The Digital Challenge for the September WWIG Meeting

Roger Grant has selected 2 images for the September Digital Challenge. In his e-mail he commented: "Attached are two scanned old photos from my wife's mother's family. One is a nightmare, the other less so. Perhaps people could choose the one they want to spend time with."

Last month the challenge was to retouch portraits. This time it is an exercise in restoration. In doing so you should follow your own inner compass. For what it is worth, my own personal bias is that, like in retouching, when restoring less is generally more. For several reasons I don't aspire for perfection and, in fact, want to make obvious that the image is an old one, thus emphasizing its historical context.

So what should you use as a source for this Digital Challenge? You can right click and save these images to your hard drive but they are very small (373 and 365 kbytes) and this approach is not recommended. You can contact me or Roger and ask for the original scans which are quite large (44 and 16.4 mbytes) which will be good if you plan to make say a 22x17inch print but otherwise unnecessary. Finally, you can use the images that are attached to the e-mail I will be sending. These  have been reduced in size to a level that is appropriate for web or digital display (3.29 and 3.21 mbytes)-- this is the approach I favor.  Choose what works for you.

The images attached to the e-mail Roger sent were not this sickly copper color but more of a sickly yellow color. I don't know which is the color of the print from which these were derived. Part of your job, of course, is to choose a color for the final restoration that is pleasing.

Remember this is an opportunity to learn-- admittedly through self-instruction-- and, as always, it should be an enjoyable experience.
Byron