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  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Hobbies 2015 - 2019

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Colouring these pics reminds me of the old Paint by Numbers, I remember trying one years ago, a bowl of fruit, framed it and gave it to my Sister, she still has it on her wall. Never completed another. Eric
 
I've had a go at adding colour to this old photo of the 'Ye Old Green Man' pub. A close look shows that the building on the left had some really bodged repairs such as mortar pasted over beams. Perhaps it was not part of the pub. The building right of it looks in reasonable repair.
BWoldgreenman.jpg

With added colour
scdarkGM_clouds.jpg

A quick bit of digital repairing and the man in the doorway hasn't noticed.
scRepairJob.jpg
 
I've had a go at adding colour to this old photo of the 'Ye Old Green Man' pub. A close look shows that the building on the left had some really bodged repairs such as mortar pasted over beams. Perhaps it was not part of the pub. The building right of it looks in reasonable repair.
View attachment 138059

With added colour
View attachment 138057

A quick bit of digital repairing and the man in the doorway hasn't noticed.
View attachment 138058
That looks like a great pub!
 
When the old photo was taken (unfortunately no date) the left part of the building may have been rented out as a house. The pub still exists in Bromford Lane, Erdington, but is now named 'Lad in the Lane'.
See
 
Erdington never was my neck of the woods, Phil, but it looks a nice pub. Likewise Gimp, I've used it a couple of times, but found it a bit clunky and reverted to my usual PhotoImpact X3 for photo repairs & modifications. Perhaps one day I will have a bash at colorizing as genealogy seems to have gone quite quiet, but over the next three weeks we're hoping to get 9 windows replaced, we'll be moving stuff from room to room, and then we have a Dutch visitor for a month! Like I said, one day!

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice,
I find computer colourizing quite therapeutic and am interested in how it works. I don't do it all in one go and keep the file on Microsoft's cloud so I can see it in my Dell laptop, Acer desktop, and iPad. The colours on Windows computers always seem slightly different so we all probably see slightly different colours. The iPad colours are constant.
In the past I did a lot of DIY and enjoyed it but as we get older it is not so easy.
I recently had a new CH replacement boiler and control system installed. When I wanted to change the timing etc in the digital programmer I needed a YouTube video running in my iPad to see how to do it.

Phil .. :)
 
Ha ha, Phil, despite spending 30 years in computing, both Windows & UNIX, technology is travelling far faster than my brain can cope with, and I've now given up the unwinnable race. Like you, I just search on Google! Cloud is a no-no with the slow internet speeds we get here, but Linux appears to be able to read the Windows directories on my disks, though whether they are actually loadable, I haven't tried. But then Windows can't see the Linux partitions so that makes it a pretty pointless exercise.

A question - do you do a selection of an area of the B & W photograph before adding colour? Or do your specificall handpaint every leaf as you go?

Maurice :cool:
 
A question - do you do a selection of an area of the B & W photograph before adding colour? Or do your specificall handpaint every leaf as you go?
Maurice :cool:
Trees and hedges are difficult particularly on low-res old pics. I roughly select an area around the foliage, set a threshold level, colour opacity, and then let the computer have go at filling areas of similar colour and see the result. If not good I undo alter settings and let it have another go until a passable result. I then help the computer in various areas. Gimp can change colours in selected areas as below. I selected the pub sign and set the computer to change only cyan to red ... a slider can be moved to compare results.
Phil
Untitled.jpg
 
Phil,

I have similar controls within PhotoImpact X3 and I can understand why you have problems with low-res pics or soft focus ones. I'll copy the pics from post #364 and use them as a basis for my first trial, when I get around to it. I've now been roped in to proofread and check all navigation on several browsers for a new electronics-based website that my ex-bass player has developed. That may take several days and we now have rain, so that has delayed some outside projects as well. Happy days!

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said



I have similar controls within PhotoImpact X3 and I can understand why you have problems with low-res pics or soft focus ones. I'll copy the pics from post #364 and use them as a basis for my first trial, when I get around to it. I've now been roped in to proofread and check all navigation on several browsers for a new electronics-based website that my ex-bass player has developed. That may take several days and we now have rain, so that has delayed some outside projects as well. Happy days!

Maurice :cool:
[/QUOTE]
maurice. this is a better place to post i think. i want to get a stronger telescope.mine is 4-16x50 any idear`s its ok for 500 yds but not 1200 yrds
 
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Pete,

I guess that you are looking for about 4-40 or 50x whatever is available. Busy cleaning at the moment as we had 9 windows replaced at the end of last week, there's dust everywhere , and we have a Dutch friend arriving on Friday and frantically trying to get everywhere cleaned up. The other half is twisting my arm to work unpaid overtime! Get back to you later or tomorrow.

Maurice :cool:
 
l
Pete,

I guess that you are looking for about 4-40 or 50x whatever is available. Busy cleaning at the moment as we had 9 windows replaced at the end of last week, there's dust everywhere , and we have a Dutch friend arriving on Friday and frantically trying to get everywhere cleaned up. The other half is twisting my arm to work unpaid overtime! Get back to you later or tomorrow.

Maurice :cool:
looks good might invest in one..unpayed overtime no way. that brick dust gets everywere,got the t shirt
 
Pete,

Getting the range might be a problem on two counts - the price and the weight. There are several on the market that will cover your long distance end well with 60mm lenses, but they have not got the range down the bottom end and you may find that you may have difficulty in getting objects in focus fairly close to. Getting a wide range means adding more lenses - more weight and more expense. One partial way round this is an interchangeable eyepiece, but this may be too much of a pain in the butt if you are going to keep track of poachers. My advice on this is not to actually buy online if you can avoid it.
Trying things out in such a situation is really a must, especially if you're planning to invest a fair sum of money.

In the Midlands (Wootton Wawen) you have Sherwoods -
https://www.sherwoods-photo.com/opticron_scope/opti_choose_scope_fs.htm

A bit further afield (Kent) there's this sort of thing:-
https://www.f1telescopes.co.uk/shop...tron-trailseeker-65-45-degree-spotting-scope/

I can't spot similar sorts of suppliers in North Wales, but I would have thought there must be someone close to Liverpool. My normal modus operandi is to email a couple of suppliers with your requirements and see what they can offer. Then check with the manufacturer / importers to see if there is a closer stockist where you try out the item before commiting the dosh.

Maurice :cool:
 
I edited a B&W photo in the 'Photo Tidy Up Thread' and since decided play with my photo editor to add colour. As I looked at the recruits it reminded me of my time training on RAF National Service. You met and got to know blokes just like these for two months, going through good times and bad times, then we all got posted to places far and wide never to meet again.
facesCwMarines.jpg

The original
index.php

only visible if logged in.
 
I edited a B&W photo in the 'Photo Tidy Up Thread' and since decided play with my photo editor to add colour. As I looked at the recruits it reminded me of my time training on RAF National Service. You met and got to know blokes just like these for two months, going through good times and bad times, then we all got posted to places far and wide never to meet again.
View attachment 138661

The original
index.php

only visible if logged in.
The colour makes my Dad look even younger! (That's him seated on the left) Thanks again.
 
The two months square bashing (in the RAF anyway)*, before moving to other stations for officer or trade training, you remember one or two of the others you were with even after sixty years. One became a well known actor but what the others eventually did is unclear. You were a team who tried their best to achieve what was required - even of the instructors, who seemed loud mouthed illiterates, were rarely satisfied with our efforts. But for all their shouting and bawling you found that after the training you were, for the most part, in a quite fit bodily condition and even those of us that had had a 'sheltered' sort of childhood, came out of our shells.
* I had always been given the impression that it was only the Army that specialised in 'bullshine', the RAF and RN could certainly give them a run for their money.
 
Today I put this rather dark and grainy pic of the Union Inn into the GNU Image Manipulation Program.
uniion.jpg

The result is a picture of what the pub might have looked like in the 1920s.
Union_Inn 1926.jpg

Today the building is still there but is not a pub ...
 
Today I put this rather dark and grainy pic of the Union Inn into the GNU Image Manipulation Program.
View attachment 138792

The result is a picture of what the pub might have looked like in the 1920s.
View attachment 138793

Today the building is still there but is not a pub ...
oldMohawk, is GNU a part of Photoshop or a separate program?
 
oldMohawk, is GNU a part of Photoshop or a separate program?
Hi Richard,

GNU Image Manipulation Program is open source (free) so is not connected with Photoshop. Gimp was originally developed for Linux but runs on Windows platforms. Photoshop is probably easier to use although I have never actually used it. I don't think anyone else on the BHF uses Gimp but there are several members using Photoshop.

Gimp is a large download (1Gb) from

I am presently using Gimp version 2.10.10. It sat in my computer for ages before I actually used it.
It uninstalls easily just like any other program!

oldmohawk
 
Hi Richard,

GNU Image Manipulation Program is open source (free) so is not connected with Photoshop. Gimp was originally developed for Linux but runs on Windows platforms. Photoshop is probably easier to use although I have never actually used it. I don't think anyone else on the BHF uses Gimp but there are several members using Photoshop.

Gimp is a large download (1Gb) from

I am presently using Gimp version 2.10.10. It sat in my computer for ages before I actually used it.
It uninstalls easily just like any other program!

oldmohawk
Thank you...……..I will look into it, I like the free part with Gimp but the easy with Photoshop!
 
I see that the cover of Rod Stewart's Railway Modeller story issue reminds us that the NEC host the Warley Railway Exhibition in ten days time.

It used to be vicars that went in for railway modelling, (large vicarages?) but the world of pop includes the likes of Pete Waterman and, we heard today, Jools Holland.

P.S. Fascinating signal gantry shown in the BBC article, uppper quadrant, searchlight and lower quadrant signals. Different railway companies or modeller's licence?
 
We used to go to the Warley Railway Exhibition when it was held in Warley!!
There was a TV program recently about railway layouts but somehow we missed the final. We wanted to make a layout in the loft but disability put paid to that. I still have my dollshouses though including the one my father made more than 60years ago.
rosie.
 
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