I've come this far........

[Candice]

 

Original
First Correction - texture
Second Correction - curves (Used curves tutorial posted here)

[kevinashworth]

How did you get rid of all that yellow?  :wow:

[Mhayes]

This is a really difficult photo because of the pattern of the paper coming though and not the easiest to color correct. Because of that, I would go along with the man's suit--even though I might have leaned towards an off white or tan rather than one with a blue tint. The woman's vest is looking good as is the background. The one thing that I would step back from would be how the texture is lost in their faces. The blurring gives a plastic look and the colors too much like a painting. I know this is really hard to color correct, but I would not have the man so ashen and not so much blush on the woman's cheek. The woman looks 10 years younger which is good in retouching, but wonder if the details in the original of an older woman's eyes is something not to be lost?

Margie

[glennab]

Hi Candy

This is a monster.  Color correction is going to take some masking, I think.  Around the woman's face is a much lighter area than the rest of the photo, and there are areas of excess yellow that will have to be dealt with.  I do agree with Margie about leaving in the texture as much as possible.  And I discovered that CS5's content aware is miraculous for that type of restoration work.  It's amazing how much of the original texture you can keep.

I'd eliminate the blur except for possibly (and maybe not) on their faces on a separate layer just to soften their skin and then mask the detail back into the eyes, nose, etc.

Good luck, my friend.

P.S. after posting this image, I see more red in the man's face than appears just on my screen in Photoshop.  Seems to be an ongoing issue.  However, I did use the info palette to determine that the red and yellow are balanced on his face.
Here's my down and dirty, only color corrected at the base level - with no masking.

GK

[Hannie]

What a bear you picked Candy!

The FFT filter gets rid of a lot of the ugly texture but not all.  After you did noise reduction/blur you can use a layer mask to leave the important features (eyes, mouth, nose, ears) sharp.

Here I did a little noise reduction (radius 3, threshold 15) and later masked out the eyes, nose and mouth.
(it could use more noise reduction, just did a quick job)

Hannie

[Candice]

I don't know how to make layer masks.  Never could figure it out.  :'(

[kiska]

White is a "reveal all" mask. Option (mac) + click will make a black "hide all" mask. Paint with the opposite color onto the mask to show or hide areas you want.

[Tori803]

Candy, like the other tools in Photoshop, masks just take a little practice to get comfortable with them. Try different brushes on the mask. I usually use a soft brush. The best thing about masks is that they're non-destructive. You can always go back later and change them!

Tori

[Candice]

Thank you all.  I'm giving it the ole' one/two.  I'll keep you posted!!   :D

[Hannie]

Wow, detail is so much better!

:up2:

Hannie

[Pat]

That is truly an amazing job!

Pat

[Mhayes]

I agree, the detail is much better.

I'm starting a new thread on Layer Masks and hope it gives you a better idea of how to use them. Two of the videos are more advanced and the one by Adobe I thought was interesting.

Margie

[Candice]

I took it back into my CS4 and reworked it after reading y'alls posts.  Margie I have the video's going as I type and have bookmarked the page to keep as reference.   Thank you all. 

What else is needed with the picture at this point?

I worked to take out some of the bright spots on the woman's face and just a bit more work on the man, too.





Today's work (last picture is current)

[philbach]

Well I've been following this thread along.  The texture problem intrigued me.  Since I use a Mac I don't have access to the fft filter.   What I did with this cropped original was to correct color by using levels on the individual color channels.  I then used Image/Adjustments/Shadow highlights to decrease the highlights some.  Then I used Neat Image a grain reduction which is a Photoshop Plug In filter.

I did no sharpening or other Rx to the photo.  I thought I would post it sort of in response to Hannie's fft post



Yes its a tad blurry.

[Mhayes]

Phil, normally I would say Levels and correcting each channel works well, but not on this photo.  Part of the photo will color correct, but then the rest doesn't, so then you have to start working those parts. Doing that is fine, but you will not be finished on this with Levels alone and even your smaller cropped version needs more color correcting.  I'm sure that Neat Image may work OK on some photos, but what I do not like is the global blurriness of the photo. Yes, it runs some of your dots together, but there is still a lot of the paper's texture showing through': vest, hair, background. It would be better to selectively blur and then use a mask and paint back in areas such as the skin at a reduced opacity. Plus once you use this plug in, how do you back off and get some of the sharpness back in the eyes and mouth? Once you blur, you can't undo and sharpen. The FFT filter seems to do the trick without so much of the blurriness.

I think Candice's last restore looks really good!

Margie