Digital Restoration

Here is a summary of GMC's main objectives during digital retouching:

Correction of defects: Repair defects due to time, handling, or anomalies in the electronic file (such as dust, stains, reflections, and poor lighting).

Faithful reproduction: Produce an Official Reproduction as close as possible to the original work, while respecting the intentions of the Great Master.

Accessibility: Make Official Reproductions accessible to a wide audience by adjusting dimensions to reduce costs while maintaining high quality.

Correction of inadvertent errors: Correct certain elements that the Great Master may have mistakenly overlooked.

Respect for artistic integrity: Preserve the integrity of the work and pay tribute to the artist by respecting their vision and work.

Creative Adaptation: Incorporating occasional creative modifications to distribute certain artworks more widely, such as creating an enlarged version of a popular painting.

GMC aims to offer quality reproductions that are accessible and faithful to the original work, while also making improvements to make them more affordable and more widely available.

Here are some techniques used with concrete examples:

1. Cropping: Cropping allows you to focus attention on the main part of the image, adjust the viewing angle, or create a new composition. It is sometimes necessary to slightly crop an image so that it can be reproduced in a format compatible with standard wooden frame dimensions.

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2. Color Filling: Color filling involves adding or modifying colors in a digital work to standardize, complement, or create visual effects. It allows you to customize missing areas, accentuate details, or isolate specific elements of the image.

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3. Retouching edges: Modifying the edges or contours of elements within an image to improve their appearance or refine their details. This may involve softening edges, refining contours, adding shadows or gradients, and removing artifacts to achieve a cleaner, more harmonious image.

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4. Removing unwanted spots: Correcting visible imperfections that affect image quality. These elements may appear due to digital noise, poor photo quality, or errors during the creation process. Correcting visible imperfections such as white spots or spots (dust, splashes) that affect image quality involves the use of retouching techniques to make the work appear cleaner, more fluid, and more professional.

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5. Eliminating light reflections: Removing reflections introduced during the scanning of artworks involves correcting areas where light has created unwanted glare or shine in the image. These reflections can be caused by incorrect orientation of the artwork during scanning, poorly positioned light sources, or shiny surfaces on the artwork itself.

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6. Eliminate/Reduce Varnish Cracking: Correct visible cracks or imperfections in the varnish layer of a painting or digital artwork. These cracks are often due to aging of the varnish or environmental conditions affecting the physical artwork. After locating the areas affected by the cracks, which appear as fine lines or cracking patterns in the varnish, we use digital tools such as a correction brush, cloning stamp, or an automatic repair tool to fill in or mask the cracks, recreating a smooth and uniform surface.

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7. Enhance Colors and Contrast: Adjust color intensity and accentuate brightness differences in the image to make it more vivid, dynamic, and visually striking. This retouching technique also involves recalibrating colors to eliminate the yellowing effect of varnish over time. This can be done by adjusting saturation (color vibrancy) or changing tone to create more striking visual effects. You can also increase the difference between dark and light areas of the image, which adds more depth and structure to the work.

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8. Enhance the artist's signature: Improve the visibility and impact of the artist's signature, which may be too subtle or difficult to identify on the original image. This ensures that the signature is clearly visible, while remaining discreet and harmonious with the rest of the artwork. Various techniques will be used to make the signature more legible, refine its position and size, clean up imperfections, and finally bring out the texture where needed.

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