Input Needed - Latest Disaster

[glennab]

Hey Max

Consider this: mortar is usually gray (or at least any that I've seen). That may be a good place to start adjusting your color cast.  It might be worth seeing how your colors appear if you click your gray eyedropper on the mortar.

GG

[Ausimax]

Thanks glennab, I hadn't thought that the mortar may be gray, though the bricks are gray (I think) and coloured mortar would make a contrast.

Will check it out again, a bit confused as to what to use as a neutral gray, I tried the bricks and that did no good - will keep trying other options for a while.

Thanks again for your good advice, you are a champion!

Max

[glennab]

Max, if you're not sure about the color of the mortar, maybe some of the shadow in Santa's beard would be another option for getting the gray. GG

P.S.  Thanks for the kind words!  I like to get my 2 cents' worth in if I think I can help, and I'm also learning so much from the rest of you.  This has been a great experience!  I feel as if I have friends all over the world.  Works for me!!!

[Kenny]

The bricks are, well, brick red  ;D

I lucked out and the girl was wearing a big bird shirt in the picture I did. As we all know, big bird is yellow, so that made it easier. I left my mortar kind of a light grey. It's lighter than neutral grey, though.

I know what you're going through on this one, Max. Every correction I tried brought out more unwanted color casts. You'rs looks pretty good as it is. A little touchup on the color and I think it'll be perfect.

I think the girls overalls might be blue, but, green is a christmas color.  :D

You might try a new layer set on color and fill the overalls with blue to see how it looks.


Kenny


*Edit

I did a quick and dirty version of what I described and this is how it turned out:



I used a new layer set on color, used a soft brush with CMYK Blue (33348E), painted the overalls, then reduced the opacity of the new layer to 50 percent because it looked a little TOO blue to me.

Anyway, my 2 cents on the deal :P

[glennab]

Hi Kenny & Max

I have to say I prefer the skin tones in Max's version.  They seem more natural and warm.  But I do like the blue jeans in BLUE!  Max, I'd say you'd have to make the call.  I like Kenny's suggestion for making the jeans blue, if you choose to do that. Even a soft selection around her clothing and whatever adjustments you're comfortable with would give you an idea if that's the ticket.

Sans the color issues, I still think you did a wonderful job!

GG

[Ausimax]

Hi Kenny, glennab,

Have decided to go with the green version, no amount of colour manipulation I did on the original would make the suit blue, or the bricks red or the mortar gray, and besides my resident fashion expert, DW, said that you would not use those colour patches on blue denim, and that the stitching is wrong for denim, more the style used to decorate flannel type material. And after 45 years I have learnt not to disregard "expert" advice lightly.

Still a little more tweaking to do then I think it can go home, and the powers that be can decide its fate.

Thank you all for you kind advice and encouragement, it is much valued.

Max.

[glennab]

Hi Max

You're a very smart guy to go with your "fashion expert's" advice.  And I never thought of flannel being the fabric (I live in the south -- what would I know about flannel?? I don't even own a coat!) -- and NOT being a fashion expert, I'd also defer to your consultant.  More than anything, I think you got the color of their faces just right.  It's a fine restoration in my book.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Glenna

[vhansen]

Sometimes, instead of trying to adjust the color, it's necessary to recolor.  I "recolored" this image after desaturating the original to remove all color casts. There are quite a few coloring tutorials out there that illustrate how to do this.  And, believe it or not, it doesn't take that much longer than trying to adjust what can't be adjusted.  If you like this version, you can resize it, and put it on a layer over your version. Then set the layer mode to color.  You can use a layer mask to blend the two together if you like. ( I didn't work on the patches on her overalls)
BTW, you did a fine job on this restoration!
Vikki

[glennab]

Vikki, the re-coloration is gorgeous.  I'd love to know how you did it!  The restoration Max did was wonderful, but other than the faces and Santa's suit, the colors just didn't seem quite right to my eyes.  I wouldn't have a clue how to render the colors as naturally as you did.  I WANT A TUTORIAL!  PLEEZE!

GG

[vhansen]

Thanks, GG.
This is the tutorial for the method I use. It can seem a bit difficult at first, but if you practice it gets easier.
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015

Here is another method of colorizing.
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018

Here are some examples where I've used the method described in the first link above.
http://www.pbase.com/vhansen/colorings

Vikki

[Ausimax]

Vikki,

Your colourisation is fantastic, as are the examples on your site, at this time the image has been returned, however I will try out your method and if I can get an acceptable result I will submit it as an alternate.

Thank you for the links, the tutorials are great, as you have no doubt worked out, I need all the PS help I can get.

I have posted about this before, but I just wish more information could be included with the image, such as the colour of clothing and features and details, important or not important to the image. I would remove the need for discussions like this about what colour something is and if a certain detail is critical to the memories conveyed by the image.

This would be helpfully, as some of these colour casts will just not respond to normal methods, and recolouring as you did would be much more efficient, especially if you knew the bricks were "red" and the suit was "Blue".

Anyway enough of my gripe, thanks for your valuable advice and info, by the way, do you do this professionally or just as a hobby?

Max

[glennab]

Vikki -- thanks for the links to the tutorials.  They've given me food for thought on doing some coloration on some wonderful old family photos I have.

I also checked out  your gallery.  You have an incredible touch.  It's one thing to know the techniques, but you definitely have turned coloration into an art.  You have my admiration, for sure.  I'm curious, as Max is, whether you do this as a profession or a hobby.   Either way, you're a pro!

Best wishes,

GG

[Ausimax]

Vikki,

I have been trying to use your recolouring system to rework this image, not with a great deal of success, I worked through the first tutorial and ended with something like the tutorial result.

When I applied the technique to this photo I found the going hard, it seems to require a lot of painting out on the masks and that entails a lot  edge trimming with a shaky hand and a jumpy mouse, and having to do it over several layers really increases the workload.

I ended up creating a lot of paths to select areas repeatedly, that helped a bit. I think I may be missing something with this method, any suggestions would be welcome.

I haven't used masks all that much, other than for sticking-up convenience stores. :funny:

This is where I have got to at this stage, not really happy with it and I have not yet dealt with the patches, haven't a clue what colour they should be.




Max

[cmpentecost]

Max,

I think this looks beautiful, and I don't think you need to make any further adjustments.  It's easy to start second guessing what you've done after spending a TON of hours on a photo.  I'd send this off to OPR.  I really think it looks good.  I understand the confusion on the color cast, as the little girls pants could easily be green or blue.  However, I think what you've done is outstanding, and I think the family will be thrilled to get this back.

Christine

[Ausimax]

Christine,

Thanks for your comments on the last image, but wait! There's more! The saga has not yet ended, I tried out the second tutorial Vikki had linked, and found it seemed to work better for me, pretty tedious as every element of the image has to be selected separately, at least you can then adjust each independently.

Anyway here is the latest episode, give me your thoughts on it, please.





Oh boy, this is being a steep learning curve, I'm getting too old for this sort of nonsense.


Max