How best to remove lots of water streaks?

[philk272]

I've gotten rid of damage around the edges, but how to
best deal with the numerous faint streaks? Any suggestions
appreciated.

phil

[Ausimax]

Hi Phil,

Something that works well sometimes, and not so well at others is to add another layer set its blending mode to colour, then sample the good colour close to the damage and paint over the damaged area, I have found it to work well on hair and skin.Its worth a try as it is non destructive and easier than cloning if it works.


Max

[schen]

What I did was to add a layer with one of the darkening blending modes (Darken, Multiply, Color Burn or Linear Burn) and fill the mask with black.  Then use a white brush with low opacity to paint over the streaks on the mask until they are fairly close in luminosity.  Finally, use the healing brush to touch up the paint brush marks. 

It is a tedious process but I haven't found an easier way yet.

[glennab]

Hi Phil

I'd think a very low opacity soft burn brush would do the trick.  If you're light-handed enough, you could probably blend in the "bleached" areas with little trouble. I can see the value in doing it the way Max and Chen have suggested as well.  Depends on the method with which you're most comfortable. Good luck!

Glenna

[philk272]

Thank you all for the valuable ideas.

I'm relatively new at repairing these storm damaged images and appreciate benefiting from your collected wisdom.

Soon after posting, the method that Glenna proposed popped into my head. However, I will also try the other suggestions and see which ones work best for this situation.

phil

[RosyBijou]

Hi Phil,

There are so many different ways to deal with the same problem, as you can see by all the posts, but here's another to consider...  It's really versatile as it gives you lots of editable tinkering room.  I've had some great results with it in the past...  Same concept as Max & Schen's posts, involves using the layer mask. But lets you play a little more...

----Create a new adjustment layer (I like hue/sat) and modify the overall image so that it's obviously tinted but you can easily see where the streaks are.  Doesn't matter what color you use as long as it stands out.

----Duplicate your original layer and apply a mask to the new layer.  Then drag that duplicated layer just above the tinted hue/sat adjustment layer.  Now you will see just the original colors, not the tinted version.

----Choose a soft brush--trying to match the softness to the softness of the streak edges--(so you may need to adjust your brush as you work) and select the mask of the top layer.  (Be sure to have the mask selected, or this won't work.)

----Then with black, paint over the streaks.  You will see your tinted version showing through as you paint.  (If you paint too far, over an edge, or think that your brush needs some tweaking just toggle to white, erase your mask with the white & toggle back to black, and do it over...)  As long as you continue to work on the mask, you are working non-destructively.  The goal here is to have all your discolored areas showing more prominently.  (Your tint below is making that possible)

----When you are satisfied that you have isolated all of your streaks, you have a variety of options.  All of them involve working below that masked layer.  You can tinker with the hue/sat layer and see if a simple channel adjustment brings some of the colors closer to the original.  You can turn that layer off and try other adjustment layers... levels, curves, blending modes, whatever... and just experiment.  You might be surprised to see that a global adjustment to just the damaged areas dramatically reduces the amount of detailed color adjustment (that you'd otherwise have to do) without affecting the grain of the original, making the task of repair much simpler. 

This technique doesn't replace the cloning that you'll need to do, but it might eliminate the need to work on areas that otherwise were undamaged.  Anywhere along the line, you can go back up & tweak that mask if you need to.

When you are satisfied that you have brought your stained areas as close as possible to the originals, do "alt-layer-merge visible" and you should have a merged version of your work so far (with your editable layers still below)

You can clone, patch, dodge, burn or whatever on this new layer to touch up edges that didn't quite blend.  --or just work on a new layer above if you don't use the patch tool...  (If you like to use the history tool, this can be a good snapshot layer after you've done your edits.)

Hope this helps...  Good luck!

[philk272]

Hello Kerry,

Many thanks for the detailed method. I will definitely give it a try.

I didn't get very far using the burn tool set to a low value. Maybe I didn't
set it low enough.

Will keep you all informed if any of these techniques result in a restoration
that I'm happy with.

phil

[schen]

Phil,

Immediately after you apply a brush stroke of the burn tool, you may hit Ctrl-Shift-F and adjust the opacity of the effect.  (Assuming you are using photoshop on a Windows PC.)  That might help.

[philk272]

Hello schen,

I appreciate the tip and you assumed correctly. I'm running Photoshop CS3 on a PC.

phil

[kiska]

Phil, here's another way.

http://www.oprworkshop.org/forum/index.php?topic=844.msg7800;topicseen#new

[philk272]

Thank you Kiska. Great tip.

phil

[cmpentecost]

Phil has decided to hand over his photo to someone else, so if someone would like to pick up where Phil left off, let me know, and I'll send you his image, along with the original.  Just let me know!

Thanks.

Christine

[GP]

Hi Christine,
I would be willing to try, so if nobody else has claimed it yet....send it my way.  :)

Gerlinde

[cmpentecost]

Hi Gerlinde,

Schen emailed me shortly after I posted my message requesting the photo.  However, I'm hoping to get a few more photos into my gallery before the Biloxi trip, so keep an eye on my gallery!

Thanks

Chris