January 11

THE HEALING BRUSH
BY GEORGE GEDER
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

The New Year has jumped off with a flurry of genealogical and photographic activities. Just check out Twitter and Facebook for the many links. Then, when you finish catching up on the posts at 'Shades of The Departed', I'd like you to consider this.

Previously, I have cautioned you about taking your photographs to be retouched and restored to chain stores such as Walgreens, CVS, Sam's Club and even some photography studios. I am not alone in this concern. Some of my professional colleagues have kicked off the new year with galvanizing statements of their own.

Janine Smith of Landailyn Research & Restoration wrote on her blog, Janinealogy , "... I got one of those "shake up wake up" calls the other day. Someone told me they knew Photo Restoration was valid because "it was done at the CVS Pharmacy".... Good Lord! Another colleague, Ms. Mitzs of Pursuing Photoshop goes on to say, "... Photo Restoration isn't for everyone. It takes love for the field, patience and a lot of skill, and I do mean a lot of skill. Not just anyone can reconstruct half of someone's face when the only picture you have of them is the one you are working on....".

Janine Smith goes further. She states "...(I) begin referring to myself as a Photo Restoration Artist. It is an art and I am an artist... I would like to see more people of influence in the artistic and Photoshop community recognize good, well done, professional photo restoration as a valid art form." This concept is making the rounds in the professional photography community. I like it. You can choose to leave your precious-one-of-a-kind-photo to Walgreens or a legitimate Photo Restoration Artist. At the minimum, with a photo restoration artist, you know who you are dealing with. Pay them to restore your heirlooms pixel by pixel. So here's my recommendations:

• Consider the value of the restoration - don't play your ancestors cheap
• Find a Photo Restoration Artist you can talk to
• Insist that you be part of the process to offer suggestions
• Find a Photo Restoration Artist who is amenable to requests for changes

Now, what about the hundreds of pictures that only need a tweak here and there for improvement? First, determine what is right and what is wrong with the picture. If the errors outweigh the good, then it becomes a candidate for modest retouching and restoration. You can achieve decent results using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 which can be purchased from Amazon.com for under $80.00. Here are some examples:

Cousin Latoya has an ugly styrofoam cup in her hand and an orange cable running through her head. A little cropping, healing, and blurring of the background makes this a nice portrait!

Latoya Before

Latoya After

Sometimes you just want to isolate an individual from a group. It's as easy as using the crop tool found in virtually every image editing software package.

Albert Robbins

John Stevenson

Often, you want to share your photos with family (copies, that is). Why not enhance them beforehand? There's nothing wrong, in my estimation, of dressing up the images of our ancestors for future generations.

Before

After

Another Before

The Final Result

If you feel that this might be too much for you or you don't have the time to invest (it can be very time intensive), then seek out a 'Photo Restoration Artist' who you can trust to bring your pictures to life.

Peace,
“Guided by the Ancestors”