Manhattan Group
Publishers Manhattan Group
Publishers
Manhattan Group Publishers is pleased to announce the following services by our new "Digital Magic" division. What we can accomplish is limited only by your imagination. Let our staff artist help you realize your vision, turning virtual reality into actuality.
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Photo Restoration
Our photo restoration service brings an artistic sensibility to digital technology. Working carefully with your heirloom photo, our computer wizard removes defects such as tears, stains, and fading. The repaired photo is then enhanced, colorized, and restored to a condition often better than the original photo.
The image is then printed on heavy photo paper and archived on disk, thereby ensuring its enjoyment by future generations.
In the following series, you'll see some of our Digital Magic step-by-step.
THE ORIGINAL PHOTO For their grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary, Walter’s and Karla’s grandchildren wanted to present them with a poster depicting the family’s genealogy and some of the major events in the couple’s life together. They collected good copies of all the necessary family photos except for the wedding portrait of Walter’s parents, for which they had only the photo on the left.
CLOSE-UP DETAILS The photo of Walter's parents had come
all the way from Europe and was more
than eighty-years-old. Not only is the
image washed out, but it is marred by
numerous creases, stains, blotches, and
tears. Of additional concern was the fact
that this was the last remaining copy of
their great-grandparents wedding photo
and they did not want to cause further
damage by gluing it to a poster board.DETAIL AFTER REPAIRS First the image was converted to gray-
scale (black-and-white) in order to
bring out hidden detail. Then each of
the flaws in the original photograph was
painstakingly repaired. Some damaged
sections were replaced with intact areas
of a similar shade and texture that were
copied and pasted over them. Stains and
mars in other parts of the digitized photo
had to be airbrushed out by hand.THE RESTORED PHOTO Converted next to a four-color ink (quadtone) process that matches the sepia hues used in portraits of the time, the repaired photo is further enhanced. Color balance, saturation levels, and brightness/contrast are adjusted for optimum clarity and sharpness of detail. Finally, the image is cropped, given a white border, and examined one last time for any minute imperfections missed on previous passes.
In addition to the copy of the great-grandparents' wedding photo printed
for the fiftieth anniversary poster, Walter's and Karla's grandchildren were presented with another copy to slip into the battered frame that housed the original, now safely stored away. By all accounts, the anniversary celebration was quite a success, too.
THE ORIGINAL ALBUM COVER
New York photographer David Hamsley began
an ambitious four-year project selecting, cataloging,
photographing, and documenting more than 3,200 disco album covers from the period 1974 to 1980, many of them quite rare.Many were not in very good shape, as seen in the example at the left. Note the white sticker obscuring the female figure’s left hand (as well as the yellow background diamond), the wear marks top and bottom and along the edges, and the cut-out hole at the upper left.
THE RESTORED ALBUM COVER
After overall color correction, matching against the original, each of the defects mentioned above was dealt with, and the album cover carefully and painstakingly restored. Even the dancer’s missing fingers have been repaired.
Note that the object of the restoration was not to present a perfect specimen, but to show the album cover in good shape — "lovingly used," as the expression goes — so that no details were lost or obscured. The intention was not to appear a convincing reproduction, but a real artefact
with a history of its own.
THE ORIGINAL ALBUM COVER
The album at left presented its own set of
problems, not least of which were the two stickers pasted over the wallpaper and curtains (upper left) and over the ruffled dress and chair spindles (lower right). [Stickers that have been attached for a long time cannot be removed without causing further damage.]THE RESTORED ALBUM COVER
The meticulously restored front cover, below, was joined with the back cover to present a two-page spread for the upcoming book by David Hamsley: Love Unlimited: Album Artof the Disco Era.
THE ORIGINAL PHOTO
Yvette and her family had a reunion in a little garden area just outside the San Juan Airport. Her father (inset), however, was unable to attend, owing to a serious illness. He later died, and the family regretted not having a photo in which they all appeared.
Taking both the small photo of her father and the group photo to a lab specializing in photo restorations, Yvette asked to have her father "included" in the group shot. The result was exactly what you see at the left, where the father's picture was simply pasted over the group photo.
AN INTERMEDIATE STEP
After cleaning up various small defects, including Yvette's mother's (center foreground) varicose veins, the less attractive background details, such as the chain-link fence, the equipment barn (upper left), and the electrical outlet (lower left), were removed and replaced with grass and foliage.
Further distractions, such as the "disembodied" shoes beneath the park bench, were also removed.
THE RESTORED PHOTO
Lastly, Yvette's father is inserted into the reunion photo in a way that suggests he was actually present with the other family members before the photographer's lens.
Note that the intricate detailing of the father's shirt, obscured in the original inset photo by his crossed forearms, has been replaced and extended. The shadow from his hat brim and the highlights on his facial features has also been altered to match the ambient lighting, which suggests the sun, though out of camera range, was in the upper right corner.
After presenting the properly restored photo to her mother and other siblings, Yvette (back row, left) later reported that her family was very moved by the result, and considered the restoration "magical." As it also turned out, the father had been positioned behind the shoulder of his favorite daughter.
More Digital Magic
In addition to Manhattan Group Publishers' Digital Portraiture service, we also offer custom artwork for a variety of purposes, including personal and business Web pages. Working from your exact specifications or a hasty thumbnail sketch, our staff artist can help you bring to life the image in you mind's eye.
Using the latest graphics software and calibrated printing equipment, we offer our clients what desktop publishing pioneer Adobe Systems, Inc. calls "a camera for your mind."
THE ORIGINAL PHOTO This is a daylight snapshot of the subway
stop at 190th Street & Fort Washington
Avenue in New York City. While they
were fond of this quintessentially New
York scene, the clients wanted something "more festive looking," and asked
whether we couldn't also clean up some
of the leaf debris and other trash that had
inadvertently been captured by the camera.GREETING CARD 1999 After "taking out the trash" and cleaning
up other imperfections, we gave this
image a deep blue tint suggesting the night
scene the clients preferred. We then lit the
street lamps, set the stars to twinkling, and
added a touch of frost to the trees and
bushes. Lastly, we hastily scrawled the
clients' message on the sparkling clean
pavement with a piece of chalk.THE ORIGINAL PHOTO This black-and-white image of the promontory in Fort Tryon Park in northern
Manhattan, formed the basis of the clients'
next holiday greeting card. Again they
would have preferred a night scene and
had wished they could have snapped the
photo before the kids in the neighborhood
had trampled the snow. That, of course,
set our minds to work on how best to
display their holiday message.GREETING CARD 2000 Taking a cue from the footprints in the
snow in the original photograph, we
imprinted the clients' New Year's greeting in the freshly-fallen digital snow,
adding both perspective and shadow
effects. We then added a grainy texture
suggestive of rice paper and a blue hue
that brought on nightfall. Finally, not to
be outdone by our previous year's
efforts, we asked the full moon to rise in
the north.
THE ORIGINAL SKETCH Beginning with a quick doodle on a
scrap of student's notebook paper,
the client offered his suggestion for
the "mascot" of his new Cajun-style
restaurant, "Red Peppers & Hot
Sauce." We liked the mascot's
expression and vowed to make use
of it in the final design.SKETCH NO. 2 Now back in the studio, we cleaned
up the doodle and drew a more
realistic pepper, superimposing the mascot's "facial" expression. We then
changed the image to a slightly left-
facing perspective, and added mid-
ground textures and shading.FIRST COLOR SKETCH On the background layer we inserted
the client's custom colors for the
areas of solid fill and changed the line
colors and thicknesses to best present
only the essential details of the sketch.
The texture and solid fill layers were
then combined.FINISHED LOGO After adding the desired shade of red
to the pepper, and masking it on the
eyes and teeth, we enclosed the
image in an oval frame, dropping out
the background. The only thing
remaining, the client said, was to
name the new mascot. "Jake," we
suggested without hesitation. The
name stuck.
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THE ORIGINAL PHOTO This scene shows the woods surrounding Ft. Tryon Park from the perspective of Dyckman Street at the foot of the hill. A dusting of snow remains on the ground, but has melted from the paths. Note the wall and tower of The Cloisters Museum in the distance at the top of the hill. |
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UPSIDE DOWN The
photo, left lying about, |
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A FOUND OBJECT This oak leaf, spotted on the ground during the next visit to the park, provided the final clue for the image now taking shape. After scanning, the leaf was then painted by hand (by mouse, actually), the background was removed, and the image scaled for the artwork in mind. |
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REFLECTIONS The
technical challenges to |
THE ORIGINAL PHOTO Here the portrait subject sits amidst the clutter of the family dining room at Thanksgiving. Note how the situation could not be worse for emphasizing the subject: her dark dress merges with the dark wood of the grandfather clock and dining chair.
CLOSE-UP OF SUBJECT By closing in on the subject, most of
the extraneous objects are eliminated, but we are left with the less-than-ideal lighting and a background which can hardly be distinguished from the subject. This presents the greatest challenge to the artist.IMAGE MANIPULATION Once the surroundings have been
painstakingly airbrushed out, a new
background is selected. A deep
rose color, an extreme blow-up of an actual rose that complements the
subject's complexion, is inserted. Note the single rose "placed" in her hands.A FREE TRIP Now that the portrait subject "floats" on a clear cell, any background that can be imagined may be substituted for the original. In this case, at no additional expense or inconvenience, the subject was able to travel to Paris without even packing her bags.
•• Dream Blankets •• Masks •• Male Images •• Fort Tryon •• The Cloisters ••
•• Works-in-Progress •• More of What's New •• Catalogues ••
•• Events & Exhibits ••
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