My First Post and a little over my head.

[jim262]

Hi,  I am having trouble with the young boy's eye,  I had borrowed an eye from a photo in my collection but cannot get it to match correctly.  The third photo below was given to me to possibly use the boy's eye but I have not been able to make it fit colorwise and look natural.  I tried the blue channel with Luminosity but there it not enough detail in the eye.  Please any suggestions/ guidance for this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim Hopkins

[Bambi]

Hi, Jim:

Often when you see red and yellow streaks on a photograph, there is still information in the Blue Channel. Go to your channels and turn on only the Blue, Select All and Copy. Go back to Layers and make a New Layer. Paste the copy of the Blue Channel into the New Layer. Use a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to get a clear shape of the eye. Mask out everything on that layer except the eye. Set the layer to Luminosity, so you only see the detail. Adjust the Opacity of the layer until it looks natural. You might also need to fix some tiny spots of damage to finish it up.

Here's a longer post on the Blue Channel and there is another one by Hannie:
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,3268.msg29434.html#msg29434

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2214.0.html

Bambi

[Hannie]

Jim, you have done beautiful repairs!  The reference photo is not of much use because of the position of the little boy's head.

Bambi's suggestion to use the blue channel for reference may help you here. 
I placed your restore side to side with the blue channel image of the Original.
This way you have a good view of where the eye is positioned.
I then used 50% gray filled layer over your restore and dodged and burned (with white and black brush) something that should resemble the missing eye.
  ;)

Hannie

[jim262]

Thank you, Tori, Bambi and Hannie for sharing your expert knowledge.   Bambi, I had read the posts on the Blue channel repairs and was excited to try them but did not get the results I was hoping for.  The eye was visible but very washed out.  Hannie has encouraged me to try it again using her additional tips.  Tori, I was a little intimidated to use your way, since I know I don't have the artistic ability to draw an eye, but I will use your example and give it a whirl. 

I must say, I have learned quite a bit from you guys already with this one photo restoration.  Thank you again for your guidance.


Jim