My Photo Restoration Project
Imagine the soothing sound of the waves weaving and wondering high around the ship’s side, endless yet comforting. “Splish, splash, splish, splash”, almost like the tick-tock of the grand, old clock. Feel the water’s spray sprinkling through the air, seasoning your tongue with a tang of sea-air. Enjoy a rare fleeting moment of calm whilst you soak up the strong sun’s rays, creeping across the vast ocean and seeping onto your freshly washed cheeks, tanning them a little more. You notice the heat of the sun hitting your hat, making you hot, but happy and you feel your shoulders easing a little. You can sense the sleeve of your shirt flap gently in the slight breeze. The sea view through the binoculars is one you’ve cast your sharp eye on a million times before yet every time it speaks to you differently. You’ve disciplined your ears as well as eyes to listen and notice the changing state of your surroundings, too. (Your mind is still working overtime, full of the remaining day to day duties you take the utmost care to deliver by managing operations.) But the careful clank of the click of your camera is hypnotising, and snaps your mind to a picture of home, to your wife and little ones missing you. Soon, they’ll get a copy of this photograph of you at work in the British Royal Navy. (…Who knew that one day this photograph would fall into my hands from my Mum, for me to restore and retouch it to back to full eye-opening colour!)
The Restoration
Fancy being able to see an old black and white photograph, like this one above, but in colour, so that it feels like you’re standing right there on the deck of a ship in the British Royal Navy yourself, seeing history happen before your eyes in real life!? A time-LESS capsule, if you like, transporting you to the true sights, sounds and senses of a time passed by. Well, today, you’re in luck, as I’ve meticulously worked hour upon hour to freshly paint this old, dear family photograph into the original colours… just like you’d see the very day back in history when the camera clicked and captured this scene!
The Back-story
Meet my Grandad, Arthur Charles Simmonds, 1921 to 2008 who was a Commander in the British Royal Navy. To become a Commander, he reached sixth rank through Officer Cadet, Midshipman, Sub Lieutenant, Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander. You can see this from his epaulettes, the ornamental shoulder piece, to signify this. He joined the Navy after leaving school, until retirement age. (Although I’ve seen many black and white photographs of my Grandad, this particular one had slipped from the main albums and had mysteriously been lodged away for years and years! …Thankfully, it appeared and instantly became one of my favourites!)
The Reason
This colourisation is now framed on my wall (and in many of my family’s homes, too!) to honour my Grandad, as a heart-warming remembrance. I set myself this restoration challenge to understand the life of my Grandad in greater depth and detail, whilst also enhancing my technical photographic editing skills. (He certainly was the greatest story-teller I’ve known and listening as a child, I loved being whisked away by his endless exciting adventure stories in the Navy on the seas!) Hopefully, it brings this moment on the ship to life for you, too!?
The Process
The photograph was taken a looong time ago, and it took a looong time to restore it! (It might be surprising but it wasn’t just the method and technique of adding colour, but exactly what colour?) Even before paintwork could begin, I read my Grandad’s brilliantly written biography and researched historical documents from the Navy to be able to represent the most accurate colourisation. I also had to take time “cleaning” the photograph up first to improve quality by digitally removing the scratches and stains – on the whole of one corner, it also had an awfully scarring crease! All of this was before I could even start colourising the photo! It was also the case of building up and mixing to produce an accurate colour, such as for the skin which I used many different shades of core colours to produce a realistic result. It was also seeing light as a photographer as well as seeing as a detective in determining what time of day the image was likely to be taken to breathe light back into shadows and reflections accurately.
The Result
I created more than 40 Photoshop layers to achieve this image and in total spent around 24 hours working on it. By no means is this a replacement for the original image, but what I call an artistically colourised compliment to it.
I hope it unlocks a new look to a time otherwise limited to black and white, so your eyes can open to see a historical moment come alive for you today!
