Show HN: Holst, Digitally Retouched Old Paintings

Holst is a project for retouching old paintings [1]. The project’s aim is to use digital retouching to recreate the original look of old artworks. This is definitely not an innovative idea, although painting restoration is a rather standard operation done by well-trained specialists, it is slow, costly, and lacks the level of discretion matched by a modern image editor.

The significant amount of time that has passed from the original creation of many paintings affects their color and brightness. This often makes it difficult to understand what a painting looked like in the moment it was created according to the artist’s vision. Holst’s goal is to use digital technology to repair the defects of age and alter an image’s brightness, contrast, and colors to better reflect the artist’s original creation. This painting can be used as example: [2]. Holst's variant after retouching: [3]. You can decide whether you prefer the first variant or second. Anyway, you have and will always have a choice to enjoy the first variant. Holst simply gives you an additional choice that you might like better. And, of course, additional choice is always a good thing.

All paintings are available in 1800-2000-pixel resolution without any watermarks and logos. All previews have been created in Photoshop, so they perfectly combine high quality and small file size. Any image can be printed on canvas or paper.

[1] https://holstshop.com/catalog/painters/ [2] http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-joseph-vernet-a-landscape-at-sunset [3] https://holstshop.com/media/hires/Claude-Joseph-Vernet/115745.jpg