• Welcome to Operation Photo Rescue's Online Community.
 

Senior Portrait

Started by coopmj, December 11, 2018, 04:40:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

coopmj

There have been lots of threads lately with color questions.  So naturally, I'm completely doubting myself about whether this is even in the ballpark or not.  Please take a look and let me know where I should go from here.

Happy holidays to everyone!!

Mary


WIP


Jo Ann Snover

#1
The colors - for skin - are close, but the image is too light and missing contrast. See this edit of your work in progress to compare



The other thing to fix is that I'm almost certain the shirt is gray, not white. I didn't do anything about that on the WIP as I think you need to make that adjustment from the original as too much detail is already gone from the WIP.

The yellow-ish cast at the bottom is damage - the gray shirt shouldn't be more shadowed down at the bottom - but I think you can selectively lighten that area after you get the shirt (gray) color settled. I also used a masked black & white adjustment layer to neutralize the shirt colors. I paint with a gray brush as you don't want complete monochrome which won't look right - just enough to remove the yellows and other colors the damage left behind.

Last thing is that the hair got a bit too dark in my first overall darkening, so I masked out some of that just in the hair area so the highlights still showed up to give it body and shine :)
Jo Ann

Mhayes

#2
Hi Mary,

I downloaded this photo and did a Levels Adjustment followed by a "Auto" Curves Adjustment. Nothing else done.The reason being to see his shirt color. I don't agree with Jo Ann that his shirt is gray as I believe it is white. You will have shades of gray and some that are a blueish gray, but that is too be expected where the are is shaded such as away from the light or the folds in the shirt. I don't think the idea that it is more shaded at the bottom is a tell tale sign here since the bottom is damage and that includes the yellow but also dirt. If the shirt is gray, why is it white on top? Also, I don't think I would go with a dark green for a back drop.

I will let others weigh in on whether the shirt is white or gray.



Nice work Mary.
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Candice

#3
New monitor would agree with the shirt being white not gray.  Background looks to be where the light gray comes in.  I was able to pick up the clean area on the background, created a patch and then use a bit of a darker gray to run on render, then clouds.


Candice

Jo Ann Snover

The shirt color isn't really important, but it's the contrast between the young man's skin and his shirt that says to me that it isn't white - and I'm not talking about folds which obviously are gray in a photo of a white shirt

For comparison, take a look at some stock photos of caucasian men in white shirts here, here and here. These are well lit and not damaged, but when you look at skin next to shirt, there's a lot of difference in brightness which just isn't there in the senior portrait.

I downloaded previews of those three images and put color samplers on the lit side of the shirt collar and neck. Using HSB readouts, the brightness percentage for the shirt collars vs neck was  97/89, 98/92 and 98/91. For the senior portrait it was 74/75 (or when brightened with a curves layer 90/92)

If you look at the shadows on the shirts, for the three stock images, their brightness value was 71% 71% and 66%. For the senior picture, 61%

The shirt is certainly not a dark gray, but the fact that the young man's skin is lighter than his shirt says it isn't white either
Jo Ann

Mhayes

Well the mystery of whether the shirt is white or gray may soon be solved as I contacted the owner and sent the photo in question to her by email. Will post as soon as I know.

This photo is old and I doubt the senior photos had the sophistication of lighting that the stock photos you linked. I know mine didn't, but now days things are different.

QuoteFor comparison, take a look at some stock photos of caucasian men in white shirts here, here and here. These are well lit and not damaged, but when you look at skin next to shirt, there's a lot of difference in brightness which just isn't there in the senior portrait.
This gets kind of tricky because guessing at skin color, especially when you don't have previous photos to compare. In this particular case the family has many school photos of the young man. Here is an example and yes, I realize the photo in question shows a lot lighter skin, but this is the same kid. Sorry I do not as yet have a restored version.





"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

coopmj

Oh my, while I've been experimenting with different shades of gray, I've missed this whole thread.  Here's my gray version. I happen to like the white better but that's simply because I don't think gray is very flattering on him what with the gray background too.  The picture pops a bit more with white.  I'm happy to finish up either or both versions if you think the family would like a choice.

Mary

p.s. I should be very thankful he isn't in stripes, checks or plaid :)



Candice

 :funny:   :up: 
Quote from: coopmj on December 12, 2018, 04:42:07 PM

p.s. I should be very thankful he isn't in stripes, checks or plaid :)   



Candice

Jo Ann Snover

Quote from: coopmj on December 12, 2018, 04:42:07 PM
p.s. I should be very thankful he isn't in stripes, checks or plaid :)

As Alvo how much fun stripes were :)

It'll be good to know about the shirt - but honestly, we're mostly missing the point. That is one seriously handsome young man!
Jo Ann

Mhayes

Jo Ann, I agree. Here is the response from the mother. We'll go with white, but not blow your socks off and wear sunglasses white.  8)

QuoteHi Margie,
Probably white. Thank you so very much for the work you are doing.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

Regards,
Diana
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Jo Ann Snover

Jo Ann

Hannie

Hi Mary,

Great work so far on this difficult restore!

When I compare your WIP with the original I notice that the shading on the back of the shirt got a little lost.
The shadow on the back of the wall looks a little off, that may be because you darkened the backdrop some?

left original with levels/curves, right your WIP

Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

coopmj

Our handsome man has made a quick change back to a white shirt.  I tried to lighten the backdrop a little bit while still keeping a bit of contrast and darken the back of the (now white) shirt.  I'm sure there are a couple other things to tweak so just let me know!

Thanks!

Mary




Candice

 :up: Much better in white! 
Candice