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Bright Eyes and Pigtails

Andi and Students--helping husband and wife

20090501-DSC_0310-2.jpg

I'm baaaaack!

[Ausimax]

I am not too sure of the colour of the gown, out here we only have black ones - I copied the colour from one I had done previously any suggestions?
Other comments welcomed.








Thanks,

Max

[lauranik]

I think the color is good, maybe just a little less saturated.

Thanks!

laura

[glennab]

Hi Max!

I just see a couple of small things that bother me.  I think because of the shading of his nose, the bridge looks just a little too narrow compared to the original.  And I think his original mouth is a little fuller.

I agree with Laura that the red might look better a little less saturated, and I think I'd darken and blur the folds and creases more.

I can see areas (around his ears especially) where he looks cut out from the background, so I'd definitely smooth that transition.

Small stuff.  Great clean up!

And great to see you on the forum.  It's been so quiet over the holidays; we oldsters need to get back in and stir things up a bit, don't you think?

Hugs!

GK

(P.S. We went to the movies yesterday, and the previews of one of the films had a Kracken in it.  OMG, if I look that bad, I'll never go out again!)

[Ausimax]

Laura,

Thanks for the input, the gown does seem a little bright to me, though I had done a restore of another red gown that had not suffered a lot of damage and that was the colour of it - that's why I asked for second opinions. So far the vote is for desaturating a little so I will go with that. Thanks for taking the time to look.

GK,

The Nose, I may have overdone the highlighting a bit, the width is the same as the original, I always load the Wip above the original the dial the opacity up and down to check for discrepancies.

The Mouth, hard to tell with it the top lip seems to be OK, The bottom? Hard to tell there is just enough damage to make it uncertain - could maybe make it a little fuller.

Folds and Creases, wasn't sure- have had them darker/lighter , decisions, decisions, always decisions, will darken it a bit.

Didn't bother to much with the blending at this stage, I knew it would get pulled apart and I'd have to start again.

Haven't been on the forum much of late, a lot of other things happening, besides I felt I had to have a bit of a break from restoring for a while, felt I was getting stale and not enjoying it as much as I should.

Pleased to see you have become acquainted with your namesake, tip, keep all the mirrors covered!

Right! One for all the PS experts.
When I create a wip I "Ctrl/Shift/Alt +E" and make a composite image at the top of the layer stack, with that layer selected, I "Select All" then "Copy" then "File/New" and "Paste".

Every time I did that with this image I ended up with a muddy desaturated image, I tried three times without success, and yes I was copying into the same colour space, RGB.
In the end I had to flatten the whole psd image to get an identical copy.

Anybody have any clues as to what may have been going wrong?

Thanks,
Max

[schen]

Max,

You might want to lighten the background a little to separate it from his hair.

Shujen

[Johnboy]

Hi Max, glad to hear that you are rested and back with us. I am not sure what version of PS you are using but according to Katrin Eismann she says for CS2 to click on the top most lay and then us Cmd-Option-Shift E (Mac) or Ctrl-Opt-Shift E (PC) to merge all visible layers into a new layer.

Since I have CS I have to create a new layer at the top before merging the visible layers. She says you can hold down the Option/Alt (PC)/Option/Cmd (Mac) while selecting Layer>Merge Visible. Key commands are Cmd-Option-Shift-N/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-N (for new layer) followed by Cmd-Option-Shift-E/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E. Keep the Cmd-Option or the Option/Alt keys down for large files until the operation is complete.

You can create a separate flattened file by choosing Image>Duplicate and check Duplicate Merged Layers Only.

Hope this helps.

Johnboy

[Ausimax]

Shujen,

Johnboy,

Thanks, I use CS2 and "Ctrl/Shift/Alt +E" has always worked for me in the past, just this image has been a problem - just can't think why this one should be different.

The Image>Duplicate and check Duplicate Merged Layers Only, method works OK, never thought of doing it that way.

Thanks,

Max

[glennab]

Max, just a thought, because I ran into the same dilemma a couple of times.  Do you have an adjustment or blending layer somewhere within the group you're trying to merge?  If so, you may have to dupe those layers with their affected layer and merge them first, then merge that one with the others.

I select the layers I want and Command, Option, Shift, E to get the merged layer above the working layers without losing any of the separate ones. They don't have to be selected if they're the only layers in your file, but I often have folders with prior working layers in them.

Hugs!

GK

[Ausimax]

Hi GK,

There were several adjustment and blending layers in the image, as I am sure there have been in many previous images I have treated this way, I just can't figure out why this one should suddenly react differently.

I will try out your suggestion and see if that works, I think PS contains Gremlins, I know on some images if I try to use the Healing brush tool, instead of blending the areas together it just leaves snail trails in its wake, haven't found a cause for that either.
Or why when I use the polygonal lasso tool and am working around a selection the the image window will suddenly just go completely blank/white, and the only way out is to hit "Esc" and start over, as a result I do most of my selecting with the pen tool.

Never quite sure who is the idiot PS or ME!

Max

[Hannie]

Max, sometimes when the healing brush leaves trails I change sample "all layers" to "current layer" or vice versa.  That often helps. 
Sometimes I need to shift+control+E before I can work without the trail showing.

Hannie

[karenaxe]

I started working on the same photo before Xmas and the holidays plus setting up a new computer kept me from finishing it.  I am new here and found this photo extremely difficult, but was just about to take a second shot at it when I saw it had been done.  I am posting the photo as far as I got, but am glad to see that it got finished. I was mostly working on the face--the gown wasn't finished.  I would welcome any suggestions.



Karen

[Hannie]

Hi Karen,

No need to work on this photo, it was finished a month ago!
(Sorry for the confusion, I sent you this photo on November 14.  I sent an email asking for a progress report about a month later and waited another month before relisting it in my gallery.)

thanks,

Hannie

PS
Nice job on the background!