Restored and colorized photograph of a man playing a fiddle
Scanned photograph of man playing fiddle. Minor restoration needed.
This was a very small print, in very poor condition.
From the amount of grain and the overall exposure it's safe to assume that a reprint from the negative itself would have yielded unspectacular results.
Time had made matters worse for the print as dirt and cracks had accumulated over the years.
A reprint from the negative would have been the obvious recourse when presented with damaged print such as this, but as in many cases with older photographs, the negatives had either disappeared into the twilight zone or were in the hands of unknown relations on some remote branch of the family tree.
Fiddle player photograph restored.
The restoration entailed the usual routine of cloning and healing from the less damaged areas of the image. The narrow tonal range has divested the shadows of any detail and this attribute has made the restoration easier as we don't have to concern ourselves with too many details - you can't restore what isn't there.
Colour data for fiddler photograph.
The colour layer is basic with only minor variations in hue. The saturation level is kept low as this will provide the most convincing effect when applied to the greyscale version.
The colours blur into one another and these transitions are also more natural and will be perceived either consciously or sub-consciously as reflected light.
By varying the hues over the low frequency areas of the image you can further imply greater detail, these subtle variations will only be perceived at a subliminal level but will increase the overall believability of the colorization.
The colour layer without it's tonal attributes looks very basic and even childlike. It's effectiveness, though, lies in it's ability to complement the greyscale version and add something extra to the image. A poor colour layer can easily detract from the original version especially when the original is a well exposed image in good condition.
Colourised photograph of man playing fiddle.
The limited tonal range is now compensated for by the addition of colour. Although the range of colours amount to less than thirty, it is sufficient to combine with the tonal range to multiply the variety of information that we perceive within this image.
