Randi with Dad (Posterized Photo)

This image began with one of the photos recently sent to me by my cousins. This was taken sometime around 1990, at a family event. It is so nice to have a picture of myself sitting with my father! I thought it would be worth it to fix a few distracting details, so today I opened the image in Painter 2023 and got to work. Because I have just upgraded to this version of Painter, I had to search for familiar tools and controls, and there is quite a learning curve. However, I was highly motivated to work on this photo, so it was a good match. I managed, and I learned a lot. In the original photo, there is so much glare from my dad's glasses that it made it hard to see his eyes. So I enlarged the image and used a bit of digital pastel to make his eyes more visible. I did a little retouching to get rid of some distracting marks on the faces. I removed the logo on the cup in my hand, and I took the liberty of changing the color of my Dad's tie. I added posterizing and also did basic cropping and straightening. I am glad I took the time to do this because I love having this image. And again I was reminded that photographs are powerful carriers of memory and emotion. Yes, tears were running down my face as I worked on this, but I can't blame the computer issues. Of course, these days you can change a lot of things about a photograph, but you still can't change time. . .or love