Sittin' on the dock

[Shadow]

Hey Gang. Back with another Margie doozie. ALL thoughts and suggestions welcomed!! 
Did a Curves with 244/126/15 for the overall correction. I added a separate Curves layer for the lightened area/spot that goes across the woman. Ended up with the B&W Adj Blue Filter for the bright yellow area and part of the sky and then a Hue/Sat to tweak the rest of the image. Added another Curves layer for the woman because she remained so shadowed and then a Levels layer to get the guy in back out of the darkness. Then D&B layer to tweak the overall image even more. If another way to get good correction jumps out out you ... I am all ears!
On the lady's legs, the crosshatching damage is worse than I anticipated. How do the planks look? Ideas?
Thanks everyone.

[Lynnya]

Hi Lyn.. wow this is a doozie as you say.. brave girl! Planks look great and detail is great...only thing I would do for the legs is probably smooth them in and blur a little then do the Phlearn texture trick... I think you're on the right track. :up:

[Shadow]

Oh my ... my memory already took off for the weekend!  :D Which Phlern trick? Thanks a bunch Lynn!

[Mhayes]

Shadow second the doozie thought. You accomplished a lot so far. I'm at a loss too on the "Phlearn tirck."

Margie

[Shadow]

Thanks Margie ... you little devil you!   :halo:
Oh yea! The Phlearn skin texture trick! Took me a bit to get what you were telling me Lynn.  :crazy: 
(For anyone not familiar with Phlearn, check out his Youtube vids for some excellent photoshop tuts. For skin texture from scratch, this is the link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyXjTAM0Aw  )
So, see what you think and don't hold back. This is my first "skin."  I sampled the skin color, made a new layer and painted with low opacity to minimize the crosshatching and then used the healing brush on that layer to get it more even. Then I did the Phlearn technique: New layer/Smart Object , Add noise, Gaussian Blur, Emboss. I grouped the layers and added a layer mask so I could tone down the "new legs". Any thoughts?
Also added a merged layer on top and ran the Dust/Scratches Filter to get rid of some of those confounded spots  :)  (Masked out the lady because it took away too much from her dress.)  I think my lift may finally be getting all the way to the penthouse   ^-^

[Mhayes]

Shadow, you're most welcome.  >:D

Margie

[Lynnya]

Morning Shadow.. another thing you can do if it's a black and white and old is just like you did before, noise and pixelate 2px.... works on older blurry photos.. Looks good!! The dress is one of those steal bits from good fabric and cntrl J - drag to bad parts hide and paint back in.. about a hundred times  ;D It's a lovely image.. looking forward to seeing your final :up:.. it'll be good I know.

[Shadow]

Aw Margie, you are too stinkin' cute in those horns!  :funny:
Thank you Lynn for your input and your generosity with your tips.  MUCH appreciated!   :loveit:  Deleted my Phlearn skin texture layer and added the 50% gray, noise, pixelate you told me about. Looks better to me. Whatcha' think?
After uploading, I see a spot on the right leg that needs some TLC. Is that damage on the wood or is it weathered wood? I cannot decide. More dodging on bdg on left (looking at screen) you  think? Welcome all thoughts everyone.

[Shadow]

This is where we are ... any thoughts? Thx all!

[Mhayes]

Shadow, I think you did a great job and while cleaning it up, you kept it looking like the old picture it is.

Margie

[Lynnya]

Hi shadow lookin good.. only nip pic (in your words lol) is a tiny spot of damage above her left eye (looking at the screen) and just below.. Other than that great job! :up:

[Shadow]

Thanks Lynn! Your input is much appreciated!!  :wnw:  Will tweak those two spots and send them home.

[Mhayes]

Hi Shadow, got your upload and nice work. Thanks.

Margie

[Shadow]

That family sure had some cool photos! Thanks Margie.