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Need some artistic advice

Started by MikeG, June 09, 2016, 02:33:00 PM

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MikeG

Here is the before and after images. I would like some tips for reconstruction of the skin and facial features. I'm not very good at painting and drawing. Mostly I want the skin to look natural and not a flat pasty look. So far I've been using a brush with a low flow and opacity to gently build up color to eliminate the dark damage spots.

Before



After


Mhayes

Mike, I know you put a lot of effort into this, but what you are doing unfortunately looks painted. It is tempting to try to retouch with the idea to build up the photo with the brush and color close to the image. I would suggest to start over, but this time resist the urge to paint, but rather use other tools such as the healing brush, patch tool, and layer masks. If you work on small areas to clean up, you can then use the lasso tool to choose good areas and move into place. Once that is on its own layer you can do a layer mask and bring back areas that work. It will be a slow progress, but in the end the photo will look natural.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Hannie

Margie, I wonder if the background around the oval needs to stay?  It looks like the photo got stuck to the background when it was brought in?  If so I would make an oval selection of the photo itself and work on that on its own layer.  Color correction would be easier too this way.
Mike, I can tell how I would approach this restore if that helps.  After color correction I would concentrate on the faces and zoom in very close, almost on pixel level and start repairing.  That ususally takes a very long time and after that I would spend (less) time on the rest.

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

Mhayes

Hannie, it looks like the photo is mounted on a stain-glass frame and yes, it would be okay to make an oval selection of the photo and work it on it own layer. Later it could be flatten and I wouldn't try to correct any damage on the frame other than maybe removing what looks like scotch tape on the edges. I agree with how you would approach this one.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

MikeG

Thanks for all the tips. The first thing I did was to isolate the background from the portrait on to separate layers and treated each one separately as to any color correction etc. I'm now in the process of working on the portrait layer and using techniques other than painting. It looked to me that the portrait part was taped to the background which looks like a stained glass or similar structure. By using separate layers and clipping any adjustments to the proper layer it is possible to treat them as totally separate images.

MikeG

Here is my latest effort on this image. Comments, suggestions, etc?


Mhayes

#6
Mike, you have put a lot of work into this one and it is a very difficult repair. The main problem with your current restore is that it still looks painted. You have a few areas that have some good info and you have painted over them. The example being the woman's hair. The man's cheek close to the woman is too full and makes him look totally different. At the angle his head is turned most likely the glasses on that side would appear closer to the woman. The woman's eyes are going to take a long time to repair and if you will look at her eyes you will see the pupils are not just black dots. On your left you will also see a catch light. I have done kind of a "quickie" if you can consider 3 hours quick to show you the difference in repairing instead of painting. I'm far from done and even where I have repaired the skin, it needs smoothing out. One other thing I notice is that you have changed the background to a flat color when the original was so much more interesting. While playing around I color corrected the stain glass by doing a Levels Adjustment and bringing in each slider where there was clipping. I then used the marquee tool to remove the inside photo. I color corrected it by Levels and Curves Adjustment. When done I dropped it back in the first copy and because I wanted a better smoothness between the two, I used a stroke on the outside of the photo.

Hopefully you aren't getting discouraged as I like I said at the first this is a difficult one to restore and will take a lot of time.

Margie


"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

MikeG

Thanks for the suggestions. Since the background and portrait are on separate layers adjusting the color correction on the background is a simple task. You might notice that the background in the original contains a reflection of the arms of the person making the copy, also part of the copy stand. I eliminated both of those.

Will continue working on the faces.

Mhayes

#8
Mike, valid point about the copy stand and the reflection. As long as the stain glass looks okay, it is a minor concern for me. The photo is a different matter and I wonder if you do layer masks? Because it you don't I see no way you can restore this one. With
layer masks you can copy good information, put on another layer, transform, and hide/conceal as you choose.

Good luck!

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

MikeG

That is what I'm attempting to do now. Will need to work almost down to the individual pixel level. The damage is equal in all channels. This is a good learning experience.

Mhayes

#10
Mike, that is good, but remember the old saying: "Don't lose sight of the forest for the trees." Places like the eyes are going to require some detailed pixel repair, but when so many pixels are damaged that may become impossible. When finished, the restore should look like the original. Places like the woman's hair are easier to borrow what is already there to use in other places. That is why I recommended using layer masks. For the skin on both, it pays to heal the spots and then use those areas for help in other places.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]