To give you a peak into the process of what I do to photos before they reach your eyes, today's post shows you a little "before and after" work. My original scan of this 1965 cast of characters at Disneyland looks like a mess of reds. Thanks to a little work in Photoshop, some colors actually emerge. One of these days, I would really like to take a class on color restoration, as I know there is probably a lot more I could do to help bring back some of these vintage images.
This July 18, 1955 shot of the Clock of the World at the Tomorrowland entrance looks like a dark one; many would probably toss it.
With a little help from Lightroom, details (and people) come into view.
Many vintage slides have faded into magenta oblivion; this July 1960 shot seems mighty close.
Time in Lightroom and Photoshop is well spent, bringing back some of the original vigor of this interesting Fred Gurley Disneyland Railroad shot.
Snapshots often fade even faster than negatives and slides; this September 1967 photo is no exception.
New Orleans Square looks a lot more vibrant after some time in Lightroom.
Even present day photos require some time in processing. This recent shot of Balboa Park is marred by shadows. Just not really what I wanted, as the time of day didn't cooperate with my vision of what I was trying to capture.
Desaturating it into a black and white photo made me much happier.
When I first started doing HDR (High-Dynamic-Range) photography, I got a little bit of flack from some readers who thought I should stick to traditional looking methods for the processing of my images. Here's a "regular" shot of Balboa Park.
By combining 7 shots taken in quick succession at different exposures (handheld, no tripod), this is what I came up with:
I love shooting the arches in the park; the way the light passes through and cast shadows can really create some cool images. Here's a normally processed shot:
…and the more dreamy counterpart created using HDR photography:
And there you have a tiny view into some of the work that goes into my posts!
See more vintage & current Daveland photos on my main website.
8 comments:
nice. I had to do some similar de-redifying (used Picasa) to clean up some Walt Disney World 1972-1974 photos from an old Kodak 110 that my mom took when I was a toddler.
I'm thinking later this year explicitly trying to find the exact same spot in order to put together a then-and-now album.
Very, very, VERY cool. Thanks for sharing. A lot of us non-camera people have no idea how that works, only that it looks better. If you say there's room to improve then I'll take your word on it but the way you restored that first shot from being mostly red is amazing.
Back in the 90's I took photography classes from a man who was formerly a student of Ansel Adams. I remember him telling us that Ansel said it was more important to assure the picture was interesting than it was pure. Bearing that in mind, I'd like to think that if AA were alive today he'd be doing HDR shots because it's the new thing to do.
Wow, awesome job on the color restoration! I love the Clock of the World and the entrance arch.
I enjoy your style of photography, so no flack from me. Keep 'em coming!
You sure put in a lot of work just so we can take a mental trip to the park or wherever...and I thank you for it!
Keep up the great work Dave!
- Darryl
This is cool that you shared this, Dave. I've brought a few photos back from the dead myself, so I can appreciate some of the effort you put into it. I love it when a blogger takes their time to clean up and correct the photo images before posting. You always do a beautiful job.
WOW! I have been following this blog and greatly enjoying your pictures for quite some time now but I still had NO idea how much work went into bringing them up to the quality shown! I thought it was a simple matter of find, upload, and voilå! Now I will have even more appreciation of your efforts.
Thanks all for the nice comments - I enjoy doing it and getting the great feedback from all of you.
Man, you really do spend hours getting your posts ready!
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