Blue channel project

[Hannie]

I would like you all to have a look at this photo. a real doozy!  I have done a very basic color adjustment in the 3 separate R, G and B channels already.  You can click on the thumbnail to view the full res version.



And this is what I found in the blue channel, isn't it amazing?  (clickable thumbnail also)



My question is, where to go from here.  Should we work on the blue channel only and colorize?  But I'm terrible at that, it always looks like a little kid did the coloring when I'm done!
How can we use the blue channel in way that we can use some of that good detail that is left there...

Thanks,

Hannie

[Tori803]

I don't know if this will help, but this site discusses combining 3 grayscale images into one color image:
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/imaging/tutorial_rgb_ps.html

I haven't had time to play with this yet, but it looks promising.

[GP]

Hi Hannie,

I just used the blue channel on the photo of the little boy to restore his missing chin. I'm at work right now and I can not look up what I exactly did, but here is a link to a thread that explains how to get the color back to the image:
 
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,434.30.html

you have to scroll down to find the interesting part. He is using the magenta channel, but the principle is the same. I will have a look at my on restore tonight and post any additional info I might have.

Gerlinde

(by the way Hannie, I believe the photo I worked on was the older boy and his chin is kind of pointy)

[rlmichael]

Hi Tori803, I Checked on the URL and it worked fine, but I just ended up with a copy of the original that was made by using the three color channels. This may be one way to turn a B/W into an RGB I don't know.  The technique was fun, and it taught me how to get my channels on a layer if I needed it.  Thanks for the suggestion. Mike

[rlmichael]

Hi Hannie, this is the photo you sent me. I guess more than one person works on a photo. That's good, together I should learn a lot. How did you take the type out of the Blue image? I tried the level adjustment, and it worked almost perfect. I can still see a little but very faint. Now if this blue image was the color image I would be set. I also have a pretty good likeness of the male figure, which I thought would be imposable. OK, where do we go from here?  Mike

[Hannie]

Mike, you are absolutely right, it is the photo you sent me!  (I sent you an email earlier, did you get it?)
Normally only one person works on a restore but I was so amazed by the blue channel that I wanted to see what could be done with it!  In my enthusiasm I posted the images before waiting for your reply! Oops!  :-[

Mike, the blue channel image is just that, no damage repair or writing removal, I've never seen such a good blue channel in such a badly damaged photo...

Tori, the link to the NASA images tutorial is very good, it teaches you how to line up channels using the difference mode.  I tried it and loved the tip about using the arrow keys, totally forgotten how useful they are in Photoshop!  Also refreshed my memory of keyboard use rater clicking with the mouse.

Gerlinde, I'm halfway through Kurt's babies, wow, what a topic!  It is is almost an entire book on photo restoring, thanks for posting that link!  It looks like that may be the direction this restore could go?

Hannie

[rlmichael]

Hi Hannie, I didn't notice you were in Amsterdam. Wow! that's kind of neat. They say it takes very little to amuse a weak mind. ;D Now down to business. I uploaded my work in progress on to Photobucket, and as soon as Tessie tells me how to get it over here to the forum, you can see what I did with the blue channel.  If more can be done I am all ears. I did it with a copy of the blue channel, which I pasted on a new layer. I used the levels to lighten the blue, and then took what remained of the type out of the blue photo.  Then I used a transparent layer to add color over the blue layer. The color layer I believe is a non destructive way to colorize the blue layer. The photo you see is a composite of the original (background) and the blue channel and the color layer. I can't find a way to lighten his face, without it looking phony.  There is still a red tinge to the photo , which I can't seam to remove.  His tee shirt looks weired if I paint it in. I tried using a texture filter in the shirt, and that looked worse. This is my very first try at this reconstruction,and I sure picked a winner. I am not to concerned about the background although I have tried painting it, and leaving it, and I am still undecided. If I don't get you all to help this may be as far as I go, because I am at a loss as to what to do. If I can't get my photo over here this whole paragraph may be a mute point. If not I will email it to someone. Wish me luck

[Hannie]

Sounds good Mike!

This is the page that will tell you how to post your photo on the forum after you've uploaded to Photobucket.
note:   unfortunately Photobucket changed their "click once on link to copy it" and now you have to click on the link to highlight it and then rightclick and click on copy.
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1834.0.html

Below a very important note before you upload any images to Photobucket:
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2041.0.html

Good luck,

Hannie

[glennab]

Hannie, I don't know if it would help with this thread, but I had a project with the same technical theme a year or so ago, and there's a good discussion of using the blue channel when information is as good as it is in this one, and some fine tips from other volunteers on how they accomplish getting good color back into the image.  I've forgotten how to post the address of the thread, but it was called "A Photoshop Miracle" under the Photoshop topic.  It gave me the "Beautiful Child under the Muck" gallery post, and I still can't get over how much information was in the blue channel and how incredible the restoration became because of that and the great feedback I got.  Might be worth revisiting that as you work your way through this similar challenge.

Bless,

GK

(I think this is the link to the thread.)

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1087.0.html

[Hannie]

I remember your little girl in the blue channel topic Glenna, thanks for the link!  It is really worth reading for anyone wanting to learn about the blue channel use in restoring photos
I read all the posts again and there are some really helpful tips there.  So funny, I even gave some tips there myself that I'd completely forgotten about... ::)

So one way to start to tackle this doozy could be:

- restore and level adjust the blue channel
- clean up colors on the original, no need to be too precise with that
- past blue channel into original and set mode to luminosity or paste the original colored image as a layer on top of the restored blue channel layer and set the blending mode to color

Hannie

[rlmichael]

I copied the img URL now what do I do with it? Tessie said somthing about me pasting this into my thread. What is my thread? Mike ::) 

[Hannie]

Hi Michael,  by thread we mean a discussion thread or in other words this topic that you are posting in right now.
Great that you managed to post your image, well done!
I can see text in your WIP, that means you weren't able to use any of the above methods yet?
I would love to help out some more but at the moment OPR is bogged down with work, so you are going to have to take a rain check!

Hannie

[rlmichael]

Hi Hannie, I am still looking for advice on this project.  Is their more I can do? If so where do I start? If not what do I do? Do I upload this photo to the Photoshelter, and give it back to you? If I do that can I pick out another one ( may be a little easier this time around) :-[? I was hoping to do better, but I am lost.

[Hannie]

Hi Michael,

I wanted to post a restored blue channel image (into a black and white version of this photo) and take it from there.  Unfortunately I haven't had the time yet to do so!  If you'd like to you can have a go at that?  The blue channel image thumbnail above will get you the full res image at Photobucket.

If you would rather try an easier one that is fine and no problem at all!
I'm afraid most of what is left there now are very difficult and will most likely need to be restored with the help of the blue channel (or any other suitable channel). 

Hannie

[rlmichael]

Thanks Hannie, I'll give it a go.