Assignment 2:

Photo Restoration and Retouching

Before:

Alley Dwellings in the Southwest Section

After:

Comment: The original black and white picture of alley dwellings facing the Capitol in Washington, DC from the American Memory Collection is rather grey and lacking contrasts. The tension in the picture arises from the contrast between the Capitol in the background and the slums in the foreground. The Capitol in the background of the original, though, is rather blurry and visible only if the viewer looks closely. The main task, therefore, is to enhance the tension in the picture by carefully increasing the contrasts. I worked with both the magnetic lasso tool and the lasso tool to designate areas, and increased or decreased the contrast and the brightness of the various elements -- the Capitol became more bright, as well as the building in front of it. The building on the left side of the picture became a little darker. I also increased the contrasts between the buildings and the sandy road and between the buildings and the sky. In addition, I used the "burn" and the "stamp" tools to highlight some details in the picture. The mode was RGB. The file size is 41 K.

Overall, I tried to be careful and not to manipulate the historical statement of the picture. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge inhibited the retouching and the restoration—I wasn't clear, f.e., how the windows of the alley dwellings looked like—did they have glass? What was the function of the line crossing through the top right corner of the picture? What was the stuff between the Capitol dome and the building that borders the rear end of the sandy road horizontally? The blurriness of these spots in the retouched photograph, therefore, reflects the blurriness of my knowledge of these spots. A good photo retoucher, I realized, should be, more than a great technician, a good and accurate historian and should have a minutious knowledge of the historical circumstances a photograph reflects...

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