Whenever I have the chance to work on a project, and Photoshop is involved, as the art board opens, I cease to see a program and begin to see an empty canvas; begging to be improved upon. Looking towards its designer as conformable clay, knowing that it can be much better than its current state.
While creating my art, I begin to feel an inner, unexplainable connection with my work, as if it is an extension of myself.
I've recently had a desire to learn more about photo restoration. Taking an image that once was a new, crisp photo, that has been weathered and beaten with age, and returning it as closely as possible to its original grandeur.
Yesterday my wife and I had the pleasure to spend time with my parents on my dad's birthday. We ate hot dogs, potato salad, and finished things off with blackberry cobbler and ice-cream. We talked about everything from the weather to the baby, to movies... whatever were to come up. We also mentioned an image I had recently created; afterward, my mom asked if I thought I could enlarge an image of my grandmother and her dad so that her face could be more easily seen.
I explained that I would do what I could, but that scanned images are sometimes very difficult to work with, but I also felt that same inner excitement at the challenge to get started!
I scanned the 2.75" x 4.5" image at the highest resolution possible so that I could work with the most detail available to me. The resulting image (after some waiting) came into the computer at almost 36" tall! Naturally I'll have to reduce the resolution to work with it at any efficiency at all... but I remembered my mom's original reasoning was to see my grandmother more clearly... so I decided to make a 4" x 6" image of my grandmother alone.
Now I know there are many automated things that can be done with Photoshop; I even have some 'quick-fix' actions I've recorded myself for anything from basic color corrections, to HDR-ish transformations; but most times I prefer to do things the hard way, taking the longer approach. This allows me to focus more greatly on details that I may not have even seen before when using the click-of-a-button approach. Another thing it does is gives me a great connection to the image, more of an extension of myself if you will.
As I began working with my grandmother's photo, I really began thinking about what she must have been like as a child. In this original image, she is climbing on a contraption beside where her dad is working. She had brothers and sisters, but none of them are in this picture. I wondered about the relationship she must have had with her father; and already know about how much my mom loved him.
I thought about how that relationship must have made an impact on her relationship with her children and grandchildren; and while I'm sure she made her share of mistakes, what parent doesn't? It reminded me that, I'm sure to make more than a few with my soon-coming child, and that (hopefully) they'll still hold the love that I do for my parents and grandparents.
I was able to, yet again, have a time of connection with my grandmother and reflect on the legacy that she and my grandfather were able to build in, not only me, but their five children and spouses; their five grandchildren (two of which have spouses), their three great-granchildren, and countless others in our family.
I had many, many thoughts cross my mind while working on this one, because it is close to my heart. I didn't mind taking the long way around doing the work, because 'she' deserved it.
To my knowledge, my grandparents never saw a computer; outside of a few pictures I was able to show my grandmother on my iPod. If I had spoken Photoshop, she would have listened intently, giving me all the attention she could at what I was saying, and never spending time telling me she didn't know what I was talking about; but I think she could have understood exactly where I was coming from.
You see, she didn't look at us as simply members of her family; she looked at us as an empty canvas... as one, who with her years of knowledge, who might could encourage us to be more than what we were. I believe she felt an unexplainable connection with us that, gave her the desire to take her time, instead of taking one of those 'quick-fix' actions.
I believe we were all close to her heart in a very special way, and that she didn't mind taking the long way around working with us, but took her time, because in her eyes... we were worth it.
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