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Using Photoshop And Ai, I Colorized And Changed The Facial Angle Of A 19th Century Portrait
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Using Photoshop And Ai, I Colorized And Changed The Facial Angle Of A 19th Century Portrait

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Using Photoshop and select AI (artificial intelligence) tools, I have created a new portrait of my 4th great-grandfather, Jackson Chaney (1817-1894) based on a photograph taken circa 1888. This new portrait is not just another colorization of a black and white photograph but a reconstruction featuring a rotation to a face-forward view of Jackson who is also now donning modern attire.

It is said the eyes are the window to the soul which likely explains my preference for portraiture where subjects are facing the camera. There is something about looking directly into someone’s eyes to help understand their character. Unfortunately, in the case of my 4th great-grandfather, no front-facing photographs are known to exist. But, now with Photoshop and select AI tools, it is possible to change the facial angle in a photograph.

Unlike my life mask reconstructions, where the purpose is to reduce or eliminate “artistic license,” this type of reconstruction has to employ quite a bit of artistic license. However, I did my best to keep the final image as close to his true likeness as possible.

For example, the original photograph of Jackson shown below is lacking in detail and gives me little to go on with respect to his hair. Sadly as much as I hated to do it, I had to take a little artistic license and interpolate his hairline on top. To arrive at where I did I didn’t just guess at it blindly. However, I based his hairline on his grandson’s and his 2nd-great-grandson’s (my grandfather) hairlines, both of whom favored Jackson. While we will never know for sure I chose blue for his eye color because blue eyes are prevalent in the Chaney family based on a family historian’s information. So even when artistic license was required it was done based on known family traits.

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The final image shows Jackson now facing the camera in a modern suit. The AI didn’t render his face as well as I would have liked. Therefore, I had to make quite a few facial adjustments in Photoshop to match the original facial structure.

More info: yarbs.net

Original 19th century portrait of Jackson Chaney before colorization and facial angle change

New colorized portrait of Jackson Chaney showing facial angle change

Process images from original to final

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Digital Yarbs

Digital Yarbs

Author, Community member

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Photoshop composition artist who enjoys history. I reconstruct life masks, statues and busts of famous early Americans.

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Digital Yarbs

Digital Yarbs

Author, Community member

Photoshop composition artist who enjoys history. I reconstruct life masks, statues and busts of famous early Americans.

Violeta Draseikaitė

Violeta Draseikaitė

BoredPanda staff

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My name is Violeta and I am an editor here at Bored Panda. I love reading memes for a living. It’s obviously much more than that, but I appreciate the variety of topics, information, and pics I get to see every day and share with the world! Those funny memes really make my day too. Being born in the ’90s in post-Soviet Lithuania speaks more about me than I’d like to admit. I’m still learning about the world and myself, but I do love my friends, traveling, art, and my cat. My favorite fact to share about myself is that I used to hide meatballs in my friend’s pockets at lunch so I could go play outside. I wish all those meatballs could find their way back to me someday.

Read less »

Violeta Draseikaitė

Violeta Draseikaitė

BoredPanda staff

My name is Violeta and I am an editor here at Bored Panda. I love reading memes for a living. It’s obviously much more than that, but I appreciate the variety of topics, information, and pics I get to see every day and share with the world! Those funny memes really make my day too. Being born in the ’90s in post-Soviet Lithuania speaks more about me than I’d like to admit. I’m still learning about the world and myself, but I do love my friends, traveling, art, and my cat. My favorite fact to share about myself is that I used to hide meatballs in my friend’s pockets at lunch so I could go play outside. I wish all those meatballs could find their way back to me someday.

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Dorothy Parker
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well done from a technical POV. His personality though, changed from that of a pensive thinker to a straightforward gent with a bit of a wandering left eye.

Dorothy Parker
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well done from a technical POV. His personality though, changed from that of a pensive thinker to a straightforward gent with a bit of a wandering left eye.

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