“… know this is very grainy. I have the print. If there’s anything at all you could do with a higher resolution scan of this one I’d owe you for life.”
The original was sent to me by Gary Johnston, an old friend and shipmate from the early 1980’s. He had recently lost his father and now everything about him was iconic. I gladly offered my services, at one point telling him, if he so much as tried to pay me a dime for my work, I’d “hire REAL Germans” to beat the crap out of him.
I emailed screenshots of my work; managing expectations is important when working on such a project. But I began to think that I was being disrespectful. The image was just becoming so many pixels on a flat screen. This was a man who had a long life and a son with strong feelings about him. I asked Gary to tell me something about his father.
His name is Robert (Bob) Johnston, mom is Martha.
Dad was born February 12, 1937 and passed July 6, 2015
Served in US Navy 54 – 58 and 60 – 76 and is a Korean and Vietnam vet.
Has two sons who served in the US Navy, one for 20 years.
One granddaughter who served in the US Air Force
One granddaughter who still serves in the US Coast Guard.
One grandson who served in the Air National Guard
One grandson who is in NJROTC.
That’s one Hell of a set of credentials. But he added “I may have to mail you a dime just to make you produce those Germans for me.”
Time to fix those colors. And a bit more work on making sure I did the best I could. It can be relaxing picking off the scratches with the heal tool and clone tool. You can sneak in a brush stroke or two and a minor amount of noise reduction; too much and it begins to lose details and look like a poor oil painting. It’s really not hard.
The hard part was getting the color balance right. I warmed up the tone of the print and dealt with noise more. I tried, but decided against adding more contrast, since it darkened the faces and I lost what minimal detail there was. A tad bit more balancing of noise reduction and a quarter inch matte made for the final product.
I printed this out on acid free stock. I like to think this will be part of the family history for many decades to come and I worked hard to produce a print that would last.
And to Mr. Robert “Bob” Johnston, you can rest now, knowing you did a damn good job.
The Digital Lens 
As the aforementioned Air Force granddaughter and on behalf of the family, especially my grandmother, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t express the true value of what you have done for us. You have restored a memory that will last for years to come.
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Mom is planning to come visit later this month on the occasion of her USCG granddaughter’s EAOS (end of active obligated service for those reading who don’t know the acronym —- if there are any).
Howard sorely understates his work on this project. Not only did he deliver a magnificent set of prints of this, he installed one in a beautiful and so splendidly appropriate frame and sent that a long as well. A gift that literally, yes, literally took my breath away when I opened it.
I’ll be presenting that framed print along with three of the four additional prints to Mom when she visits (one is already on my wall next to Dad’s obit photo).
Howard, thank you my friend.
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