Problems with texture

[david_gr]

This one does not appear too hard at first glance but I am having problems with texture in the face and shirt due to the damage.  If I were to use a scratch/noise filter, I believe I would blur it too much.

Here is what I started with:



Here is where I am now:



Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can clean this up?  I have worked on this for several hours.  HELP!  :-[

Thanks all.

David Gr

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Great job so far. It looks to me like it's a school photo? I'd use the blemish healer on face and shirt. Maybe hunt around for a polo shirt image and make a swatch from it to use. Then clone at 30% to get some texture?

[glennab]

Hi David

I think, based on the many times I've started my restorations over for the same reason, that you're trying to clone and/or heal too large an area at one time.  He has little patches of good skin just about everywhere on his face, but you'll have to stay very close in and with a small healing or cloning brush so you don't lose the facial structure if the shading gets distorted, which I've discovered happens very easily if you're not extremely mindful of the contours (you can see that on both sides of the boy's face where the blend of color from light to dark is too sharp and his face looks flattened a bit).

I've also had the interesting experience of getting overconfident, using a large healing brush on a face and gotten a PLAID pattern.  Startled the heck out of me!  Needless to say, that was another restart.

I definitely wouldn't use any blanket effect like a blur, because you'd lose too much of the good detail.  I'm reading a book about LAB Color, and I've just gotten to a chapter about slightly sharpening the Lightness channel and blurring the two color channels.  I tried that with your little guy and got the color a little more vibrant but I didn't see much improvement in the damage.  I'm going to keep at that, because I think just the right balance would really help with our restorations.  LAB is an intriguing color space!

Good luck!  This is a tough one.  Amazing how they're always much more of a challenge than they appear when we choose them.

Glenna

[GP]

David,

I'm with Glenna on this one. I like to use the patch tool ( same place as the healing tool ) in a case like this. I start with a new layer . Shift,  ctrl, alt + E to make a copy of the image on this new layer, zoom in to 100 - 200% and start moving little patches of damaged skin to an undamaged patch of skin close by.

The patch tool keeps the texture of the skin intact as opposed to the healing brush. It does not work on an empty layer like the healing brush does. It's tedious but effective. I also noticed that you may have cut off a little too much from his right (our left) shoulder, but that might be a optical illusion. This is a tough one, good luck!

Gerlinde

[david_gr]

Thanks all for the support and advice.  :)  I was hoping for the quick fix but I guess there is none. ???  I will keep on plugging away.

David Gr

[cmpentecost]

Hi David,

Do you get Photoshop User magazine (part of NAPP but also on the newstands)?  In the March 2007 issue, on page 66, there is an article titled "Ten Minutes to Smoother Skin".  I thought of this article when I saw your photo in the forum.

To start, either merge your layers, or do a Control>Alt>Shift>E to merge all of the layers up.  This does add to the size of the file, so if you have RAM issues, you may be better to merge layers and save as new image.

Anyway, with merged or flattened image, press control>J to make a copy of your layer.  We'll call this layer 1.  Next, go to Filter>Blur>Surface Blur.  Enter a value of 10-20 for the radius and less than 25 for the Threshold.  Aim to keep the details in obvious edges, such as the eyes, while blurring the skin.  The blurring of the skin should look too obvious and artificial, while the other details are pretty well preserved.  Click OK.

Next, lower the opacity of the blurred layer to let the original background layer show thru.  Depending on the resolution, you may use as little as 25% to as high as 60%.

To sharpen the blurred details, add a layer mask and use a soft-edged brush to paint with black over the boy's eyes, hair, lips, teeth, etc.

When I played around with your image, the skin and shirt looked better, but it removed some of the facial details/shadows, etc.  For this, I did some dodging and burning, doing a constant comparing to the original to my blurred version, until it was looking pretty similar in shadows, etc.

I hope this idea works for you David.  I don't know for sure, but it's worth a shot.  Good luck!

Christine

[david_gr]

I put some more time into this and came up with the following.



I used a dust and scratches filter, checked the block to the left, went up one step in history, and used the history brush to clear out much of the original damage.  I also made some other minor fixes.  I think it is an improvement but I am not sure if it is good enough to turn in.  My problem is I'm not sure whether I can do anything more without losing too much detail.  Any suggestions??

David Gr

[glennab]

Hi David

You've made a lot of progress on this little guy.  Major improvement. I think you need to do a little more refinement, especially to even out the shading on his face, because the transitions in some areas look too sharp.  The healing tool (maybe even the patch tool, with which I'm not quite as familiar) should do the trick.  I'd smooth the crease by his mouth -- it's not as rounded looking compared to the original.  I'd also soften the shading on his shirt.

The neckline of the shirt bothers me, but I can't see enough of the image through the damage to suggest anything other than what you've done.

I'd also smooth away the last of the damage around the circumference his hair, especially on the left side as we see him.  My impression is that most of that can just be erased or cloned out, depending on how your file is set up.

I know I've spouted off a lot, but really most of the tweaking you can do is minor.  Overall he looks really good.  A few finishing touches, and he should be able to go home.

That was a rough one.  I've noted that many of us have had to start, get a good way through, and then go back and start over.  I try to think positively of it as practice, because the next generation is usually markedly more true to the original than the first try (in my case, tries).  It's all part of the learning curve, and I think you've made a marvelous transition from your first attempt to this one.  Super work!

Glenna

[david_gr]

Thanks for the help Glenna.

The crease by the mouth, I will see what I can do to soften it.

I agree on the shirt neckline.  I may try taking the collar edge and play with it.

On the hair on the left, he had what looked like to me a stray strand of hair that I wanted to keep.  I will see what I can do with it

I will take a crack at the shirt shading as well.

This started out looking like it was fairly straightforward but it has turned out much more challenging than I thought.

David Gr

[david_gr]

Well, here is what I did.



I hope they like it.

David Gr

[glennab]

Nice job, David.  I think they'll love it.

One thing about the stray strands of hair that I discovered at work: when I design a cover, I like to have elements that come out of the frame or overlap the main header.  If I have someone with hair and I can't get the strands masked the way I want them, I sample the closest hair, use a very small brush to create a few strands and then use the smudge tool at a low opacity to shape them.  It actually looks pretty true if you can nail the colors.

These restorations are never easy -- always more of a challenge than we expect -- but doesn't it feel great to be able to return one?

Glenna

[schen]

You did a fantastic job restoring the head.

I do see something different about the shoulder.  Tell me if I need to see my optometrist.

[david_gr]

Schen,

He does look a bit elongated, come to think of it.  The original photo was part of a set, as in school pictures.  I combined two photo to come up with what I did.  It seemed to match up pretty good.  I may leave it as is though unless I get it back.  Thanks for the input.

David Gr