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Elegant Room

Olaf

Clemons Sisters

Holloway Portrait

[david_gr]

Hi Everybody,

This is my first restoration in a few years so please be patient.  Here is the original:



And here is what I done so far:


I believe I can get the shape and major features done okay.  It's just the texture/tone of his arms and hands that are challenging me.  Does anybody have any simple text instructions that I can use to make his skin look better on his arms and legs.  I did his left arm and it wasn't too bad. But I wish I could make it look better. I know I still have some work on his shirt and blanket underneath to do.  I am using Photoshop CS2 and I have Elements v7.  I will appreciate any help I can get on this.

David Gr

[Johnboy]

David,

I looked at possibly taking this one but decided against it. I copied the photo from the gallery to play with it in Photoshop, and look at it more closely. I played with the arms using the Patch tool and it seemed to do good on the smaller damaged areas. Not sure how the larger areas might work. I have been surprised at times how well the Patch tool did work on large damaged areas. It's trial and error. So you might try the Patch tool and Healing brush. When using the Patch tool and the result seems a little strong or doesn't match well, go the Edit>Fade. You will get a dialog box with a slider. Move the slider to get the "patch" to match as closely as possible and click OK or Done. This can only be done immediately after you place the "patch." If you move on to another operation, the Fade does not work.

If you use the Healing brush put it on a separate layer above any color correction layers.

I have also used copy and paste on some damage. I use a new layer to select the damaged area. Then move the selection to the area I want to copy. Then click on the layer I want to copy from, and do the copy and paste. The paste will go to a new layer and then move the paste up to cover the damage.

You look to be well on your way to a great restore. I would suggest you look at the top corners again.  To me they appear to show some of the edges of the water damage. I know the patch tool can help smooth that out.

I use Photoshop CS so we are not that far apart on PS version. Good luck. I'll be interested in your finished product.

Johnboy

[DerW]

David,

great job so far!

I gave it a quick go with my beloved frequency separation technique (http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2687.msg25139.html#msg25139; the third video).



I separated the spatial frequencies with the "Filter"-"Blur"-"Surface Blur", used various lasso selections (with feathers), blurring filters and a new layer on "Normal" mode to fix the lower frequencies and the clone stamp on the high frequency layer to fix the overall texture.
Next one would probably do a little dodge & burn to get the shape looking a little better (lightening the middle, darkening the outer parts of the arm).

Probably you should also do some color correction on the blanket, it still has some odd yellow on it.

[lurch]

Hi David,

Super job so far. I'm detecting the same cyan cast I mentioned for the same young cutie in 'School Boy', however. Did some playing with color balance to see if I was really right. Here's what I did:

1) On the original photo, used a Threshold adjustment layer to set a white spot and a black spot, trying to ignore what was going on in the damaged areas and choosing places where I wanted to maintain detail. The spots I picked were the brightest white on the blanket and a deep shadow close to the baby's left arm. Once the points were set, I threw away the Threshold layer.

2) Made a curves adjustment layer and set the white and black points 'by the numbers'. That is, I adjusted the light end of the curve so that the white point read 230 in each channel. Then I adjusted the dark end of the curves so that the black point read 15 in each channel.

Here's what came out:


Note that in this case the stickie note turned white. I didn't do anything to make that happen. That note was the brightest thing in the image but I ignored it. It's been my experience, though, that if you set the white and black points by the numbers and maybe add an intermediate gray or two the other colors fall pretty much where they should be.

[david_gr]

Well folks! I think I have taken this as far I can.  I am still not satisfied with the baby's arms but I feel like anything I do will make it worse.  Color, shades, and texture are a definite challenge. I think the family will like it because it's better than I started with.



Any suggestions?

David_gr 

[Mhayes]

David, I think you have done a terrific job on restoring this one! The photo still has a cyan cast and what I did was take DerW's version and do a color correction on it. As to yellow in the blanket, I think that is typical on a baby's blanket. Usually if I am having a hard time with the color; I will stick with trying to find the gray point on a Curves Adjustment. I might use the white and black, but a a lot of the times gray does the trick. I did do the white, but it blew out the highlights on the background on your right--so I corrected that. See below (red arrow) for what I used for a gray point--I tried on your final, but too many revisions and it wouldn't work. Also, minor pic that has been mentioned, but on your right I would leave the blanket folding back under and not turn it total black.

Finding the gray point by adding a new layer and checking the box for 50% gray. With that layer change your mode to difference and look for areas that are black and mark your 3 best. Delete that layer and then do a Curves Adjustment and with the gray point, use one of your 3 marked areas. This was something that Dave Cross had on a NAPP tutorial and I believe GK list it on the forum. It may also be in the OPR Handbook. It has been a real help to me.



Margie

[david_gr]

This is what I am going to submit.  It's definitely been a challenge.  I hope you like it.



David Gr 

[Mhayes]

Hi David, great job on removing the color cast. One little trick that I did on the background on your right is copying the left side, moving, and then flipping. I then masked, patched and cloned as needed. Either way, your restore looks great!

Margie