Wedding reception (WIP)

[Mike Morrell]

Hi all, this my first OPR photo (WIP) and I'd welcome any feedback.

There are still many small details I want to tidy up: spots, odd color patches, wood grain/picture frames/chairs not completely lining up and better color/luminosity blending for these. But the restore's taking shape. I have a couple of specific questions:
- The photo was taken with a flash and the faces, central wood paneling and anything white (tablecloth, clothes, small pictures on walls, etc) reflected this. They're all very bright. I can reduce the brightness slightly in the highlights to bring out more detail. The question is whether I should do this.
- I spent quite a bit of time repairing the top picture frames, the mirror and the two chairs in the foreground. The curved arm of the chairs is not quite right at the bottom and the left chair is still rough around the edges. Assuming the edges/color/luminosity blending will be better, does the construction of the chairs look OK?
- I couldn't see info on the back of the man's head on the right so I pasted one from the internet. Does it look believable?

Thanks,
Mike

[kiska]

Mike, the repairs look good but I think your color is off. Looks greenish to me. Here's a screenshot of what I did. Basic levels and curves. On the curves I use 247,247,247 for the white point and 7,7,7 for the black. A second curves for medium gray, the mirror. I then adjusted the skin tones with color balance adjustment layers.

[Bambi]

The reflection in the mirror is a man looking to our right, his face obscured by damage. Should we remove the man and the damage? I don't think it's a important to the picture and we have no reference for the face.

[Mike Morrell]

Thanks Kiska, I agree that it's greenish. Thanks for your explanation + screenshot! They're both very helpful. I'll follow the steps you described.

@Bambi: I wasn't sure whether the 'shape' in the mirror to the right of the man was damage (a white crack + blacked out area) or whether it was the reflection of a bride/bridesmaid wearing a white 'garland' with a trailing strip of white cloth. Looking at the white values (which aren't blown out) I decided it might be 'content' rather than damage. Would you take another look? It could well be I'm seeing a 'shape' in damage that's not really there (it wouldn't be the first time  ^-^ ). I agree it's not important to the photo. If what people see is 'damage' (whether or not it is) it's better to clean it up.

Mike

[Hannie]

Hi Mike, congratulations on your first OPR WIP!
Thanks for posting your work, I only wanted to add that the Basic Levels and Curves as Kiska explained are best done before repairs.
This prevents any possible cloning/healing/spots to appear when colors/tone are done after damage repair.

Great job so far!

Hannie

[Shadow]

Hi Mike. Thanks for sharing. Nothing good to add at this point. Kiska's screenshot is a good roadmap. Good luck. Look forward to seeing your work!

[Mike Morrell]

Thanks Hannnie,

I did actually start off with a color correction following this tutorial: http://photoblogstop.com/photoshop/accurate-white-balance-adjustments-in-photoshop. The results didn't look quite right to me either so I did it again from scratch and got the same (greenish) result. I'll go back and check why the color was off.

Kiska's steps were much less work and got better results!

@Bambi, I took another close look at the mirror and I'm convinced that it's a bride/bridesmaid and not 'damage'. The chances of 'damage' fitting exactly into the oval mirror without breaking through into the frame or background are too low.

This my second version for feedback. I adjusted the WB, and cleaned up some edges and spots on surfaces. I also noticed that that there was a 'green blob' on the man in the brown jacket's left eye and lens. I've tried to fix this using his right eye.

The two left faces look much too bright as a result of the flash. Should I reduce the brightness or leave it as it probably was?

Any feedback much appreciated!

Mike

[Hannie]

Mike, on this page on the left you'll see a clickable link to the OPR Technique Handbook, the best instructions for great results   :)

[kiska]

Did you set the curves white point at 247,247,247? The photo looks blown out and the detail on the table is lost.

[Mike Morrell]

Hi Kiska,

My apologies for wasting your time! I made a couple of 'temporary curves' layers to look at the damage in both the shadows and highlights. I accidentally left the 'highlights damage' curve on in my previous version. That's why everything looked blown out. The white point is on all color correction layers is now 247. The 'texture' in the tablecloth was JPEG noise. I've restored this because it seemingly looks like texture.

The big question for is whether I should go for an authentic (flash/overblown) photo or whether I should 'tweak' the photo to reduce the highlights.

Mike

[kiska]

I pulled the curves up just a touch.

[Shadow]

Lookin' good Mike.  :up2:

[Mike Morrell]

Just want to say thanks to everyone (especially kiska) who encouraged and helped me to complete my first restore at OPR!

It was the most challenging restore I've done and the feedback was very helpful. I learned a lot from it.

Mike

[kiska]

 :up2: :up2: :up2:

[Mhayes]

Ditto from me as well! Enjoyed watching this one progress.

Margie