Happy Grandpa

[dle]

This photo has proven much harder to tackle than I expected it to be. Here's the original:



And here's how far I've gotten:



There's really no information in any of the channels in the original that's of much help. So, as you can see, I pretty much invented the background behind the couch.

The one big thing that I'm not so sure how I should handle is the texture in this image that's been added by the damage. It appears that in various places the print's emulsion has turned into tiny little random polygonal tiles. Does anyone have a good way of dealing with this sort of damage that preserves as much of what's still there as possible?

Other suggestions are, of course, welcome, too.

[Mhayes]

Hi Dave,

Great job on the paneling and filling in for other areas missing information. I downloaded your before/after because sometimes things appear to have more of a red tint than they actually do and that is because of the Web browser. The one thing that stands out the most on your restore is that you need to do a COLOR CORRECTION first. This is true of any photo you get and this one is off in every channel. On the left hand side you will see "Techniques Handbook" and in it if you are not familiar is how to do a Levels, Curves, and Gray Point Adjustment layers (use the one that works the best). Unfortunately, since you didn't do this first, it is too late to do it now. If you look at your current work in Levels and go to each of the channels pull down menu, you will see there is clipping in every channel. I hate to see you start all over, so maybe you can use your current WIP for the walls and sofa and then take your original again to do Grandpa and baby. Use the two layers and a layer mask to keep what you want. You did a great job in repairing the damage, but by not color correcting is like shooting yourself in the foot.

The other option and maybe the easiest would be to take your current WIP and add a "Color Balance" Adjustment layer where you can tone down the red.

Margie

[dle]

Hmmm, yes, you're right that the WIP I posted doesn't have its white-, black-, and gray-points set. Sorry about that. I failed to turn on the layers that control those and the one that controls the vibrance and saturation. (And somehow I managed to have an adjustment layer in there I didn't need.) Here's one with the correct layers turned on, and a few more specks removed:



I like this one, except that it looks a bit like one of those hyper-real paintings. I suspect that's partly because of the small-scale damage to the emulsion and because the white-point setting has whitened up his skin where the light reflects off it.

On the color correction foot-shooting thing, is there a reason not to do restorations in a way that lets you change your mind about color correction as you go through the process? Generally, I do the restorations in the color pallet of the original photo (i.e., in layers above the untouched original) and then use color correction adjustment layer(s) at the top of the layer stack to correct both the original and the various restoration layers. Doing it that way makes the whole thing is adjustable, and, if I understand how Photoshop does the math, keeps rounding errors to minimum. But I might be missing your point.

[Mhayes]

Dave,

Your shooting yourself in the foot would have been correct for the image you first posted with some of the layers turned off, so saying you may have missed my point is kind of invalid. However, I couldn't disagree more with your statement: Generally, I do the restorations in the color pallet of the original photo (i.e. in layers above the untouched original) and then use color correction adjustment layer(s) at the top . . .

My first thought is why? Yes, to adjustment layers, but why would you want to start doing your restoration on colors that are off? I respect a person's right to the order of how they choose to restore, but not when it comes to color correcting last. Yes, if there are some tweaks later in your layer stack, but the first thing in restoring is always color correction. For examples take a look in Katrin Eismann's book Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and you will notice that at the bottom of all her restorations start with color adjustments before any restoring is done.

On a photo like this I would do the color correction adjustment layer(s) first and then start restoring. Right now your photo has some color issues that need to be addressed separately and if I was to work them on separate layers and then have my color adjustment layer at the top it would really screw things up. For example, after doing the color adjustment globally, I would start color correcting certain areas on their own layer. Some of the areas that still need correcting is to get areas of the man's shirt that are green; evening out the colors on the man's face so they don't look like the color of the paneling; fix red color at top of baby's head and neck. I may on those individual layers that need special color correction change the mode and opacity and possibly do a "Merge Visible." If I did it your way, I would be headed for a disaster on those areas that I worked separately.

"Doing it that way makes the whole thing is adjustable, and, if I understand how Photoshop does the math, keeps rounding errors to minimum." Yes to Photoshop's math, and more of an explanation of the math by Adobe:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-764fa.html

Another interesting point and there are tons in Dan Margulis book Professional Photoshop, The classic Guide To Color Correction. Under the heading of "Stumbling Blocks he says: "The "neutral point. Not every image has one and some have more than one. If you can't find one, don't force one to occur. And if you do find one, look for another. I think that could also be said on the black and white point.

Margie

[dle]

I see I didn't do a very good job of describing how I generally go about things.

Yes, of course, I start by doing a global color correction. As you say, not doing that probably wouldn't work too well. It would be hard to see how things will eventually turn out. So, I start by adding a curves (or levels) adjustment layer above the background to do a global color and levels correction, setting the black-, white- and neutral-points using one or another of the usual techniques depending on what works for the photo at hand. (And, yes, I agree with you and Dan Margulis that sometimes there are no pixels in the photo that can be used as black-, white- and neutral-points.)

Then I add a layer above the background and below the curves adjustment layer that I'll do most of the healing and/or cloning on. Because it's below the curves adjustment layer, the pixels in this layer are from the color pallet of the original, uncorrected layer but what I see is corrected by the global corrections. Doing it this way means I can change my mind about, say, the neutral-point and not have my healing/cloning thrown off.

I do other local corrections and additions using additional layers above the healing/cloning layer and below the curves adjustment layer, seeing the corrected colors through the global correction but, in fact, using the color pallet from the original.

So far as I can see, the pixel math all works out pretty much the same way as if I did all of the local changes above a global curves or levels adjustment layer (or actually changed the pixels in the background layer), and what I see while working is the same, too. And it still leaves the global curves layer available for tweaking as I go along.

I hope this description makes sense and doesn't sound quite so crazy as my short description made it sound.

Thanks for pointing out the color areas that still need attention; I'll work on them.

[Mhayes]

Dave,

I see I didn't do a very good job of describing how I generally go about things.

Or, I have trouble understanding the written word?  ;)  Either way, we are now on the same page.

Margie

[Bambi]

Your question about the added texture: Sometimes, I have used a 0.5 Gaussian Blur to tone down texture. I try to mask out the faces when I use the blur, then click back and forth in my History panel to be sure it only removed the texture. Then I go back to the faces and remove the pattern with tiny, careful dabs with the Spot Healing Tool.

Bambi

[dle]

With thanks for guidance from Margie and Bambi, here's the latest iteration.



I've done local color corrections or the skin tones and fabrics and have applied a slight blur on the couch fabric to tone down the texture from the water-damaged emulsion. Since the couch fabric is slightly out of focus in the print, doing the blur really did the trick well. And, yes, careful tiny dabs in many places.

Getting closer?

[Mhayes]

Dave, this is much improved. One minor pic would be the slight blue streak on the baby's forehead about her eyebrow on your right. That is very minor. Great job!

Margie

[dle]

Thanks for pointing that out. Here's the (final) version with the blue streak removed.



Time to send it on its way.

Thanks for the help.

[Mhayes]

 :up: :up:

Margie