Ongoing effort

[Furitsu]

This is the restoration sofar:



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Still have a lot to do, but it's getting there I think.
Before I continue, though, I'd like to have a bit of feedback.

Thanks in advance. :)

[Vilhien]

I think its looking freaking amazing. Good job!

However, are you able to adjust the lighting at all? Or are you posting without your adjustment layer on?

I'm working on my own and would like some feed back.. I'll make a separate post.

[Mhayes]

Hi Furitsu,

You have done an amazing job of retouching and that is the good news, but now for the bad news.  :( Vilhien is right about asking if you did an adjustment layer and that should be for color correction. That needs to be the first thing you do, even before you start to repair damage in the photo. On the left hand side of the forum (must log in to see) is the Techniques Handbook and that shows three ways to color correct. If your software is different than Photoshop, you may do it differently. Unfortunately this photo is not going to be easy and it will need tweaks after the initial color correction. Below are screen prints of the original and the view in each of the color channels: red, green, and blue. In each of the channels you can see the clipping that takes place.







You want all your information to be between the two sliders and if not bring them in to where they touch. You may also go into Curves and do an even better tweak.

Here is what a Curves Adjustment looks like of the original.



After doing a "quickie" by hitting Auto in Curves. The results are not going to be what you want for the final as more needs to be done. Sometimes you work on a photo that was not the best to begin with, such as highlights blown out, etc. In this case the saturation of the faces needs to be toned down.



Next is another "quickie" example of where I worked to redo your finished work. I went a little too far in toning down the color as with the sun on their faces you would want more of a warm tone.


(Before WIP)



Now for the best or the worst of the bad news--on the order of is the glass half full or half empty situations. Yes, you did a great job of retouching and you are working on a photo where parts are really beyond restoring, such as the woman's blue dress. However, we ask that you not substitute parts and that dress is a dead giveaway. At the top her collar and the white V is not there, nor is the belt. Another thing is the protective fence in the background that is linked rather than what you have. This is a minor tweak and I would probably let that one slide.

When you post your photos, could you post them separately and perhaps a little larger? I normally make a copy of my originals and save at 96 dpi resolution. You did reduce your size which helped since you posted at 300 dpi, but when I download your work the dimensions of 3.3 x 4.8 for two photos is rather small to view.

You are on the right track and great effort.

Margie

[Furitsu]

Thanks, Vilhien and Margie, for your feedback. Just what I was hoping for. :)

Indeed, I haven't touched lighting yet, only corrected the colorcast. I tried the method from the Color Correcting with Curves pdf, but I felt I lost a lot of image-information with that. So I thought I'd restore the image first, and then do the lighting and the rest of the color corrections, though now I think I may have made a wrong decision to begin with. :)

I'll post the original and colorcast corrected image below in their original resolution, as well as the restored image sofar with the blue dress I used as reference:

Original:


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Colorcast corrected:


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I'll do some more tweaking and changing the dress and fence, and post the results later.

Thanks again for your help and observations. :)

[Vilhien]

I'd just have to say once again how awesome a job you've done..

In terms of doing an adjustment layer on the corrected vs the non. You could also consider this..

The adjustment layer you add to the original (or duplicate of the original as I like to work) is a color adjustment only. That being said, most of the work you did was not a waste as per you'd need to replace it anyhow right?
However, what I think Margie is looking for as with any restore, more so, is to try to make sure the areas that are visible are repaired if need, but not replaced.  Its hard, I got trigger happy with the first restoration test and took out the scarring myself.

Long story short, adjust it first (the color); perhaps see about masking anything that is needed for the restore of your previous restoration, If you work appropriately I'm sure a lot of what you did will still be needed or somehow used to help finish it.

Still looking at what you've done on yours, I'm looking down on mine.  Great job!

[Furitsu]

Okay, so here is the version I have now, but I'm a bit stuck at the moment. :)

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Did some more tweaks. What do you think? ;)

[Mhayes]

Furitsu, looking better. Some minor pics would be to have the photo not so dark. The second would be, maybe a bust reduction on the woman in the blue dress? She looks a little top heavy.

:up:

Margie