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U.S.S Alamo -

Birthday Party

Man with gun

john_working.jpg

[DerW]

Hi there,

just finished my latest restore and thought I might share it with you.

Before:
After:

I started this one with some basic corrections by using masked curves to get rid of the blue streak on the left.
Some Hue/Saturation was used as well to get the overall saturation and hue right (desaturated some areas).
Next came a channel mixer adj. layer in "Luminosity" mode with 60% red and 40% green channel applied.
A levels adj. layer added some contrast to the overall scene.

Next I repaired the damage by using the Healing brush and sometimes even the normal brush to paint over the areas I didn't like.
Some dodge & burn was used to get the tones right now.
Next I corrected the saturation and hues like I showed in this video: http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2822.msg26043/topicseen.html

I also added some sharpening with Unsharp Mask and the distort filter (sorry, the only tutorial I did on that one is in German but maybe you'll get it anyways: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jLIqtEvKD3M&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jLIqtEvKD3M&rel=0</a>).
The last step was a merged copy of all the layers to which I applied a Gaussian blur and some add noise together with a mask.


Now it's up to you, tell me what I still missed and I'll try to fix it asap :-).

[Hannie]

Hi Jonas,

I think she looks beautiful!
Thanks for posting your restoring method, very informative and useful.

I would like to place a work of warning about the use of Unsharp Mask.  The images here are a little too small too see what effect the USM had.   What looks great in Photoshop may show up with disturbing artifacts after printing.  (That is the reason we discourage the use of USM.)

You have done a great job,

Hannie

Hannie

[GP]

Hi Jonas,
I also thing you did a great job with this photo. 

 I have only one small pick. I'm wondering, if the dark spot on the wall behind the chaise, she is sitting on, is damage. I don't think it is part of the couch. But I could be completely wrong.

Gerlinde

[DerW]

Hannie, Gerlinde, thank you both :-)!

Although I'm not sure, which dark spot on the wall you meant (I assumed the one right to her hat), I removed that one and hope I did right ;-).

Update:

[GP]

Sorry Jonas, I should have been more precise. Maybe this will help....I marked it with blue arrows. Although the outline of the dark area looks very regular, it does not really make any sense to me. Maybe your high resolution picture has more detail and it makes sense to you. 

[DerW]

Ah, now I see it, thank you! :-)

You're right, it looks funky in the high-res as well.
To fix it I just selected the part below it, used free transform to stretch it and set the blending mode of the layer to "Lighten" (that way I didn't have to create a mask for it).

Update:

[GP]

Hhhmm, I can still see it ? I'm not trying to be picky, but the outline is still there.

Oh! Now I get it, there is something white and semi transparent draped over the back of the couch.  Never mind Jonas, I was completely off. Now it makes sense. 

Great job 

Gerlinde

[lurch]

I don't think it was your imagination, Gerlinde. If that light area is something draped over the sofa back, why would it go behind the round pillow and halfway over the stuffed monkey's face? Looks like damage of some sort. I do see some real residual damage on the wall at the left edge (viewer left) of the photo just above the sofa. To me that grabs attention more than the faded couch thingy.

[DerW]

I cloned the thing on the left out and rebuilt the light areas of the sofa by using a combination of High pass for texture and hand painting.

Here's the new version:

[glennab]

I feel terrible coming in on this thread so late.  I think there is probably a knitted or crocheted afghan draped over the back of the sofa, as Jonas first showed in the restored photo. An open, lace-like pattern would allow the couch stripes to show through faintly as they do in the original  It isn't over the monkey's face, although it appears to be.  That's an old-fashioned sock monkey, and the face was made from the heal of the sock, which was an off-white color. It's a coincidence that the lines converge.

Jonas, you did a great clean-up.

GK

[DerW]

Don't feel bad, Glenna, in fact, you're my hero of the day ;-)

So you think, I should stick with what I have minus the adjustments on the sofa?
That's great because I didn't like them very much ☺.

[glennab]

Jonas, I hate to go against the tide, but I think what you had originally is correct. The monkey's face is deceptive, but my brother had one when he was a baby, and I remember the cream-colored face. The shape of the item on the couch echoes its contours, so I'm pretty certain it's an afghan.  (It's probably like my house.  Throws on everything to cover cat damage!)

Glad to make things easier for you.  That couch striping must have been agonizing!

Cheers!

GK

[Mhayes]

Jonas, how about another 2 cents worth or what may end up being too many cooks in the kitchen? Personally I like what you have done with the striped as it is never going to look quite like an afghan, but rather a portion of the sofa that is faded out. I would darken up the stripes a little more. The focus will be on the lady instead of trying to figure out what the light area is.

Margie

[DerW]

So, yet another version ;-).

Put the stripes back in and darkened them a little:

[lurch]

Jonas, I do like your last version. Darkening the stripes was a good improvement. Now if I were doing this I'd rotate the stripes about 10 degrees clockwise . . . Just teasing - Margie is right about there getting to be too many cooks in the kitchen.