This one went along pretty easy until it was time to tackle the arms. Note that there is a dark area in the lower part of both arms with a light part above it on both sides. I am not sure if it is damage or something to do with the lighting. I am thinking it is not damage because I don't see any continuation across his chest in that area. I tried darkening the arm on the viewer's left (not included in this post so you could see what is going on), but it didn't seem to darken to match the lower part. The section on the viewer right seems more persistent. I tried the same technique as on the other side with not great results. I tried a color fill using the sweater color and adjusted the opacity and did not like that at all. Soooo, what do you suggest?
What ever you suggest I hope will work for the 8x10 which does have an extremely white area of damage on that viewer left sleeve.
original
(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/9058/burnsc5x7orig.jpg)
Post 1
(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7767/burnsc5x7post1.jpg)
Thanks for the help.
Johnboy
PS He does not seem to look as dark in Photoshop as he does here.
Hi JB
I think what we're seeing is a soft fold in each sleeve where his arms are bent. They somewhat coincide with the folds in the front of the sweater. I can see a little bit lighter color below the darkest portion. It's very subtle, but that would be my guess.
Nice - very nice - job on the restore!
GK
Hi Glenna, glad to have you back on a more regular bases.
This post isn't giving the light areas justice. It is showing them darkened more than I see them in Photoshop.
I gave a brief thought to the fold idea and also to a shadow but the shadow is not seen in the front. I also thought it might be related to reflections from the lighter areas on the sweater. So I take it from your comment that you suggest I leave it as it is?
Johnboy
I tossed in a Levels adjustment and moved the midtone slightly to lighten the image. It shows the situation a little better.
As I look at it there is a sharp demarcation between the light and the dark. I could make both sleeves light by copying the good from the sleeves over the dark.
(http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/605/burnsc5x7post1a.jpg)
Johnboy
JB, you must see a more defined demarkation than I do. I can't imagine what the lighter and/or darker areas might be, and you're seeing what I am - that there's no corresponding shading in the sweater front. I'd using the healing brush and/or patch tool, blend the most noticeable areas and let it go. I think he looks just fine.
GK
P.S. Thanks for the welcome back. I've enjoyed being part of the forum for the last week. I have a doozie to post before long. Got cocky and thought it wouldn't be as difficult as it looked (a switcheroo!) and now I'm smacking myself up side the head! At least I managed to sneak in my first easy one over the weekend just to see what that's like. Now I'll make up for that!
Hi Johnboy,
You sure do have good eyes! I had to zoom way in before I could see what it was you were talking about. Finally did find the dark areas you were talking about - and I can give you an easy way to take care of them. Just make yourself a luminosity layer and dodge the dark areas away in that layer. With CS4's dodge tool I used 10% strength and set the mode to midtones. Took about three passes to even out the tone. Simple as that.
To make a luminosity layer, use your favorite technique to make a grayscale out of the image. Copy that to a layer above your photo. Set the blending mode for that layer to luminosity. Any tone corrections made on that layer will be reflected on the main photo. Here's my quick fix:
(http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb314/lurch_album/burnsc5x7lurched.jpg)
While I was at it I tinkered with the color balance - you might want to do the same. Your restore at this point seems like it could use a smidge less saturation, and to my eye there seems to be a blue cast, especially in the dark tones. For example, I see the boy's sweater as black and gray, not blue. (This is just an opinion - it could go either way depending on where you set your white point.)
Thanks Glenna and Lurch. I'll play with your suggestions and get back to you.
Glenna, I think all the ones I have picked have been doozies compared to what I thought they were except for a couple. The last one I did with the bride & groom I thought I could borrow parts to fix problems. I was able to borrow a few parts but not like I thought. Good luck with the toughie.
Johnboy
Here is the latest on the schoolboy. I followed the suggestion from Lurch to change the color of the sweater. Once I did that I found more damage on the viewer left in the strip area of the sweater. Did a copy and paste from the good strips with a Transform horizontal flip with some Free Transformation to get it to fit. I had to paint out some of the overlap. Did the same with the viewer left collar.
Lurch, I used your Luminosity suggestion. It took a little while to figure out what was going on to get it to work. However, I found that the Color blend mode did not get me what I wanted on the sleeves. While Overlay with some Opacity adjustment seemed to work better. After I did the color adjustment on the sweater I found some yellow damage on the viewer left sleeve. Never did get rid of it but I think I have it covered up OK unless someone has another idea.
Then Glenna I used the good old Patch tool to blend out the patched edges.
This 5x7 may be ready to go home or as I hope it may be good enough to steal some portions to fix the 8x10.
(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1756/burnsc5x7post2.jpg)
Thanks for the help.
Johnboy
Johnboy, great job! I love the skin color and the sweater also looks really good now.
The background jumps out at me a little and I wonder if you could tone it down some more towards the original color?
I tried and used the channel mixer, in the blues I set
cyan +35
magenta -12
yellow +49
black -27
You can then use the opacity slider in your layer to lessen the effect if necessary.
:up:
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/bg-1.jpg)
:up2: All that Hannie said!!
Thanks for the suggestion Hannie & Candie. I have been working in RGB but tried a CYMK conversion but did not care for the results using your numbers. So I went back to RGB and played to get the background down some. I did Red +117, Green +127 & Blue +107. I also played with his face in the shadows. I kept seeing some blue so I did a Color Balance adjustment layer and lowered the Blue some in the shadows. Did the same with the front of his hair primarily in the shadows and highlight. Let me know what you think.
(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/8130/burnsc5x7post3.jpg)
Johnboy
Johnboy, I think it looks great. The over-saturated background is nicely toned down, and the sweater looks much better as black and gray.
Fine job, JB
Hugs,
GK
Thanks Lurch and Glenna. Now on to the 8x10.
Johnboy
I think the school boys are about to go home. This is the 8x10 version. The first one was 5x7. In the 8x10, the 5x7 yielded several repair parts. With a little Free Transform they seemed to fit nicely. I used the 5x7 color to guide the color for the 8x10. Let me know what you think.
8x10 original
(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1023/burnsc8x10orig.jpg)
8x10 restore
(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/487/burnsc8x10post1.jpg)
Johnboy
Looking good Johnboy! For some reason the levels on this photo are so hard to correct but you have done an amazing job.
I have one more suggestion and that is to lower the overall saturation just a little. I may have done it too much but just to show you what I mean, what do you think?
:up:
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/jb.jpg)
Hannie & JB
I think the saturation could come down a bit, but, Hannie, I think the amount of saturation in your example makes him look sallow. I don't think I'd go that far. Wonderful job, JB. He looks mighty fine.
GK
Thanks Hannie & Glenna. I have been using Glenna's technique for color balance ever since I read about it. In fact I printed it off so I can refer to it. I made selections for the sweater, background and face and did some localized Levels, Color Balance, and other adjustments on those before I started the repair work. There were other tweaks as I worked. For me the key was getting the 5x7 right. I made comparisons between the two on color with the goal in mind of stealing parts from the 5x7. I will say that worked much better on this than it did for the wedding couple. I image this is a school picture and they are usually gang printed at one time so the color should be the same on both other than for the flood damage.
On this version I have burned in the collar a bit. Something I wanted to do but forgot before the last post. I think it makes the collar look a little better. Then I put in a Hue/Saturation layer and dropped the Saturation to -10. So I think I am ready for another look.
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1006/burnsc8x10post2.jpg)
Thanks for the suggestions.
Johnboy
You might try this to calm the yellow down.
(http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm81/kiskaopr/Picture3-4.png)
Kiska I made the Selective Color adjustment layer but not quite to your numbers, but close judging from what I am seeing on my monitor. I had been playing trying to get rid of a blue tint in the shadows on the neck on the viewer left (-6 on the Color Balance Yellow/Blue slider). Then I was playing with the Highlights in Color Balance and probably got too much yellow in that. So I removed those settings. I am not sure what he will look like in the forum post but he does look better on my screen. Thanks for the suggestion.
(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7020/burnsc8x10post3.jpg)
Johnboy
PS He does look darker when I preview the post than he does on my screen.
Send this boy home Johnboy!
great job,
:wnw:
Hannie
Mighty fine, JB. He looks great, and I'm sure his family will be so happy to have him home.
Thanks Hannie and Glenna. I'll get his backpack ready and send him on.
Johnboy
Great job, Johnboy! :up:
Margie