Misc. Projects Here and There

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 18:06

I get requests to do photo restorations, repair work, and some rather odd jobs that come in from time to time. Here are a few that I've done.
I made this portrait of my wife Debby by holding her picture in my left hand and drawing it with the mouse in my right hand and looking at the screen while I made it. I did this in 3 versions of FreeHand over a 2-year period about 10 years ago. By the way, she still looks like this...here's a photo of her with her fingers crossed last month at the Guitar Center Drum-Off when our son Nick came in 3rd place against a couple of pros and 6 other contestants...lucky me!

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 18:19

One of the more challenging deals that came in was this request from Bill the Cityking. His grandmother was in this picture taken at a wedding in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1912. She was a bridesmaid at a family friend's wedding...pictures were taken back then with the photographer being covered with a black tent-looking sheet, holding a pallette with phosphorous that got lit for the flash, and everybody had to stand perfectly still for about 20 or 30 seconds...anyway, Grandma had the bride's head in the way. I decided to put her in a picture by herself, so I went over to the far right side of the picture and borrowed that lady's arms and put them on Grandma. Turns out that lady on the right was Grandma's sister...Bill's Mom and sister flipped over the results. I had unknowingly combined these 2 sisters into one and it was Grandma and Aunt so-and-so. They loved it, but there really wasn't any other way to get her off by herself without that bride's head being smack-dab in front of her, ya know.
The original picture
The picture with Grandma cropped out
Grandma by herself with Aunt so-and-so's arms

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 18:28

Here's one this lady sent in of a wedding in what I'd say is 1960 or '59...I'm calling it that because of the Connie Francisesque kiss-curl on the bride's hairdo and the steel-reinforced stilletto-type bras that the bridesmaids wore...that has late 50s written all over it. The picture had been sitting somewhere where sunlight had gotten on it and over time, all of the blue had faded out. I made some selective color adjustments to it and got it looking new again.

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 18:33

One of my coworkers brought this nice picture of his Mom in one day and asked me if I could fix it. It looked like something got spilled on it. I scanned the original, and I very carefully took her right arm and part of the right side of her dress, copied it and pasted it back in to another layer, flipped it over, and resized and shaped it to fit where her left arm had been damaged by the spill. My buddy was pleased. I didn't tell him anything, just handed him the picture.

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 18:49

Once Photoshop gets ahold of your head, there's no getting away from it. I don't see anything the way it really is anymore. I see layers. The news magazines and various cheap consumer filth that is availabe to purchase while you're waiting in line at the supermarket or convenience store are nothing but Photoshopped pulp. I can see right off where the photos are doctored and changed to give them a slant...it's funny because the conservative news magazines have their photos done one way and the liberal ones have the same photos done another way...they also create scenes such as a group of scared people at Heathrow Airport in London...that is not a real picture...it was schlepped together in layers to portray an airport full of scared people of all races and nationalities standing there looking at the big screen on the wall...that made me look at ALL the pictures in the magazine and by golly, they were ALL changed in Photoshop. It can be fun and you can make all kinds of stuff with it, but it can also have a dark side, where you can make something that isn't real but you tell John Q. Public it's real and he'll probably believe it. The way I am now, I see their tricks right off the bat, and trust me, it's all going on all the time. I try to keep it on the light side and do good with it, but there are some people that use it to make folks believe in their agenda. It works both ways. They all do it. Anyway, that's my editorial. I don't take anything off a news stand at face value. It's really not what it looks like...Cheers, WC1

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 19:09

A few years ago, Jim Sanders sent me a picture of his uncle Curt Wasson and Jes, his sweetheart that was from Christmas in the early 60s. The photo was damaged and I fixed it up as best I could:
Jim and Jes are good people, by the way.

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 05 2009, 19:13

Jim posted this picture of Curt racing his Funny Car in the late 60s at Tulsa and he mentioned that he'd sure like to see that picture in color some day. Well, I couldn't let that go. I went ahead and made one in color out of that picture. It was not easy and it isn't perfect. It has that surrealistic nuclear glow or something. I learned a lot doing this project that helped me later in other deals.

Chevguy65 · by **Chevguy65** » Nov 06 2009, 02:24

I don't know what to say other than this is soooooooooooo cool!!!

You sure are lucky WC!!!!
Beautiful wife, son that is as talented as the old man....dude life must be good.

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 06 2009, 04:26

Thanks, Carl. The room lights up for me when they walk in. Here's Kyle, my oldest son, giving his new H.R. Geiger Ibanez a workout and Nick doing his drum solo at the Drum-Off. Nick played beautifully, he made music on the drums and a great artistic statement that night...he didn't just crash-bam-boom. Both he and Kyle are better than I am, Nick played guitar for a year or so and he got to where he was playing circles around me...shredding...then he got interested in drums and he's been doing that ever since. Kyle plays guitar but his graphic artistry blows me away. They're good kids and I never pushed them except to be honest and stand-up, do what they believe in and don't let anybody stop you.
Kyle
Nick
Kyle and Nick
Nick in Switzerland last summer with my sister Sylvia at the HR Geiger museum

Chevguy65 · by **Chevguy65** » Nov 06 2009, 04:48

Awesome kids!!!!!!

That drum kit looks kick ass.
My brother is a drummer and pretty good.

Anyway...great kids, lovely wife, talent galore...sweet!!!!

Love the pics and the stories that accompany them.

jlk72355 · by **jlk72355** » Nov 12 2009, 04:48

WildcatOne wrote:Once Photoshop gets ahold of your head, there's no getting away from it. I don't see anything the way it really is anymore. I see layers. The news magazines and various cheap consumer filth that is availabe to purchase while you're waiting in line at the supermarket or convenience store are nothing but Photoshopped pulp. I can see right off where the photos are doctored and changed to give them a slant...it's funny because the conservative news magazines have their photos done one way and the liberal ones have the same photos done another way...they also create scenes such as a group of scared people at Heathrow Airport in London...that is not a real picture...it was schlepped together in layers to portray an airport full of scared people of all races and nationalities standing there looking at the big screen on the wall...that made me look at ALL the pictures in the magazine and by golly, they were ALL changed in Photoshop. It can be fun and you can make all kinds of stuff with it, but it can also have a dark side, where you can make something that isn't real but you tell John Q. Public it's real and he'll probably believe it. The way I am now, I see their tricks right off the bat, and trust me, it's all going on all the time. I try to keep it on the light side and do good with it, but there are some people that use it to make folks believe in their agenda. It works both ways. They all do it. Anyway, that's my editorial. I don't take anything off a news stand at face value. It's really not what it looks like...Cheers, WC1

This blows my mind. I want to see an few examples with explanation. Can you do that the next time you see a good one?

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 12 2009, 07:18

I'll borrow some of my Dad's news magazines and look through them, it blew my mind when I caught a flaw in a picture and all at once I realized that I was looking at a layered, maufactured scene...I'll see what I can find...Cheers, WC1

421S10 · by **421S10** » Nov 12 2009, 15:36

killer work

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 12 2009, 17:13

I'm thanking y'all for the props on the graphics. It's more fun doing that stuff than a guy should be allowed to have!
Well, here are a couple of examples, the most obvious ones. That isn't Ann Richards sitting on that bike. It's her face put on some chick's body and the background has been changed. My wife had me make one of this with my Mother-In-Law's head on there instead of Mrs. Richards. I called her up and told her she looks good on a Harley (or...is that a Harley?) The Dick Cheney picture is a complete fabrication from top to bottom. That's not his mouth and lower face...it's him from the nose, ears and glasses up, but the rest of it is a guy (or a couple of guys) posing for this picture. Good job by whoever did that, it's funny but these are extreme examples that have been out there. You have to be careful on the internet. If I went looking for pictures of bombed-out buildings in Beirut with a little pink teddy bear sitting on top of the rubble like I saw in one news magazine, it might trigger a CIA investigation of me, even though I'm trying to show how photos are staged, altered and rendered to model attitude with...I'll check the news stand next time I'm over at Borders...here are Ann and Dick. These covers are total fakes. They were not posed, they were manufactured. Cheers, WC1

WildcatOne · by **WildcatOne** » Nov 12 2009, 17:46

Here are the two most notorious and controversial photo alterations ever made. They are still arguing about the Oswald rifle picture. This was on the cover of Life Magazine not long after the Kennedy assassination. The instant Oswald was shown those photos while he was being interrogated after his arrest, he said that the photo is a fake, that somebody put his head on the guy holding that rifle. There is an entire world of controversy about everything in that picture, and everything else related to that horrible incident...to this day, experts are polarized about its content and whether or not it is "real". You decide, if that's possible. I can't piece it completely together. My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that Oswald was just what he said he was...a patsy. As an aside to that: What if they exhumed JFK and found Officer Tippitt in there like some folks say he is...The Time cover of OJ Simpson is an intermediate-level Photoshop attempt by a staff graphics artist to portray him to look 10 times "worse" than the picture actually was. The media convicted him immediately. I personally think he did it, like everybody else does, but this picture has been severely altered from its original state. They have much more sophisticated methods now and it's nearly impossible to tell what was done with the advanced programs that are being used in current times, but like I say, these are the 2 most up-front debatable hoaxes that have ever been sprung on the public. WC1

Misc. Projects Here and There

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