Photo Retouching- Soldiers of the Waffen-SS

[Remy Spezzano]

Frame No. 15

[MarcRikmenspoel]

Nice! I don't have Damm-Jensen's first name, but I believe he was a Dane, who got his start photographing the Frikorps Danmark. My sources indicate that after being with the Flemings for a while, he covered the Hohenstaufen Division, and then the Ukrainian 14. WGD.

These photos show the survivors of the Legioen Vlaanderen marching in Antwerp as part of a recruting drive for the new successor-unit, the 6. SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade Langemarck. Further drives, with associated similar marches, were held into the autumn of 1943, and succeeded in bringing in enough volunteers to allow the brigade to reach full strength.

What project are will you be using these in? It sounds right up my alley!

[Remy Spezzano]

Nice! I don't have Damm-Jensen's first name, but I believe he was a Dane, who got his start photographing the Frikorps Danmark. My sources indicate that after being with the Flemings for a while, he covered the Hohenstaufen Division, and then the Ukrainian 14. WGD.

These photos show the survivors of the Legioen Vlaanderen marching in Antwerp as part of a recruting drive for the new successor-unit, the 6. SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade Langemarck. Further drives, with associated similar marches, were held into the autumn of 1943, and succeeded in bringing in enough volunteers to allow the brigade to reach full strength.

What project are will you be using these in? It sounds right up my alley!

Thanks Marc for sharing those little tidbits of information on SS-KB Damm-Jensen.
I've posted some more photos taken by him on this thread http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=635291

[Remy Spezzano]

Here is a rare photo showing SS-Kriegsberichter Damm-Jensen taking his own photo in the mirror. As I mentioned in another thread where I first posted this photo. He would never have thought that this playful shot of himself would end up on a thing called the "Internet" 69 years later for all the world to see.

Check out his privately purchased skull ring. Another thing of interest is how despite his access to take photos of the unit he serves in. He only holds the rank of a private.

[Paul E]

Wonderful close up of a skull ring as well Remy !!

[Lloyd I.]

Here is one I cleaned tonight which is also the first image I ever colorized way back in 1996.

[Lloyd I.]

An example of a damaged image I've restored.

[Erwin L]

Here is one I cleaned tonight which is also the first image I ever colorized way back in 1996.

Very nice. If i'm correct, he is wearing a sniper camo veil around his neck. They were used to put on the the helmet so the strings covered your face. Very rare item to find.

Regards

Erwin

[Lloyd I.]

Genau richtig Erwin. You are correct.

Since he's been posted I offer you a cleaned up Bundesarchiv image of Christian Tychsen I just did. Free of charge.

While you can get this scan at 350 DPI from BA at cost of course, what you will get is the 1st image as shown. A little effort and publishers would do those who buy their material a great service.

[Remy Spezzano]

Thanks for posting Lloyd. However when I see your "before and after" comparisons on the last three images all of them are way to dark. This often occurs when you have your monitor set to bright or not bright enough. It's very easy to make the adjustments according to the brightness of your monitor, And then when you post the images online the rest of us see an image which is way too dark in the black areas. The end result as we clearly see here is many of the details end up being lost in the shadows.

Have you learned how to use the "Shadows & Highlights" tool in Photoshop?
I highly recommend the use of this wonderful tool. It allows you to bring out the details which are often lost in the shadow areas and tone down the really bright areas without degrading the image.

Here is a re-post of the Tychsen image. I made some subtle improvements to the BA photo in order to bring out his eyes which were being lost in the shadows. Also it takes time but the clone/rubber stamp tool allows you to clean up all the specks and spots that often ruin a really nice photo.

[Ron C.]

I sort of took a quick try at it too.

Ron

[Remy Spezzano]

Nice job Rob. You got the hang of it. The bottom with any photo retouching is it takes time and patience.
Once you get the hang of it you can really do wonders to bring a photo back to life.

[Lloyd I.]

Hi Remy,

Yeah I use the clone stamp, curves, layers, freehand select and variations to a great degree. The image I did last night took about 15 minutes and I produced 7 version of varying contrast.

Here are the two I prefer side by side. You can see one is lighter. It's a matter of personal taste but I prefer to clean all the scratches out where your image left them in. In this way by selecting different areas, uniform, visor, background, face, even RK to work on it presents a better image. At least to me anyway. Normally when I got to a client I go with multiples and let them choose what they prefer as it comes down to taste.

[randy@treadways]

Every iteration gets a little better.

Here is my stab at it.

[Remy Spezzano]

Nicely done Randy!