Restoring an old photo

Restoring old photo prints is something I do just for Photoshop practice. There are far better re-touchers out there than me with my meager skills. Today a neighbor asked me if I could take an old photo print scan it into the computer and erase the background as she wanted to share the photo on Facebook but was not happy with the baked goods background. Here is the raw scan...

Raw scan of the 5x7 print after cropping.

After scanning the print at 300dpi, I spent about 20 minutes  extracting the background.

After removing the background,

Workable but my neighbor is a very nice person and deserves a better image for her Facebook avatar. Back to Photoshop...2 hours later, a new background, color correction and re-lighting...

Unfortunately some of the highlights  were blown out 

in the print a little beyond Photoshop's ability to recover

Often times I am asked to photograph interesting items for lobby and other displays. Here the owner of some interesting scale weights which I understand were once commonly used to weigh opium around the turn of the century in East Asia. The client commissioned me to create an art piece for the wall in his office.

After much arranging and fiddling around with the layout and lighting the client chose this photo which was further processed in Photoshop to achieve a subtle duo-tone effect to fit well with the colors and furnishings in the room. The total shots taken with different light and layout were around 250. Of which I chose the top 5 and the client chose the final image.

Lighting was ambient room light from a south facing window on a very overcast day giving wonderfully soft directional light from camera left and a few bright spots along the smooth worn areas of the bronze. A white fill card was added off camera right to bring some details into the shadows but still keep the shape definition of the pieces. The final print 22x16 inches does not have the watermark.

Nikon D90 105mm prime with a macro bellows
f/6 at 4 seconds ISO 400

See more examples on my Flickr page at  www.flickr.com/michaelsrichter/

Artwork Reproduction

Another facet of the business is to photograph other peoples art , in this case, for reproduction as a color plate in biographical book about the artists of Woodstock, NY. The art must be evenly lit, show the texture of the medium in this case oil on canvas, be color accurate, and of course, be perfectly square with no distortions. The more you can get right in the camera; the less you'll have to do in post.

The painting is roughly 28"x34". Ideally I would use a 200mm lens and move back far enough to fill the frame of my D600 Nikon. Unfortunately this configuration is pushing me beyond the size limits of my small studio. The alternative is to switch to my 28-70mm set to 70mm and moving the camera to fill the frame. This will introduce a small amount of distortion which you would normally not notice but with a rectangular object close to the edges of the frame, its obvious but fixable in post.

Next problem is the sensor plane must be perpendicular to the canvas to prevent any keystone distortions. The painting is on an easel tilted back therefore the camera needs to be positioned high and tilted down.

Now that the camera and painting are in position, its time to bring in the lighting. Dried oil paints are very shiny and often have lots of texture which creates a lot of unwanted specular highlights. The goal is to get rid of the speculars but not loose the texture and brush strokes. This was solved by raising the key light very high and directly above the subject, moving most of the specular reflections below the angle of the camera and giving some relief to the texture because of the side lighting. Distancing the light source helps reduce the light fall off. The addition of a 40" silver reflector under the painting bounces just enough light back to the bottom to even out the lighting.

D600 24-70mm @70mm, 1/160, f/8, ISO 100
Artist: Nan Mason, 1932

Color correction done with a gray card along with minor contrast and distortion adjustments in post complete this project.

Antique Art

Part of what I do is to accurately reproduce antiques for auctions often times these drawings and sketches are behind glass making it difficult to photograph without reflections. Not only is the correct color important the art can not be distorted and must be photographed  perpendicular to the film/sensor plane. The only way to prevent reflections is to shoot in a darkened studio with lighting carefully placed as to not reflect back into the camera. In  this case the owner wanted the detail of  the pencil handwriting in the upper left and lower right photographed separately and ledgibly. The solution is to position the lights so they light the subject  but the light reflected off of the glass bounces off and away from the lens. By hanging the art on the wall and lighting from above with a large soft box the incident of reflection sends the reflected light to the non-reflective floor covered with black paper where most of the light is absorbed. Very little light is bounced into the studio leaving nothing to reflect.
Here are the finals after a small amount of contrast adjustment in Photoshop.

The little jobs save the day!

Today I did  a shot of a client's father's wedding ring, exactly as given to the son, without any cleaning for insurance coverage.

Nikon D90 with a 55mm f2.8 Macro lens f8, 1/50 under LED lighting with white & black bounce cards.

Its little jobs like this that although, not exciting and glamorous, that pay the bills in the off season.

Antique Sorority Vases

I love shooting antiques and capturing the colors and patina they have. Here is an example of a simple shoot done for the client for a professional insurance appraisal. Kappa Kappa Phi vase pair valued between $600 and $700. Colors are rendered 100% true to life with no other editing. The lighting is a bit flat as these are for inspection purposes only. Note how the macro of the signature reveals the fine patina on the pottery.

Shot with a Nikon D600 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ f5.6, 1/160sec, under studio strobes.

Macro shot with a Nikon D90 120mm f/2.8 and D4 bellows assembly. f/5.6, 1/160 sec.