In Living Color - One for the Veterans

I had a unique opportunity and great honor recently to restore and colorize a photograph for a World War II veteran. The client brought me a large black and white print of the U.S.S. Nautilus (SS-168), a WWII navy submarine that saw significant action in the Pacific Theater, including the battle of Midway Island and insertion of U.S. troops on Makin Atoll. I delivered the framed print yesterday, just in time for the client to display the photo at a local Veteran’s Day celebration.

From a Photoshop standpoint, this was one of the most complicated projects I have undertaken, and one that brings some moral dilemmas.  Is this a historical document that shouldn’t be altered? Should I fix water spots and other blemishes? I finally decided that since I was essentially making fiction out of reality, I shouldn’t cower at cloning out existing pixels.

The photo has a lot to be colorized—grass, palm trees, mountains, and clouds—in addition to an almost black submarine in the original photo. The submarine was obviously grey and the sky was blue. Otherwise, there was nothing to tell me the color of anything. So this project was truly an exercise in discovering a plausible version of reality.

The other tremendous challenge was the appearance of a strong moire pattern when I scanned the document. Obviously, the print was made from an previously published photo, and the resulting banding was beyond distracting.  It virtually made the print unusable, scuttling the entire project. I tried three different scanners and every moire removal technique I could find. I was finally able to duplicate the image by taking a very high resolution photograph and then stretching the image in Photoshop to correctly

It was a tremendous thrill to see the client’s face when I unveiled the finished project for him to see. It was a small contribution to one of the many veterans who gave so much.

Memorial Day

So it’s Memorial Day and I picked a heck of a way to celebrate. Around the country folks are breaking out the grills, going to baseball games, and taking the first dip in the swimming pool. But for me, it’s a stomach bug. Instead of a cheeseburger or bratwurst, I’m trying to work up the courage to try some Jell-O. But I did find a way to remember. I’ve been watching war movies all day.

There were some really amazing epic war movies made in the 1960’s and 1970’s, including two that I watched today—Battle of the Bulge and The Longest Day. Films such as these, and Patton and Midway, served to wrap history around the glory and patriotism of American warfare. They were woven around decisive battles. And they demonstrated the heroes of Americans defending freedom. Sadly, after Vietnam, a majority of the war movies, albeit few in total, spent more time criticizing parties, policies and administrations. These films did much to erode the respect for soldiers bold enough to climb into a B-25 or charge a pillbox on Omaha beach. Thankfully, that trend took a major turn when Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers emerged in recent years.

Americans seem to always be looking for a hero—the next hero. Sports stars, musicians, and even a few politicians seem to be common fodder for the next American “hero”. Unfortunately, we as a country need a “Memorial Day” to remind us that true heroes fill the pages of the history books of American warfare. And, of course, new heroes are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

So on this Memorial Day, I lift my glass of Sprite high—yeah, clear liquids for me for a while— to the soldiers of yesterday and today. Midway is coming on in a few minutes. With a cast like that, I’m sure I can muster the courage to pop open a strawberry Jell-O.