Boy in front of Sycamore Tree

[philbach]

This is the first time I have used flickr.  To see the entire image you need to click the image.  Sorry about that.

The original.  For starters I decided to start with global color correction.  The photo has a magenta cast and the cast is not uniform on the print.  I believe the boy is standing in front of a Sycamore tree.  In many cases, the bark of these trees is pretty bland and almost grey.  I selected the background window in the upper left corner as gray.


01_Original(1) by Philip Bach, on Flickr

The first thing I did was add a levels adjustment layer and adjusted each color channel individually.  Notice the correction shown on the info palette.

02_AfterLevels(2.1) by Philip Bach, on Flickr

Next I copied the layer to a new layer using overlay as the blending mode and applied filter/average blur.  I then inverted the color of that layer

03_AfterAverageBlur(3( by Philip Bach, on Flickr

I used a curves adjustment layer and decided to leave the blue channel a little less than the red and green channel

04_AfterCurves(4) by Philip Bach, on Flickr

Finally I added a vibrance adjustment layer focusing on the color and saturation of the boy.

05_Vibrance by Philip Bach, on Flickr

[Mhayes]

Phil, see if you can get the yellow off of his forehead. The other thing is to fill in the corners as they look like scrapbook holders, should be an easy fix. You can see the pattern of the paper which must be from the ink coming off. Other than that, looks good.

Margie

[kiska]

A neat trick to remove some stains is an empty "color" layer. With a low to medium opacity brush, sample the "good" color and build up the paint. This is also good to remove color that bleeds between the parts of an image.

[philbach]

Well thanks.  Right now I am ready to travel for a couple of days.  What I posted was the first part "Global Correction."  I'll continue the restore in a couple of days.  I do plan on doing what Kiska recommended.  Thanks.

[Hannie]

Hi Phil,

If you like you can use the FFT filter for the paper pattern, it works well on this image.

RetouchPro has a tutorial on how to use it:
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=185
The FFT filter to run in 64 bit Photoshop can be downloaded here.

Have a great time and come home safely!

Hannie

[philbach]

Well I used a color layer as suggested by Kiska to remove the yellow on his face.
I slightly increased the vibrance/saturation of his skin
Selecting the tree, I desaturated the tree color to remove the red.  With a hue saturation layer

I was unable to use the FFT filter with my Mac.  However there is one available for the mac via a free app, Image J.
I used the Dust and scratches filter on a separate layer with a layer mask to adjust the opacity of the layer

I corrected the edges using the stamp tool and the spot healing brush tool.

ForUpload1 by Philip Bach, on Flickr

[Mhayes]

Phil, looking good and the color much better!

Margie

[Shadow]

Wow Phil, looking very good. I have learned those color casts can be tricky little devils and you whipped them right back into shape. Thank you for posting ... I was eager to see how it would look!

[Hannie]

Great job Phil!
I like your post, so well illustrated how you did each step of your restore.

:up2:

Hannie

[Candice]

Great job Phil!
I like your post, so well illustrated how you did each step of your restore.

:up2:

Hannie

I agree 100%.

[philbach]

Thank You Everyone