The Assignment
This page presents my skills at image editing and manipulation. While not up to the standards of a Katrin Eismann, I believe my editing skills have come a long way over the course of the last few weeks. I must admit, the process of image editing has a relaxing quality and became rather addictive. Please note that you can click on any image below to get a closer view.
According to the syllabus for the class, the goals of this assignment were to demonstrate a “mastery of image editing skills, color, and composition as well as the use of images to tell or illustrate a historical narrative. The narrative should be an account of the steps that you took to achieve the effects.”
We were to:
- hand-color a an image
- vignette a photograph
- restore a photograph
- crop and resize an image
- matt an engraving
- provide “before and after” of two examples
Hand-Colored Photograph
I selected this image off of the National Archives and Records Administration's website. The caption at the bottom of the original photo says “Pilot W.C. Hopson,
U.S. Mail Service, Winter Flying Clothing.” According to the archives, it was taken by an unknown photographer in Omaha Nebraska sometime in the mid-1920s. The image captured my attention for a number of reasons, namely because of Hopson's “Indiana Jones” look and because of the various layers and textures of clothing Hopson was wearing, which I thought might be challenging to capture in a hand colored photo. To get some idea of the colors involved, I researched the types of flying clothing pilots wore at that time. Most pictures I located were, of course, black and white, but E-Bay and a number of other sites that sold vintage flying clothing helped me find the proper colors. As shown below, leather and khaki were the colors de jure.
I first used the Auto Levels and Auto Contrast features to achieve a balance in the photo. I refined this by creating an Adjustments Layer to further balance the photo and bring more definition to the background. I then began the colorization process, creating Color Fill layers(21 in all)for the various pieces of clothing. Hopson's face was a little challenging. I used several layers of varying shades of tan to achieve definition. As Eismann suggested in her book, in order to allow the detail of the clothing to bleed through the color, I used a blend mode of “Color” rather than “Normal.” I also adjusted the opacity accordingly. I created a layer just for the background wall, giving it a white-washed look and accentuating the nail holes more. I also used the clone stamp to eliminate some of the more obvious blemishes on the wall. Lastly, I used the clone stamp tool to eliminate the un-readable caption at the bottom.
As you can see, I took a number of liberties with the photo. Most obvious is the shadow I added to the background. To achieve this, 
I outlined Mr. Hopson using the magnetic lasso tool, then I created a new layer just for Hopson's image. I then selected the Drop Shadow option from >Layer >Styles. In conjunction with the drop shadow, I added Lens Flare to the right lens of his goggles. The idea was that the sun was beating down from the upper right of the picture, hitting the right lens and casting the shadow on the wall behind him. I also made the buttons of his inner tunic very reflective. I toyed with different background colors for the wall, but none other than white seemed proper. And, after seeing how the white wall accentuated the black fur of the inner vest and collar, I decided not to attempt any corrections to that garment. Black is black.
Vignetted Photograph
In keeping with the 1920s-1930s theme of this page, I selected the photo, Migrant Mother, by renowned Depression Era photographer, Dorothea Lange. The subject of the photo is Florence Owens Thompson and her children, 
and it is one of several that Lange took of the family sometime in February or March 1936 while in Nipomo, California, photographing migratory farm workers for the Resettlement Administration. Recounting her experience in 1960, Lang said: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.” (Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
To vignette the photograph, I followed Eismann's example in her book. I used the lasso tool to randomly 
trace an area around Florence and her children. I then did Select > Inverse and then created a new solid color layer. I chose the same color grey as used for the background in the main content section of this web page. I then adjusted the opacity to diffuse the grey around the photo. Next, I created another solid color layer, but placed this layer above that of the photo. I then adjusted the opacity enough to allow the pictures to bleed through the layer but still give a misty look. I tried to keep the focus of the photo on Florence, while still leaving some vestige of her children on the edges. It's hard to believe Florence was only 32 when this picture was taken. I can't help but wonder what happened to her and her children.
Repaired Photo
For this exercise, I found a 1920's photo of my family's old farm in Juniata County, Pennsylvania. As you can see, the photo
had a lot of wear and tear, not least of which was the water stain in the upper right corner as well as the over all discoloration of the photo. To begin, I scanned the photo into Photoshop. Next I cropped the photo to eliminate the left, top and part of the right hand margins. Second, I used the Auto Levels command to begin to adjust the clarity of the photo and then I used Auto Color to remove the brownish tint, effectively making the photo black and white. Next, I attempted to further sharpen the image by creating a Brightness Contrast layer, increasing the contrast by 100% and decreasing the brightness by 33%. This further highlighted the stain in the upper right corner as well as a number of other defects. No worries.
Next began the fun part of repairing the photo. I started with the field in the foreground, using the Clone Stamp tool. 
I used this tool and the Spot Healing Brush for almost all of the repair work. The most challenging repair was to the left window on the second-story of the main house. As you can see in the original photograph, there is a veritcal crease going through the house and left window. To construct a new window, I magnified the house and increased the size of the Clone Stamp brush in order to cover the entire area of the far-right window of the house, which was unaffected. I then cloned this area and then pasted it over the left-window area. Viola! New window. I then further magnified the area and made additional corrections.
Cropped and Resized Image
Moving now from the country to the big city, I found a 1930s image of the Chrysler Building that I liked off of the site New York Architectural Images. Designed by architect William Van Alen, the Chrysler Building was constructed between 1928 and 1930 at a cost of $20,000,000, reaching a height of 1,048 feet (77 floors). For a brief time, this example of Deco architecture was the tallest building in the world until the Empire State Building snatched the prize in 1931. As you can see, there were three buildings in the original image. I thought the one on the left was a little too dark in comparison to the Chrysler Building and the building on the far right, so it had to go.
First I outlined the part of the picture I wanted to keep with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then cropped the image.This eliminated the building on the left. I then resized the new image by going to Image > Image Size and increasing the image by 50%. I then adjusted the image further by going to Filter > Sharpen >Sharpen Edges. I liked the effect this produced, especially around the sharp edges of the buildings. I also used the Clone Stamp Tool to eliminate the small dark line at the top right of the original image. I thought the lighting was fine, so I made no attempts to adjust it.
Matted Engraving
This 1929 engraving, Glow of the City, by Martin Lewis is from Cornell University's web site, New Student Reading Project. To me, the engraving is very interesting because it sums the dichotomy of the era: The cloths hanging outside the slum apartments, the silhouette of the church in the background and then illuminated skyscraper show poverty existing in the shadow of a moral guardian and an even bigger shadow of wealth. The image had a small matt around the right, left and bottom margins. To begin, I used the Rectangular Marque Tool to select the inside of the image. I then cropped the image, eliminating the outer matt. I then created a new canvas larger than the original image and used the Move Tool to move the cropped image onto the new canvas. Next I created a Solid Color Background and selected a light yellow as the matt color.
