Remastering Pictographs at Buckhorn Draw

Sometimes we find pictographs that we know are incredible, but because of time, intentional defacing or other, we just can't seem to make out the image. I have been doing this for a long time, I have learned ways to pull the image out so as to recreate the image for study. However one such site in Buckhorn Draw has long stumped me, for what ever reasons I just couldn't see what needed to be, and this Image is the following. 

The near finished but unverified illusive image.

Thanks to everything I have learned, tested or tried over the years I think I am close... and Thanks to a recent D Stretch donation by Jerry Grimsley... and my recent download of DStretch, I think we're about there.... Here is the process using just a cell phone camera, computer and program skills... This panel is from Buckhorn Draw. All I had at the time was a phone camera...

The old familiar panel of Buckhorn Draw, but have you ever actually seen it?

Some years ago a disgruntled employee decided to through battery acid all over this panel if I am not mistaken, this being the main target... severe bleeding was the result and as a result, it is very difficult to get a good picture for study, or to even make it out in person.

First I breath a little life into the photo with a small amount of hue and saturation... but not to much, and some color reduction, blue in this case. Then while editing I convert it back and forth to help me see things better... sometimes it helps and sometimes not... this is all before DStretch ever came about... and it is a remarkable tool but I am just learning to use it... 

Then the pain staking process begins in eliminating the areas of bleeding that are clear... The dark images on the left were brought over from a another previous image. Look at the center image and you can see the results of cleaning or eliminating the excessive red or bleeding from obvious areas..

Until DStretch, defining the boundaries of the images is something that could only be done at the site and careful observation and sketching. We will likely never know if there was a pattern of sort existing in the body of the images... By the way, the main figures are about 6 foot tall...

Slow but sure the process continues... An Image this bad use to take me months to do, with several trips to the site.

Finally we near the end, although this image is not yet complete, I hope to find verification in some old photos I may receive very soon. Otherwise this image cannot be verified. Although I am very confident of MOST of the results, we cannot yet be sure.

Now thanks to DStretch we can at least eliminate several return trips, I still don't understand exactly how it works but for the most part it helps to see what cannot be seen freely.

DStretch Image donated by Jerry Grimsley (Thank You!)

One of my first DStretch Images