Hy 1937 (Rescued Photo)

Hy 1937 (Rescued Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This image started as a snapshot of my dad. Several years after he died, one of my aunts gave me a box of photos taken of him as a teenager or young man, and a few taken when he was a boy. Most of them were photos that I was seeing for the first time, and I was very glad to have them. Tonight I was looking through them (because it is Father's Day) and came across a snapshot of my dad as a young man, standing in front of a brick building with an ivy-covered porch. The words "Hy 1937" are written on the back, several years before he enlisted and was stationed in Colorado, where he met and married my mother. From the looks of the building, I would guess this was taken in Brooklyn, where he was born and raised. I really liked the snapshot, but it was scratched up, and although the background was in focus,the face was not. I decided to try to rescue the snapshot, so I scanned it into the computer and opened it in Painter IX. First I cleaned up the scratches, and then started working with the focus, selecting and sharpening individual areas. The result doesn't have the smooth finish of a "perfect photo", but I like it, mostly because I can see my dad's face much more clearly, but also because I like the rough look of the image. Finally, I cropped the image to get the composition I wanted, and here is the rescued snapshot. But then I began to wonder how this image would look posterized, so I tried it, and I will post the result tomorrow. To be continued. . . .