Blawenburg Band (original)

Blawenburg Band (modified)

My friend Laraine wrote me recently with a request:

“I need help with the attached photo…it is the Blawenburg Band at the Hopewell gazebo, being directed by clarinetist, former member and my dear departed friend, Rich Hill, who died this past spring at 51…

I want to use the photo as the cover of a thank you card, 5 x 7,  to people who contributed to a band scholarship in Rich’s honor. I am choosing and writing the thank you cards; I’m secretary of the band.

But the problem with the photo is that Rich’s clothes looked rumpled… (maybe) shadows from the gazebo cut outs…

I feel the spirit of the photo is just right for the memorial thank you’s. (Do you think so?) But Rich looks rumpled…”

He was a bit rumpled, but that was easy enough to take care of with cloning, burning and dodging tools. I moved on to restoring the gazebo, band members and audience members with the burn dodge tool to bring out the shadows, highlights and midtones after doing some work on the picture overall to improve brightness and contrast. A bit overworked perhaps, but I really enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Laraine!

tags: lemasney, 365, dailypost2011, band, Princeton, Blawenburg, Hopewell, NJ, photo restoration, GIMP, GPL, GNU, Open source, Creative Commons, CC-SA