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Blue Channel revisited

Started by Hannie, March 02, 2009, 05:09:34 PM

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Hannie

Don't let the content of our galleries fool you, It has been very busy at OPR but I did have another look at the blue channel project

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2150.0.html

and tried to repair and adjust the blue channel.
From left to right, the original, the blue channel, the adjusted blue channel.



The reason I adjusted the blue channel is that I want to use it as a luminosity layer on top of the original photo.  If I didn't adjust the levels the people would end up looking like bronze statues.
I don't know if the adjustments I made are good enough, we'll have to wait and see.

What needs to be done now is repair the colors in the original and get rid of the writing and most of the stains.  This does not have to be done to carefully, it will only be used as a color layer anyways.  All the detail will come from our repaired blue channel.

Any takers?

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

lurch

Hannie, I think you'll find that using your adjusted blue channel in luminosity mode will make the writing disappear, if not completely then nearly so. I do most of my work on a luminosity layer. Once that's cleaned up getting rid of the stains is easy. The cleanup makes them the same luminosity as the surrounding area and you just have to paint over them (in color mode on a color layer) with color sampled from a good spot near by.
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rlmichael

After seeing my restoration on this project so far, do you think I should add the blue layer in Luminosity mode, and then do as Lurch suggest? You seem to doing a better job than I. Your blue channel looks great. How did you fix his eye and glasses? From what I gather all I need to do is take the blue channel and past it over the original, and change the mode to luminosity to bring back the color.  Then paint in the background on a color layer.  Wow, this is quite a project. All suggestions are appreciated. Mike
Richard(Mike)Michael

Hannie

#3
That's right Mike, paste the blue channel on top of your original and set the blending mode to luminosity.  The example below is what it will look like.  I didn't do much to fix the glasses, just a curves adjustment and a little extra dodging here and there.
Lurch, thanks for the tip, it looks like it shouldn't be so hard to fix anymore.

(full res version)

Hannie

Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

Hannie

#4
With mostly photos left in our galleries that are badly damaged, the blue channel will often be the best source to find lost detail.

I have added a color layer and started fixing the left side but had to stop for lack of time.  It is still a fair bit of work, quite tedious because you have to keep sampling colors from the the area you want to restore. 
Even when all the coloring is done it is necessary to zoom in and heal/repair left over damage!

Hannie

Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]