A big day in a boy's life

[Lumpy]

New to this - need some opinions on anything more that I should be doing.  Think I've finished - but would appreciate another set of eyes.  Thanks

[Lynnya]

Hi Lumpy! Warm welcome to the forum.. Can you show us the original as well to get an idea of whats been done.. looks like you are headed in the right direction. :up: The faces look a bit noisy and grainy on my monitor.. there seems to be a slight yellow cast to the skirt on the woman .. the boys suit looks a bit patchy.. would love to see the original.

How did you do your color correction.. everyone seems to have a different method..look forward to seeing more posts from you and again welcome... you'll find us a friendly bunch and I have learned LOADS from posting on the forum.

[Hannie]

Hi Lumpy,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting your first OPR restore!
It would help if you also post the original photo.  What jumps out at me are a few blotchy spots that need a little more cleaning up int the boy's suit and across the background.  Also a few yelllow blotches, you could get rid of those by adding a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and check the Monochrome box.  (if you work in Photoshop)

Hannie

edit:  just missed Lynn's post before I hit "post"  ;)

[Lynnya]

HANNIE!! great minds think alike! our posts crossed... makes me think I might have actually learned something from you  :funny:

[Hannie]

Or I from you Lynn!    :loveit:

Hannie

[Shadow]

Hi Lumpy, a hearty welcome to the forum. This is a fine group of folks and a great place to learn and get feedback. Look forward to seeing your WIP. Good luck with your restore.

[Lumpy]

Thanks all for the willingness to help get me launched!  I've added the original.  I cropped the image a little per someone else suggestion - to eliminate something which wasn't a part of the physical image.  I first used Levels - the Auto Options function to try to correct the color of the image.  I then used the Auto function on Curves to further refine the coloring.  I did a little repairing of the edges.  I noticed the noise on the faces ... but, couldn't come up with a way to fix it. Would appreciate the help.

Laura

[Lynnya]

HI Laura..I think this particular group of black and whites are quite tricky so don't feel bad about struggling a bit.. If it was your distributor that gave you the o.k. to crop that's fine but I think it's a no no to crop unless told to.. that's my understanding anyway.

To get rid of nasty color casts etc (as it's a black and white) if you go to new adjustment layer, and choose black and white .. you can adjust your tones a bit and it keeps it in sRGB which is what OPR wants.

  Re the boys jacket.. I sampled the color and literally painted over the blotches - then I added 2px of noise to just the paint and 2 px of Pixelate, then mosaic. (is that chinese?) then I reduced the layer opacity a bit... I only did the left side of his jacket just to show how it comes out.  I cheated with the noise on the faces.. I have  noise reduction software "Imageomic" which does a fair job.. then I used the healing brush to help the skin smooth a bit..

It's a down and dirty job but maybe it'll help with these tricky images.. ask questions if I'm confusing.. I can be  :cool: If you don't have noise reduction software there are some other methods to smooth skin... let me know. Others may have some helpful suggestions as well.. :up:

[Shadow]

Hi Laura. You can't go wrong with Lynn's tips. For the faces, you might try adding a Dodge and Burn layer. (Add new layer, Set it to Soft Light and fill with 50% Gray) Then a soft edged paintbrush, color white, opacity low, (try 50 % and go up/down as needed) and lighten those areas. Real quick example below. Look forward to your next WIP.

[Lumpy]

Thanks all for the help with this ... I'll get there.  I've incorporated the suggestions in the attached and would welcome one more round of feedback.  Couple of points to highlight, I ended up redoing the whole thing so that I could add back in the parts that I cropped out.  While I was instructed to make that original crop, I would feel back with them included.  Also, I think that I made the changes to the jackets (young man and his father), but they almost look too smooth,  I tried adding some additional noise, but, I'm not sure that it works.  Also tried adjusting the opacity.

Thanks all ..

[Shadow]

You're doing good. Maybe a Dodge/Burn layer to even out the light streak that extends from left of the woman across to the right?

[Lynnya]

Agree with Shadow, coming along very nicely.. should be fairly easy to blend that light streak in a tad :up: