Another handcolored textured photo

Johnboy · January 03, 2011, 10:58:20 PM

I hope everyone had a happy new year or at least the first 3 or 4 days of a good one.

I have had this one for a while but it has been on the back burner and has been simmering mainly due to the holidays (picked at it now and then). I thought before I get too far with the hair I would check the eagle's nest for reaction to the hair so far. My main concern was to get rid of the milky haze that was on part of the hair, and then do healing and whatever else was needed. I used ideas from the tut starting on page 261 in Katrin Eismann's Third Edition. I created a Selection for the hair then I have played with Levels, Blending modes and Opacity to get to where I am now. My concern is did I get the hair too dark when compared to the rest of the image (note the Current attempt)? I have cleaned up a lot of the photo, but the hair is my current effort. As far as the hair, I have only worked on his left side from the temple to part of his upper left (viewer right). If you tell me I need to start over (this is the second attempt at the hair) it would be easier now than when I think I am done. The image is an 8x10.

Original

First attempt (note the milky appearance in the hair) (In some ways I think the hair density in this one fits the photo better.)

Current attempt

Thanks for the help. If you have better ideas on how to get rid of the milky haze, I am open to them. Please be sure the instructions are for Photoshop CS which is the version I have.

Johnboy

Hannie · January 04, 2011, 06:04:05 AM

Hi Johnboy,

You got a lot more contrast back in your restore, great job!

I think the almost vertical stripe in his hair is damage.
The background can use a little more evening out but you probably still had work to do when you posted this.

:up2:

Hannie

Johnboy · January 04, 2011, 09:17:30 PM

Hi Hannie,

Yes I know there is a lot more to repair with the hair and probably other places in the photo. My concern for now is does the hair look right (not considering existing damage) with the rest of the photo?

Johnboy

Hannie · January 05, 2011, 05:50:33 AM

Johnboy, the hair looks great!

Hannie

Johnboy · January 05, 2011, 06:09:19 PM

Thanks Hannie. I'll continue working.

Johnboy

Pat · January 05, 2011, 07:34:02 PM

Great job Johnboy! How did you get rid of the milky haze?

Pat

Mhayes · January 05, 2011, 09:00:59 PM

Johnboy, looking great!

Margie

Pat · January 06, 2011, 08:19:37 AM

I know you are not done with this yet so maybe I'm being hasty with this observation but I think I would be tempted to lighten/soften the hairline just a bit around the sideburn and temple area to make it look not so harsh and little more natural. Also I would adjust the color of the eyebrows just a little to better fit with the hair color as in the original the head and eyebrow hair seem almost a match.

Pat

Johnboy · January 08, 2011, 06:18:00 PM

Pat thanks for your observation. I'll take it under consideration as I move forward.

You also asked how I got rid of the milky haze. It was truly an experiment based on a tutorial from Katrin Eismann's Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, Third Edition. On page 261 there is a tutorial showing a couple standing in a window with a strong reflection in the window. After selecting the area she says, "to add a Levels adjustment layer and move the black slider to the right until the window reflection just about disappears." She goes on to add other embellishments to make the photo look better. However, I only did the Levels adjustment after I made the hair selection. Then I changed the Blend mode to Soft Light after trying other blend modes. Then reduced the opacity to 60%. The wavy upper area to his right still had some milky color. Earlier in the book (page 59) she shows a tutorial where a photo needs to be darkened. There she adds a Levels adjustment layer and clicks OK. Then she changed the Blend mode. Then she duplicates the Levels adjustment layer as many times as needed to adjust the tonal quality of the photo. So with that in mind, I created another selection involving the area that needed further adjustment, and added another Levels adjustment layer, and clicked OK. This time I changed the Blend mode to Overlay and reduced the Opacity to 9%. These changes were arrived at by trying various Blend modes and Opacity levels. Then I duplicated the second Levels adjustment layer and changed the Opacity to 20%. Again all of this was by how it looked on the screen.

Sorry to take so long to answer your great question. Hope this helps. I almost posted a question on how to get rid of that milky look. Then I got to looking at the photo magnified. I figured that some of that milky look may have been light reflections from the textured paper. Then I remembered the tut clearing the window reflection, thought I would give it a try. It seems to have improved the situation, and now I need lots of time with the healing brush to finish fixing the hair.

Johnboy

Pat · January 08, 2011, 08:21:11 PM

Thank you so much Johnboy for answering my question. I have Katrin's great book myself and have read that tutorial many times but it would never have occurred to me to try it on the image you are working on. This forum is made so fantastic by all the wonderful volunteers like yourself who so selflessly take the time to share their talents and experience.

I can't wait for you to finish your work on this image and post the end results. It's going to be fantastic!

Pat

Mhayes · January 08, 2011, 11:00:39 PM

Johnboy, thanks for the great tip and the page reference in Katrin Eismann's book. I too have the book and now I think I need to review the book more often. What's great about her book is that even though it was for CS2, the ideas of how to go about fixing a problem doesn't change with current upgrades.

Margie

Johnboy · January 08, 2011, 11:05:20 PM

Pat,

As I said it was more of an experiment. I looked at it as a reflection is a reflection why not give it a try. I already had another version I was working on so if it didn't work I would only loose the time and gain some experience. You might try it on other images with reflections of any kind. It might work and it might not. You never know with these photos what to expect.

After I read the book, I started through working on some of the tuts. I got side tracked about a year ago and haven't gotten back to them. Some I can't do because the book was written for CS2 and I have CS. It still works. I don't have access to some of the new CS2 features but I am sure there is a work around for some of them.

Johnboy

P.S. Margie, while I was working on this reply you beat me to the post. The book has been a help. It is a matter of remembering where you saw something you want to use. This was something that just happened to work this time. I have had others that didn't work as well, and of course no one say those but me. JB

Johnboy · February 05, 2011, 06:05:18 PM

I think I have added all the suggestions from my earlier post on the photo.

I used the book again to lessen the milky look to the suit coat. I made the left portion of the coat a selection and did about the same thing to it that I did to the hair. Then I went over it with a healing brush.

The background was a little more tricky, and I am not sure I have it right. I remembered another Kartin Eismann tip. It is The Duplicate-and-Move Technique found starting on page 157. (The web page mentioned there does not have any further information on this technique. I looked.) She says to copy the background layer but I made a selection of the background, copied and pasted to to a new layer and duped that layer. Then proceeded as described in the book:

Label one layer lighter and one darker.
Hide the darker layer and activate the Move tool. Move the lighter layer down 2 pixels, and right 2 pixels. (2 taps on the down arrow key and 2 taps on the right arrow key.)
Change the blend mode to Lighten. This creates a slightly blurry image.
Option/Alt-click the Add Layer Mask icon to add a black layer mask to the lighten layer. Use a small, soft-edged white brush at 100% opacity to dab over the dark spots by painting on the mask. This reveals the lightened offset layer information.
Now make the darker layer visible and repeat the above steps. Only make the Blend Mode Darken and paint over the light specks on the layer mask.
Merge the layers and finish up with the Healing Brush as needed.

After I did the dupe and move technique I used the Patch tool to even out the background as much as I could. Then I went through with the Healing brush taking out the more obvious dark and light spots that were not taken out by the above technique.

I am including the original again since it is at the top:

Current WIP:

Let me know what you think.

Johnboy

G3User · February 05, 2011, 11:20:28 PM

Isn't it great when you feel you are on the home stretch.

I mentioned using a zig zag curves layer some time ago and use it with all my repairs now. Applying it to your repair and ignoring the funny colours, it shows what a great job you have done getting smooth gradients in repaired areas

It also shows up a couple of areas on his tie which need attention.

Enjoyed following the posts on this one

Athol