Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008 - (Page 42)

Photo 3. Photo 4. Photo 5. Photo 7. have a safety net when working in Adobe Photoshop, and I highly recommend it. As you work, you can create new “safe copies” and delete the old ones. Now that I’m viewing the image on the screen, I opened the color channels tab and began working the sliders. I adjusted the red channel, the green channel, and the blue channel, until I found the right amount of contrast (Photo 3). When I like what I see, I save a copy in that setting; then I save a new backup copy with the same settings, as I delete the old copies. The first step involved using the clone tool. I adjusted the tool to the right size and then sampled surrounding areas. With these samples, I filled in the missing areas of the photographs. Samples must be taken as close as possible to the missing areas, so there’ll be little discernable difference in the final product. The next step is to begin correcting the obvious problems. I noticed in the photo that the right ear was missing from my great grandmother. I’m assuming she 42 Sign Builder Illustrated May 2008 did have a right ear, so the easiest way to give her a new ear would be to clone the left ear. I selected the lasso tool and drew a selection around her left ear (Photo 4). Next I made a copy of the selection and created a new layer. Onto that new layer, I pasted the selection and flipped the image horizontally (Photo 5). Next I positioned the new ear into place and adjusted the rotation so that the ear would look natural. Zooming in to see a close-up view, I noticed a discernable line between her face and the cloned ear. I merged the two layers, and using the clone-stamping tool, I removed the line by sampling some of the surrounding areas and pasting these pixels into place over the offending line. For proper feathering, I used the blur brush tool set at 25 percent and stroked the area a few times. This resulted in a seamless ear replacement. The next part of the project requires squeezing as much detail as possible from the picture. I selected the entire photograph and duplicated the layer Photo 6. (Photo 6). With the new layer situated above the original scanned layer, I went to the layers pallet and chose the “multiply” blend mode for the top layer. Usually this results in an image that is too dark, so I’ll adjust the percentage slider down until I achieve the image I want. Once I was satisfied, I merged the two layers to create a new base layer. I

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008

Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008 Contents SBI Agenda Quotes & Comments Contributors Costly Concerns Dispatches Sign Show Dateline: Time to Find a New Identity Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks Sign Illumination: It’s Time to Pay Attention Restoring Old Photographs for Digital Printing Price Doesn’t Sell the Signs You Want to Make Architects in LED Codes for Electric Signs: Don’t Get Blindsided! Digital Displays at the Pearl Harbor Museum The Art of Wayfinding Signage Grand Format National Following Traffic Sign Regulations Designs on ADA Signage Painting Professionally SBI Marketplace Imagine-It Graphics

Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008

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