Brick house matching colors and shading

[smceachron]

Kisks, Your photo: That's what I was trying to do by copying and adding the blue channel, but then I lost all my yellows in the vest, bow tie and the stork legs (which are orange).  I had a hard time trying to decide what was sunlight and what was damage.  You guys are great!  I was feeling down, but not out of the game.  I don't quit that easily.  I'm like a dog with a bone. 

[Johnboy]

Sandi,

Hang in there I am sure Margie and others will help get this one done.

You mentioned not being able to see damage etc. in the galleries. Here is what I do to help with the problem. I use Safari as my browser. I am not sure if other browsers will work this way. When I am looking for a photo and find one I'll click on it (other than hovering over it with my mouse) and it will fill the browser screen. If I want to look at it closer I will do a Command>Shift>4 (PC user click on the key selection that allows you to copy selected areas of the screen) to make a copy to my desktop. Then I open Photoshop to play with it a little to see if I want it. Yes it is 72 dpi but the image is larger to let you see possible damage. Then when you get the image you find more than expected but you are going from low res to higher res with the original.

Johnboy

[smceachron]

Johnboy,  I can see the main type of damage, as you know there are lots of other little stuff, like the hidden bricks behind the big yellow damage. I like your idea and I definitely will try it on the next photo for sure.  Thank you for the virtural hug. ~ Sandi

[Mhayes]

Hi Sandi,

It's 1 am here and I am waving the white flag in defeat with my idea of using adjustment layers with the blending option to have zillion of those that will be used to color the B/W from a conversion of the Blue Channel. Part of it worked OK, but some of the colors proved to be a challenge---nice way of saying of I probably would not lived long enough to get it done. In the blue channel you will be able to see more of your bricks and also the shadows on the straw.

Now for Plan B, to be followed by the rest of the alphabet. Post the last one that you sent me by email. Make it a copy with a change of name so you don't loose your layers and post to the forum. The one you sent me is closer to what it should be. The blanket is blue and there is a bow tie that goes to the vest, bib or whatever. Look at my B/W of the blue channel.



I wouldn't worry about not showing the shadow of the tree in the straw. I called the owner, because I couldn't figure it out as being grass since it was flat and if it was straw, why was there some green showing on the right hand side. Turns out in was in March and it was straw as they were seeding the lawn. The blanket the stork is holding is blue as their baby was a boy. The stork means the most to her as it was something her mom had made. She even rented them out and had one for a girl.

On the photo you sent me, I think you have done a great job. What will help you with the yellow where you want bricks would be to copy (I use the lasso tool) another section---Hit Ctrl J or Cmd J on a Mac----use the short cut key for move V and move it into place. You might have to use the transform tool to rotate or scale. If you have to do a layer mask you can get it where you like it and then hit Ctrl E to merge it with your layer below. Make sure you have a copy of your background.

At the risk of babbling, the one tool that I love the best on something where you have a lot of straight edges is the Polygonal Tool (under the Lasso Tool). It is so easy to use it on straight edges for a crisp line.

The most important thing on this photo is the Stork and once you get your brickwork under the window done and the storks vest and bow done, you are in the homestretch. Post your latest copy.

Never, ever trust me if I say I know a fun way to do something. The only thing that saved you was that I had so much fun doing it.  :P

Margie

[Hannie]

Margie, I think you were on the right track and with Kiska's example (corrected original layer-> blue channel layer-> color layer) it would work. 

I sometimes repair the blue channel layer first by itself before I paste it on top of the original, that works too.

There is no way that this restore could be done fast, too much damage to repair afterwards.
It would be great if the stork could stay in its original surrounding and not change the shape of the house in any way.  It really doesn't matter if the home and the bricks don't look like new, just cleaned up and where possible repaired. would be enough while the stork is the most important object in this snapshot.

Hannie

[Mhayes]

Hannie, you are right! There is no way to do this in a day and by not taking breaks meant a disaster. I don't doubt that Kiska could pull the hat out of the bag on this one. The problem is that it looks like a lot more work doing it the way she did with the blue channel. If you go back and look at it, you will see it has a lot of red, plus it looks like at every turn you would not only have to clean up the damage, but be fighting the color.

What I attempted to do was take the original and color correct with both Levels and Curves Adjustment (looking for neutral gray).




Next I checked the channels and the blue channel had the best detail. With CS 5 you have a B/W option where in the menu you can pick the best channel to go B/W. This is still a sRGB photo and will allow me to colorize. I chose to do the color by picking a Solid Color Adjustment Layer. Once I had that I inverted the mask so that everything was hidden. I then double clicked to bring up the blending options. On the screen print you will see how on the bottom layer I have used the Alt key to click on the sliders to part them so that I can limit what will be showing. This I picket up from an article in the UK magazine called Photoshop Creative. The reasoning is that you do not want to hand color bright highlight and deep shadows as the colors will come out looking bad. Below shows my settings and by now I should have slowed it down when you see the results. It finally dawned on me that this would never work as the shading in the blue channel in some spots would make it impossible to color. Plus, I would sample color from the corrected original and double click on the first square to have as my color, but when I painted it in it would sometimes not look like the same color at all. The third photo is a screen print and it isn't quite correct with the actual colors.




The blending too dark in lots of different areas.

Not what I wanted. Photo still has lots of damage by door.


I still think hand coloring on this photo is the way to go, but I don't think the blue channel is the only way to it. The bad part is that my repairs were done on the blue channel (not completed) and that where the green channel is needed---it would meaning repairing that channel. The green channel is better for the bricks and also the stork. I also found that instead of doing an Adjustment Layer and changing the blending mode; I could do blank layers, change the mode to color and it worked better. Plus, I could still use masks and could vary the opacity. Instead of using the B/W for the blue channel, I tried tried Channel Mixer where I could vary each of the channels.


(looks like a geico in the center)

Painting on a blank layer with the mode in Color.



Katrin Eisman in her third edition of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching pages 271-274 has some good tips on coloring by using the adjustment layers like my first try. In Chapter 8 she goes on to others ways such as splitting channels in Lab. For now my brains are fried and you are left wondering when this torture will end.

Sandi, Hannie is right when she asked that you not change the original. If you had to, ask your distributor first. I was was going to see if I could use any of your restored photo you sent me, but I couldn't. I tried pasting mine on top but I could not get the stork to line up even when transforming to fit. I couldn't tell if you cropped the photo to the dimension or else you re-sized and then cropped?

Margie

P.S. No masonry work today!

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I had a rough go just using the clone tool and also selecting undamaged bricks and positioning them over the damage. A bricklayer I am not.
As much as we like to straighten photos, I wouldn't in this case. Margie I think thats where you couldn't get anything to line up.

[Mhayes]

Tess, good job on the brickwork especially under the window. Most of the time I spent trying to color on the blue channel that I had repaired partially. When I tried putting Sandi's version (you haven't see it yet) it didn't work and I think you are right about her restore being straighten. I noticed it on the angle of the stork. I do think the way I was working was the best bet on the lawn of straw, because cloning with the straw and the shadows wouldn't work as well.

Margie

P.S. You cut off the geico's head.  :'(

[smceachron]

Hi Margie,  I've uploaded the photo that I have been working on since the email.  I understand how to add new bricks.  I wasn't sure either of the straw or ground, as you also noticed the green on the grass on the right side of the photo.  The stork has been fixed and now on to get rid of the gecko. ~ Sandi

[smceachron]

Oops.  Here's the photo that I have been working on with the stork renewed and other touch-ups as well.  Thx, Sandi

[Mhayes]

Hi Sandi,

This is much better. On the stork you will notice that the bib and bow tie do not run together. Also notice that the stork's legs go from bright orange at the top to a lighter orange on the rest. I don't want to point out too much as I know this is a wip, but along the foundation notice how on the original the shadows fall and it is not one color all the way back.

Margie

[smceachron]

Thank you, I didn't realize the vest and tie didn't go together.  I'll separate them.   I'll lighten the storks legs from the knees down and I also realized that the foundation was not wood, but instead were bricks so that will be fixed as well.  I think I need 2 screens. :)   Thank you so much for your help.  ~ Sandi

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I could be wrong but the foundation looks like cement to me not bricks?

[Mhayes]

Sandi, most houses have foundations that are cement whether it be a slab or built up. I don't think any house has a foundation of wood--unless you go to places like New Orleans where some are on poles. As to the bib and bow tie, did you not see on the start of this thread with the blue channel shown in B/W how it looked? If not go back and look and you can see how they are separated. The storks legs in the original are probably the one thing that is in good shape and does not need to be painted over or the colors changes.

Margie

[smceachron]

You are certainly correct in the bib shape and the stork legs.

I remember my dad building a concrete block retaining wall in our front yard.  Yes, there was a cement bottom upon which the blocks were placed and the reason the blocks are cemented that way was for strength.  Thank you for your expertise. ~ Sandi