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Retouching

Restoring old photographs and pictures is my special hobby. Being able to bringing back the precious moments of people's past is very inspiring!

... no need to say that it helps to improve one's Photoshop skills as well.

 
[ Photograph of Helen's Family ]

Photograph of Helen's Family

Overview: Restoration of my friend's family album photograph.

 
[ Amazing recovery of King's photographs ]

Recovery of King's Photographs

Overview: An amazing story of the recovery of a roll of film which remained forgotten in the camera for many years.

 
[ Sweet Herbal Tea photograph ]

Sweet Herbal Tea

Overview: An example of a transformation of a low-quality cell phone shot into an artistic picture.

 
[ Illustration by Ed Emshwiller ]

The Cave of the Violet Light

Overview: This artwork by Ed Emshwiller, aka Emsh, is a cover for "Love" fiction story by Richard Wilson, published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in June 1952.

 
[ Golden Gate photograph ]

Golden Gate

Overview: This digital photograph was taken on our wedding day and because of the bright sun and the counter-light position came out pretty dim and dull. So I decided to play with it in the Photoshop and here is what came out.

 
[ Photograph of Naida ]

Naida

Overview: Naida was the most kind-hearted and wise doberman I ever met. She belonged to Toma, a friend of mine, who loved her dearly. When Naida went to the Rainbow Bridge at the noble age of 13, Toma showed me this picture of 9-months old Naida. She told me with a sigh that she took it to several so-called professionals and asked them if they could restore it for her. Nobody wanted to give it a try. During the past 12 years the picture faded out, broke into halves, had ink and coffee spots on it, as well as holes from being hanged on a wall with a pin. I scanned this 6in. x 9in. photograph at 600 dpi and spent the whole night working on it. At 10 a.m. I fell asleep from tiredness and when I woke up, only a couple minor corrections needed to be done. Finally, I printed the photograph in its original size at Costco. I am very glad that Toma has this restored picture now, as well as a new doberman girl, beautiful and energetic Cara.

[ Madchen mit Schafen illustration ]

Madchen mit Schafen

Overview: This lovely reproduction of an old picture entitled 'Madchen mit Schafen' was hanging in a frame in my bedroom since I knew myself. It was cut out of some German magazine dated 1950's and given as a present to my mom when she was a little girl. No need to say that this 8in. x 6in. picture printed on thin magazine paper faded and got severely damaged with time. I scanned it at 600 dpi and retouched it to the best of my abilities, then printed it on photographic paper of the same size. The newly restored reproduction is now decorating my grandma's room.

[ Sleeping Girl ]

Sleeping Girl

Overview: This is another picture reproduction dated 1950's which was hanging on the wall of my bedroom. Its size was bigger, about 18in x 12in, but the condition was nearly the same. My cousin loved the restored reproduction so much that she asked me if I could make a copy for her. I was delighted and gave it to her as a present when her baby son was born. I also have this picture as one of the backgrounds I use on my computer screen.

[ Golden Bull ]

Golden Bull

Overview: This is a retouched photograph of the Golden Bull monument located in the epicenter of NYC business district. I do not remember how I managed to take such a lousy shot with badly overlit skies and nearly black bull... I was making my first steps in Photography at that time. While I was playing with levels in Photoshop, trying to extract at least some details from poor photograph, the idea came to my mind to make the Bull look as if it was really made of gold. Here you can see the results of my experiments. I especially like how the enhanced photograph looks when printed on metallic photo-paper. I am still trying to print a copy for myself: every time I print one, it immediately goes to some friend or colleague of mine. VBG!

[ Graduation Speech ]

Graduation Speech

Overview: This photograph was taken by Alex Zhilyakov on June 17, 1993, the graduation day at school N40. Sergey Vernigorenko aka Green was making a speech on behalf of our classmates, addressing our great teachers and tutors. The negative film from that event was scanned some 10 years later and had tons of scratches and spots (this is just normal film ageing, I suppose). I made some effort to restore this and several other photographs from that memorable day.

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© 2005-2013 Olga Bobrova