Blue girl

[Lynnya]

Hi gang... working on this one.. much trickier than I thought, it's chock full of color noise .. that'l teach me... :cool:.. still a lot to do but could do with some help here.. all suggestions and help gratefully accepted.

 

[Shadow]

This IS a tricky one.  :P  You are off to a mighty good start. Maybe raise your black point up a bit and open up the dark areas on the left? There's a little area under the drapes - is it wall or something on the table? One more  ;)  Her socks seem to have a green tint on my screen.  Good luck. Look forward to your final!

[Mhayes]

Lynn, nice job so far. What caught my eye were her socks and like Shadow thought they had a green tint. I added a layer and changed the mode to color and then painted over with white. Another idea is  to add a Curves Adjustment Layer and pick the squiggly tool above the eye droppers. With each sock manipulate that tool to make the socks lighter.  If anything else changes you can always do a layer mask and bring back what you want.

I'm thinking the color on the wall by the curtains is because of the flash, and it's okay.

Margie

[Lynnya]

Hi guys thanks for input.. I haven't actually started on the sox and lower part of the image.. just cleaned up the spots.. was more concerned with the face and skin color etc..yes her sox are definitely green lol I'll work on the rest of the image later. I found the skin quite a challenge...will raise the black point up a bit as well, thanks Lyn..

[Lynnya]

Hi everyone.. all comments welcome.. this is where I'm at..

[Jo Ann Snover]

Lots of progress! I think her lips are a little purple, but otherwise she's looking so much better than the blue ghost phase.

Speaking of blue ghosts, I've been fussing around with channels as it really bugged me that the blue channel is so obviously damaged, but I couldn't get a correction for the image by using a channel mixer adjustment layer. I've been looking at this on and off since you first posted the image, and didn't add anything because I couldn't make it work.

A day late and a dollar short is how I'd describe this suggestion (as in, don't change anything you've done) but I think I've found something that works reasonably well and decided to post it here because it might be useful in the future.

I think the following explains what I did. None of the schmutz is cloned out but it gives an idea of how to use the Channel mixer adjustment layer to repair the channel as a starting point. I wish there were a magic formula for how to adjust the channels, but it's largely trial and error. There is good data in red and green which you can mix with the blue, but that messes with the color. The "Constant" slider lets you lighten or darken the channel overall and you can either subtract or add from the other channels as needed.

Rather than working on the image overall - as the rest of the room looked pretty decent - I constrained the channel adjustments to the little girl's skin and hair. In theory, I'd have included the dress in that group too, but in practice it kept coming out an ugly green and I decided to mask that out.



So, I'm sorry this comes a bit late to be of any assistance to you, but hope it might come in useful another time :)

[Lynnya]

Wow.. thanks Jo Ann... I shall study this and see if I can get my head around it... I, and I'm sure others in the forum so appreciate the time and effort you take to share your expertise.  I truly believe the images "going home" have improved a great deal since you have been helping us out.
Thank you.
Lynn

p.s.
On your layer second from top "girl adjustments" - can you please explain that.. I thought I was masking out the layers below but nothing is happening.. I'm sure it's pretty simple but I missed that moment in class... got the rest of it down.. it's making sense..

[Lynnya]

Are these lips better? also kicked it up a bit..

I'm starting to really like this young man's teaching method.. he's fast spoken and you can glaze over a bit but he's very good I think.. this is sort of channel mixer 101 (which I need)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhLXYGXaPe0

[Jo Ann Snover]

On your layer second from top "girl adjustments" - can you please explain that.. I thought I was masking out the layers below but nothing is happening.. I'm sure it's pretty simple but I missed that moment in class... got the rest of it down.. it's making sense..

Sorry for not pointing that out - it's a group, not a layer. The enclosed layers are indented slightly and there is an arrow to the left of the group that is turned down when the group is open and points right when it's closed. The mask on a group masks out the effectiveness of any layers within it. Layers within a group can also have their own masks to shade or limit their effectiveness (and you can be sloppy with outside edges as they don't matter - that will get caught by the group's mask)

I think the lips are better, but still a little on the blue side - like she'd been swimming for too long in a cold pool and needed to warm up :)

And glad you think the tips are helpful (and I guess the distributors will come after me if they don't like their effects :) ). I'll take a look at that video.

[Lynnya]

Hi Jo Ann.. I knew it was a group and grouped it but duh.. I didn't select all the layers below first.. silly me.. got it now thanks.. I was in fact grouping nothing.. how are these lips coming along..

[Shadow]

Lips are better Lynn  :up2:
Like Lynn, appreciate your screenshots and detailed suggestions Jo Ann. Any day I learn something new is a good day. Thanks.

[Jo Ann Snover]

I think the lips look better now. Now about that white damage on the sofa that looks like writing... :)

[Lynnya]

lol.. thats a reference layer cos I keep losing the lates version cos they all look the same in smugmug  :funny:

[Mhayes]

LOL    :funny:

[Lynnya]

So gang what else can I do to improve this image and send her home..apart from removing the writing on the sofa that is... :cool: