Thursday, July 16, 2009

Eating my own dogfood

I am talking often about the restoration of images. It is however not something that I do. The digital restoration of images we do has multiple aims:
  • remove stains, specs
  • remove tears and folds
  • adjust the colours to make it look like it used to
  • make it ready to illustrate our content
 To better understand what I am so often talking about I asked Durova for an appropriate picture.


This is a picture titled "Isle of Graia Gulf of Akabah Arabia Petraea" it is a drawings made on the spot by David Roberts and the lithographed was made by Louis Haghe. It is exactly right for me; it is a beautiful well preserved picture with some damage at the bottom and a few minor stains and the colour has faded over time. It has a subject and a quality that might even make it a featured picture. All in all, it is the ideal object to motivate a beginner like me.


When I was done, I had it checked by Durova and she sprinkled some additional magic on my work and now I think we have this gobsmacking beautiful picture.

I have learned some basic skills in GIMP, I learned that indeed you can be skyping and work on specs at the same time. All in all, restoring images seems like knitting; you are productive and you can jabber at the same time..

Try it out as well, I am sure Durova has many more images that need some work. If not we have to extend her range of material she can pick from :)
Thanks,
      GerardM

1 comment:

pfctdayelise said...

Well done. That's a gorgeous picture. :)