StrobelSeigenthaler21_19_4x6

[Memory_Restorer]

Hi,

This is only my second restore, so feel free to yell at me if I'm posting in the wrong forum with this question.  XD 

I've been working on my latest restoration, and it's going along okay.  Unfortunately, regardless of which channel I use, the woman on the far left looks a little melted.  Also, most of the color information for the woman with the coffee mug was useless. I adjusted her face to match her hand and recolored her hair, but I'm not sure I got her hair color accurate.  Are there any other images of these women that I could use for reference? 

I've included what I have so far below.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but this will give you an idea of what I'm looking at here.

Original


In Progress


Close-up of Issue


Thanks!

[Mhayes]

Hi Memory Restorer,

This is not the time for us to yell at you, but rather a time to take you out for coffee and a sweet roll and offer our support for a hard restore.  :) This is one that doesn't work well with using the blue channel and then dropping on the original. The blue channel does have the best detail, but it really does a number on the two women on your left for making their skin look worse. I tried both Lab, the lightness channel and looked at CMYK and none of them offered as much as RGB. I also played around with Calculations to take the best of the blue and green channel. I would be tempted to make this a black/white as and after you have restored all the damage--colorized it by using what you can off the original for color selection.

Kudos to you for picking this on your second restore.

Margie

[Hannie]

Hi Memory Restorer,

Margie is right about the blue channel giving a weird result for some of the subjects in this photo.
Black & white may be the way you want to go or if you like do 2 versions, also one in color.

(I moved the thread to Workshops - Difficult)

Great job on a very difficult restore.

Hannie

[Bambi]

So impressed that you would take this toughie. I don't know if I can help, but here's a couple of things that have helped me in the past.

Select the face. (Save your selection.) Using Curves Adjustment Layer, try taking a little Blue out (so she isn't so gray overall.) Hue Saturation might give you a better and easier result. Lighten it a bit and Blur it with a Brush (not Blur filters)—so the features show, but are softer and more natural.

Create a New Layer. Call it Makeup. Load the Face selection. Feather 2 pixels. Pick a warm, soft orange flesh tone from the Swatches and fill. You can try running through the Blends to see what looks best, but I usually find Normal works best. Adjust the opacity (usually between 8-20 percent) until just enough detail shows and the harsh spots smooth. On a Layer Mask, paint out the eyes, mouth completely and use the Brush at about 22 percent to bring out more detail if necessary.

Bambi

[Bambi]

And—the very least of your issues with this restore—here's another picture that shows the wall colors. Great job so far. Best of luck.

Bambi

[Judy]

Bambi,

I was following along trying your method and did okay until I got to the last sentence.  At that point I am sitting there with a layer at 14% and the skin looks pretty smooth.  The layer has the blob of color for the face.  Now at that point are you saying on this layer make a layer mask and then paint out the eyes and mouth.  Given that everything is going at 14% they don't paint out, or at least I was visualizing them being totally blank which I could then adjust some.  Sorry to be dense, but could you help me here?

It really does look a lot better, and as I end up with blotches I can't seem to correct, I really wanted to absorb what you were doing.  I found hue/saturation with a mask helped me blend the best so I could adjust the color in just certain spots.  It still needed help though.

Thanks!

Judy

[Bambi]

Hi, Judy. You're certainly not dense! I'll try to be more clear.

Once you have opacity adjusted (in your case, 14 percent) you want to remove all the orange from the eyes, lips and teeth so they show through the Makeup Layer. You can do that by painting on a layer mask, or just use the Eraser on the Makeup Layer itself.

At 14 percent, you might not be able to see your painting or erasing very well. You can adjust the Makeup Layer Opacity back to 100 percent just to check the results of your painting or erasing. Hope that helps.

Bambi

[Judy]

Bambi,

Ah, got you, thanks!  I was thinking that somehow they were supposed to be more covered than that and you were making them more subtle.  Makes perfect sense of course to clean it off the eyes and the teeth.  Yes, at 14% I don't notice it that much particularly as on this picture there was red on the teeth anyhow and the eyes don't have much in the way of whites.  Somehow mouth and eyes need work.

It is amazing to me how well that works. 

The color is different when you use color mode vs. normal.  The color I used was peachy as I had sampled someones cheek previously and that was there in my foreground and it looked more yellow in color mode.  I think there is something about color mode not affecting the other colors in the picture?  I don't really know.  Color wise, though, I liked normal as it gave me more the color I expected.

Judy

[Bambi]

Judy:

Whew, glad it worked for you. I've used it for years in retouching. The only drawback is that you lose details in the facial features if the Opacity is too high. You can increase the Contrast in the face to regain some detail if necessary. Good luck. I'm working on the picture posted earlier. it's nice to think I have company out there.

Bambi

[Judy]

I'll be looking forward to what you come up with.  I only took that one face that was posted as it looked like the type of situation I get myself into, and you had a way to approach it.  It's not perfect, though far better.  I took the right eye over to the left also as I am so poor at drawing, and fixed up the mouth.   I did end up doing a little additional coloring to get variance though and to get "roses" in her cheeks, and a little dodging a burning to get some more definition back.  That helped.  Her eyes are still a little starry to me.

I stuck my head on the original picture, and it definitely looks a bit like those other ladies should go to the beauty parlor or something!  I have a feeling they should all look similarly rough.  The lady next one in is interesting as she looks like she wears a big hat that shades just the top of her face all the time, she is so white on top.  3rd gal looks blank in all her pictures.  She always looks over painted and then it turns out that is just how she looks.  Fourth one, her eyes really stand out, but I guess that is her.

Thanks for the lesson -- all very interesting, my friend. 

Judy

[Bambi]

Glad I can help in some small way. I'm always hesitant to use a copy of one eye for the other. It almost always changes a person's looks in ways you don't foresee. Usually takes the sparkle and life out of the expression for some reason. But, in this instance, there is so much damage, her eyes match well and it might not harm her expression.

Bambi