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From Out of the Shadows

1927 First Communion

Harrington Beach State Park

Couple

[startup_eng1]

I hope this works as I have not posted a link to photos before.

There appears to be two types of damage to this image. I have tried to separate them using the Hue/Saturation controls in Camera Raw.

PROBLEM 1
The first problem looks like there may have been a chemical reaction between the photo and something laying on top of it. Note the lettering in the rectangle and the lightened strips accented with the red arrows. This damage is responsible for the mottled effect seen as light spots and strips across the whole image.

PROBLEM 2
The second type of damage appears to be tarnish or discoloration which has been accented in orange. The problem with this damage is that the details of the faces are heavily affected by correction to the orange color (i.e. remove the tarnish and lose the faces!!!) .

MORE INFO:
1. In RGB: R has the least detail, B is intermediate and B shows most detail in faces but also the tarnish
2. In CMYK: C is very soft and splotchy with the least amount of detail, M is similar to the G channel and Y is similar to the B channel

QUESTIONS:
1. Which problem should be tackled first?
2. Suggestions on how to approach Problem 1, the overlaid damage.
3. Suggestions on how to approach Problem 2, the tarnish issue.
    a. My main concern here is how eliminate without losing facial features.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm a bit overwhelmed on this one.

[startup_eng1]

Here's the links to the images referenced in my first post. I haven't figured the image post out.

PROBLEM 1:

http://s767.photobucket.com/albums/xx320/startup_eng1/OPR_Projects/?action=edit&current=AAM197_05_Problem1.jpg

PROBLEM 2:

http://s767.photobucket.com/albums/xx320/startup_eng1/OPR_Projects/?action=edit&current=AAM197_05_Problem2.jpg

[startup_eng1]

OK - I think I've figured out the post. Please bear with me.

PROBLEM 1:


PROBLEM 2:


Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!

[glennab]

Hi Startup (do you race cars or are you a pilot?)  And if you're a newbie, which I assume you are, a hearty welcome from Florida!

Would you post the actual image without separation in camera raw? First off, I don't have camera raw (which may or may not relate).  But also some of us have been working on these restorations long enough that we have a few unconventional ways of working out solutions starting with the original. It would be easier for me to see that image first.

Thanx!

GK

[startup_eng1]

Actually I am a test engineer. I have spent over 35 years testing and starting up heavy industrial machinery at utility power plants, military and aerospace facilities.

Photography is a hobby. I've done a couple hundred family photo restorations, but OPR is definitely taking me to new levels. I like the challenge and I like helping people.

Here's the original image:



Thank in advance for any help you can offer. I really want to fix this photo!!!

[Hannie]

Hi Startup_eng1,

I don't know anything about Camera RAW but I do like how you images show exactly where the damage is and what the shape of it is.

I only work on images that are not separated in Camera Raw and when I look at this photo, the first thing I would do is add a channel mixer adjustment layer and check the monochrome box. 
The next thing would be a levels adjustment and maybe even a curves adjustment layer.  If you are good at it you can also use the channel mixer. 
With each step in tonal adjustment I would carefully compare before and after to see if there is no loss in detail anywhere.

After all that I would just go cloning/healing/patching/dodging/burning whatever it takes to get rid of the (visible) damage.  I would be careful not to paint over detail.

Good luck on your 2nd OPR restore!

Hannie

[glennab]

Okay, my engineer friend.  I usually use everyone's "initials" when addressing them, but that would make you SUE.  Johnny Cash might like it, but I don't.  So Startup it'll be unless you want to give me another name!

That taken care of, here's what I tried on your image and got what I thought was about the best start you can give yourself.  I went to calculations and mixed the green and blue channels.  Set them to overlay and created an alpha channel.  That channel can be copied, you can go to your layers, create an empty layer and then paste in the alpha channel.  (You can also try this with CMYK.)  I don't know if you've played with calculations, but I've recently happened on several great tutorials on using that method to acquire the best possible black and white image, and that's what you want to do.  (I use it all the time to pull out detail, but since I haven't worked on B&W images, I didn't extrapolate to that point.)  The image I got was a bit dark, so I lightened it up, and was able to read the lettering in the back of the church.

Try other channel combinations (and CMYK) and different blending modes to see if you can pull out any more. You might even be able to create a couple of different alpha channels with different combinations and then blend them. Endless possibilities.  I'd try a few more, but I just took another restoration and I should get cranking on that.

Having studied the faces, I can tell that you'll get very little detail out of most of them, but the few that have any features are enhanced by using calculations.  From that point, you'll be able to clean up what's still detailed and smooth out the uneven tones, and I think that's about the best you can do.  There's very little with which to work, so any cleanup and smoothing you can do will be a great improvement. From experience, I've learned that it doesn't pay to try to create features where there are none.  A major exercise in futility.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Cheers!

GK

Oops, Hannie posted just before I did.  I'll be interested to know how the channel mixer works.  I haven't played with that much, but it stands to reason that you might get finer control.  News at 11?

[startup_eng1]

Thanks to both Hannie and GK for the suggestions. Sorry about the delay in getting back to both of you.

I just had Margie review the project and she said it's good to go.

Here's what I did.

I was working on what Ctein said in his book, Digital Restoration Start to Finish, that any color shift in a black & white photo represents damage. As you can see from the Problem 1 and Problem 2 images there are two types of damage.

I used the image shown under Problem 2 which shows Orange in the corners of the building. I created a mask based on the orange and then I was able to control the orange using Color Mixer and used it to make it lighter as to blend with the background. This also gave me pretty good detail with the people and foreground.

The image shown in Problem 1 was too wide spread and no matter what I tried I could not create a mask which would isolate it and allow me to control it. So in Camera Raw I adjusted the image to provide the best background that closely matched the adjustment that removed the orange in the above image. The intent was to balance the color across the background.

This gave two separate images which I combined with a mask pulling the fore and mid ground from one and the background from the other. Call this the Master1.

I still was missing detail from the background, in particular the lettering. So I took the combined image, as a separate copy, and multiplied it up 3 times and then adjusted with a curve to pull as much detail as I could. This gave me an image with a lot of contrast but with detail.

I combined this image with the Master1 image using a mask to pull in dark details as required.

This gave Master2 image which still had a mottled effect (like drops of water on a watercolor painting). I went over the whole photo with dodge and burn tools to even this up as much as I could. In the highlights it was necessary to use the smudge tool to even out the color further.

I worked over the details again with dodge and burn (in particular the lettering, electric light cords and windows). Plus, clone stamp, patch tool and then a crop to finish the edges.

This photo still has unrecoverable damage particularly in about 15 faces, which you can see highlighted with red rectangles here:



Here's a B&W copy of the final image.



GK, thanks for the tip on calculations. I think this will be a help in the future but I have to spend some more time figuring it out. It looks like it would be a great way to create the mask in Problem 1 that I could not figure out. I'll keep working on it. BTW, you can call me, Jon.

Hope this information, helps others.

Regards,

Jon

[Mhayes]

Startup Eng1,

I think you did a great job on this and thanks for the tutorial, especially about how you used Camera Raw. I love knowing what you did and the reasoning behind it. 

Margie

[Hannie]

Hi Jon,  what a beautiful job!  I wish I was as good using the Channel mixer, it looks like it is a great method to preserve detail in these historical photos.

 

Hannie

[glennab]

Hi Jon

You did an awesome job cleaning up this image.  I wondered if it would require multiple masks to handle all the damage.  I'd never have guessed it could become this relatively pristine. Kudos!  You're a keeper.

GK

BTW, I'm curious about camera raw.  Does it basically have the same functions as Photoshop, but geared more to photographers? Is it more sophisticated?  I'm always interested in anything that can help us grapple with these monsters, but if the same thing can be accomplished in Photoshop, with which I'm familiar, I'd hesitate to dive into new software.

[startup_eng1]

GK,

Thanks for the compliment!!!

I  will look forward to your calculations tutorial.

Several have asked about Camera Raw, so I will put something together and post it as well.

Regards,

Jon

[Hannie]

Looking forward to new tutorials!

Hannie