Topic awaiting preservation: Help or suggestions needed, warning large images low file size ahead

OK i have restored a photo for my g/f's fathers 50th birthday:

here is the original:
here is the restored:

Now what i have been asked to do is replace the cake and table with a 50, but try and keep it in the same type of style ie: black n white, but the main problem i can see is trying to make it lok like its part of the original photo, ie keep the background and floor there etc somehow, anyone got any ideas...???

yes i know its cheesy but thats what they want.. also i was thinking about getting it so it looks like his arm is resting on the 5 of the fifty where it is now resting on the table...

any tips would be great, also any suggestions on how to improve the resotred image would also be appreciated thanks again

tom

[This message has been edited by tomeaglescz (edited 03-17-2004).]

why not copy the candle 50 times!



{or should that be 49 times, as there's already one on it!!}



[This message has been edited by kitEkat (edited 03-17-2004).]

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

tomeaglescz: To recreate the background, you could create an image with several repetitions of the lighting pattern ( the round crosses and dots ) and apply a Persperctive transformation to match the projection of the original picture.

Regarding the "50", the best I can think of is to take a picture of a "50" shaped candle, scale it to the appropriate proportion and adjust the level to match the rest of the picture.

Try to avoid sharp edges and put some grain eventually via doing an highpass filter of image and setting the resulting layer in hardlight @ 5-10%.
Finally, the floor should be a piece of cake.

Hope that helps.

I would approach it from the opposite of how you seem to be looking at it, Tom: cut out the kid, recreate a background for him.

You could copy the pattern of light on the wall (clone to fill in the parts that are covered by his head) and make a broaded fill for the image. Either create the 50 in PS (or a 3D app) or use Poi's suggestion to scan a candle.

By selective use of noise and some well placed shadows, it should be relatively easy all in all.

If the realism of the scene becomes too diifcult, again - go the other way: make the kid match what you've created instead.




[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 03-17-2004).]

Thanks for the input folks, DL i like the sound of your idea about tranposing the kid onto a new image. One question though, i cant figure out how to change the sample area (brush size) in the clone tool, the target brush (ie the one i am painting with) is done through the brush size obviously, but how do i sample a larger area for cloning? i looked through the help files on this and even resorted to google, either i am not using the correct keywords or it cant be done probably me searching wrong..

anyway i'm off back to tackle it, will keep you posted with the progress as it goes along, luckily i am on holliday for the next week, so i have got quite a bit of time to get this one finished

When you have the clone tool selected, the option for the brush size/settings controls the size/settings of the clone tool.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking for. To
change the sample area simply press in alt and choose the area you want.

Ok maybe i am using the wrong tool for the job then, or maybe just misuderstanding how this is working, the size of the brush in the clone tool dictates the size of the cloned image being painted this i know already..


alt click to choose sample area i already am using as i did in the restoration of that image.

But for example if i want to sample a larger area at a time say a big chunk of the background use that as the clone tools sample area... understand what i want/trying to achieve, when you alt click an area its just that small circle that gets sampled no matter how big you brush is. agreed it puts down a larger amount of it, but thats not what i am aiming for.

i could just make a selection, copy paste etc etc etc, but that doesnt always give the right effect...

ps i am using ps 7.01

Ah...I wasn't aware of that. I had assumed that the larger brush sampled a larger area as well (been a while..).

In this case, copy/paste combined with the transform commands should work well...

tomeaglescz: I think your problem with the Stamp tool comes from the Aligned checkbox in the options toolbar. When the Aligned is activated, you can release the mouse button with the Stamp and continue to clone an area of the image, while when it's not activated the origin of the area to clone is reset to the position where you Alt+click whenever you release the mouse button.

Try both settings of the Aligned checkbox if I'm not clear.

thanks poi will give it a whirl later, i have managed to separate the image into pieces that i can stretch it now so essentialy i am oving the cake to the right, moving the kid to the left and have him resting on the 50 in the middle, just got to recreate the room in the background and see how it goes from there...