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6 comments so far...

Perkin-warbeck October 22, 2009, 05:41 PM

Those scratch marks look like they were made intentionally. There's nothing I could do about them.

littletank October 22, 2009, 08:28 PM

Why not? I've tackled worse than this. You know, if you are going to do this sort of thing seriously then you will need a Wacom tablet and lors of patience and imagination.

Perkin-warbeck October 23, 2009, 12:37 PM

I have a Wacom tablet, but I did not use it for these. My brain is still not comfortable with the tablet. But I know I should use it, and learn to use all the dynamic effects.

I think the scratch marks should be preserved because they tell a story. Somebody really didn't like this kid! But of course that's just an excuse.

littletank October 23, 2009, 01:13 PM

I have had a small Bamboo for a few months now and it took me quite a time to get used to it. It is most useful for such things as dodging and burning, cloning, healing and brush work. There is an excellent book Restoration & Retouching by Katrin Eismann, which really helped me enormously. Although it is based on Photoshop most of the processes are transferable to GIMP. The pictures used as examples are downloadable from www.digitalretouch.org and are well worth looking at. I managed to pick up a secondhand edition and I am well pleased.

Perkin-warbeck October 23, 2009, 01:40 PM

I just ordered the Eismann book -- thanks.

dotism October 23, 2009, 01:52 PM

Not that my opinion means anything, but to me the scratch mark is essential... it takes a picture of a moment and turns it into a wonderfully intriguing story. I collect old photographs, tintypes and cabinet cards, and something like this would be a prized element of a collection :)

Thank you for sharing these.