big challenge was the tear in the lower third. It went right through the lady’s skirt that had a subtle polka dot pattern. Tina handled that being more patient and deft with the cloning tool than I.
I cleaned up the dust and scratches; fiddled around with the color and added the stuff that wasn’t there so it would be a decent 8×10 size.
It’s not something we do often although I used to do photo work like this professionally, but it’s nice to help out a relative, and I think we did a bang-up job.
Can you imagine trying to do this by hand with gauche and an airbrush?
I worked in a couple of places where the old timers couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.