In 1977, someone took a bad snapshot of Joe Davis at a party in a snooker hall in England. It was then printed
on the linen textured stock that was popular back then. In the early 90s, someone scanned it into a computer.
Unfortunately, the texture that works to eliminate glare on a foto shows up as a pattern of faded dots when
scanned. Even worse, it was then printed on plain cheap paper at low rez. This copy was given to a customer
of mine, Don Sitarski, President of ACES inc and dedicated
snooker enthusiast. He hung it near his authentic
antique full size 1924 Brunswick, Balke & Collender snooker table. At some point it attained sufficient
sentimental value to make it worthy of a frame.
December 2018 - I figured restoring it would make a nice Christmas present for a loyal customer, thinking a
little saturation boost would do wonders to compensate for 40 years of brown fade, plus maybe touch up
those ink smudges. No biggy, mostly just get a digital copy that won't do any more fading.
A month later and I had to force myself to not work on it any more. I got REAL work to do, man!
I gotta start making some money here!
During the hours of getting rid of the burlap texture and ugly shadows, I had developed an obsession, going
far beyond mere enhansement, venturing deep into the endless wilderness of embellishment. There is no
limit. You are never finished. It can always look better.
And who are these other people? Joe is the chap in the dark suit up front, but is that his brother Fred on
his rite? Is the man in the orange tweed another legend of snooker? I want to know. Where exactly is this
place? What is the occasion? I need to know!
About 4 times I got to the point where I thought it looked good enuf to print & laminate a hi-rez copy for Don,
only to look at it the next day and see something that made it unworthy.
Finally, I had to just give up on perfection and hope he liked it.
Turned out he did not! "Looks like a cartoon."
Oh well. At least he likes the original scan with inserts of other Joe Davis pictures that I printed on the
reverse side. I think its a combination of his being used to the brown faded washed out print and my version
being too saturated and embellished.
I did some more work after that, mostly replacing the horrible blob I'd drawn trying to fix the washed out white
coat or jacket of the woman facing away up front, but my obsession is over. Aside from making this page,
I don't feel compelled to do any more improvements.
I like to watch the game on Youtube occasionally. I even played a few with Don on his table! 61 to 2, first game.
79 to 20, 2nd game. At this rate, I will beat Don by my 5th game and then win the next dafabet MASTERS!
It occured to me early on that Photoshoppers with real talent could probably do a much better job than I in
much less time and enjoy a challenge. Thus, this page.
Click on the above pik to get the 3000 x 2424 pixel jpg I started with. See if you can make it look like a good
professional fotograf. Or you could start with one of my 'final versions' below and take it to a whole new level!
A second challenge is to find more info about the picture. Who, when, where. I think the guy
next to Joe is his brother Fred who was also a snooker champion, but Don disagrees.
Have fun!
_|