As a brand new Newbe I ran into a problem right away. The image I chose looked easy on the screen but once downloaded I could see there was mud stain in the image. I have used Levels to correct as much as I can, and the image does look better. However there is till a brownish tint across the background wall and aparent in some of the clothing. Any suggestion on what to do further.
Thanks for the help.
Hi Johnboy,
Welcome to OPR! The best suggestion I have it to post your photo in the forum. Most people do this thru Photobucket, at http://photobucket.com/. Once you register and upload a photo to Photobucket, just copy the IMG link and paste it into the forum reply section (such as where I am typing now), and your image should appear.
Don't get frustrated yet on the restoration. We have an awesome group of people here who will help you on the project.
Thanks.
Christine
Hi,
Here's a little cheat for checking out images, it works for PC's, Mac owners will have to make your own arrangements.
When you have the photo open in PhotoShelter do a print screen, crop the photo out of the screen print and resize to double in PS or whatever you use, gives you a better look, you can check channels and decide if you can deal with the problems.
Max
Hi JB
Welcome to our world! It truly is difficult to tell from the thumbnails what you're actually up against once you have the full-sized photo. However, Chris is on the money. Post your image and we'll all do everything we can to help you deal with the mud!
And, really, welcome to OPR. It's wonderful having new people posting. Gives us more to contemplate and learn as we go after the best restorations we're able to produce.
GG
P.S. Max, I hadn't thought of using your method to try to determine whether I thought I could conquer the damage. Do you get enough information when you upsize the image? I've had a couple of major surprises in the photos I've chosen -- but I'm not sure that would have stopped me. For some perverse reason, I really love the tough ones!
Hi Glenna,
Yes it is surprising how well the screen-shots enlarge, CS 2 seems to do a good job on resizing, it give you a chance to get some idea of what the real damage is, it doesn't stop me taking hard ones but it lets me select those that I think I have the skill to restore.
Max
Thanks for the welcome.
No, I am not really frustrated but just want to be sure I have the image is corrected as much as possible. I really wanted to get rid of as much of the mud stain before I attacked the water marks. I read several of your posts long before I signed up so I figured someone out there is good a shoveling mud off photos. I am sure it won't be the last either.
Max, thanks for the tip on checking out the photos on Photoshelter. I'll try that next time.
I set up an Imageshack account and uploaded the photos as suggested. So here goes nothing as they say.
Original:
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/951/postoriginalaj2.th.jpg
Corrected so far:
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2140/postcorrectedbx8.th.jpg
Software & System: PS CS on and iMac running 10.4.8
What I have done so far:
1. Used a Levels Adjustment Layer to move the sliders on the RGB and all the channels.
2. Used the Color Sampler Tool and picked what I thought were the best white and black in the photo. The white point was in part of the white dress and the black point was in the hair of the middle woman. Then went into another Levels Adjustment Layer and used the numbers to fine tune the image. What you see in the corrected image is as far as I have been able to go. (The firsts Levels Adjustment Layer is turned off as of not, and does not look quite as good as the image does now) I did play a little with the patch tool on the middle woman's face and on the little boys suit. I think once I get the mud out or subdued the rest may not be too bad.
If the links don't work please tell me how best to do it. That too is a new area for me.
I look forward to reading your suggestions. Thanks for the help.
JB
Let me add these links as well.
Original:
http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=postoriginalaj2.jpg
Corrected:
http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=postcorrectedbx8.jpg
JB
John, that's a VAST improvement. Now it looks like it's just a matter of cleaning up all the spots. I personally like to use the healing brush for that. It's tedious, so put on some good music, zone out and heal heal heal ;D
Kenny
Hi JB,
As Kenny says, break out the good music, now it is a spot by spot process - wish I could find an easier way, the one I am doing has a polka-dot blouse, and I have had to clone just about every dot in one by one, time and patience is the key.
This one should give you the chance to try out the whole PS patching tool kit, have fun and keep up the good work. :)
Max
Thanks Kenny and Max for your comments. I guess from what you are saying that the image is about as good as it gets. I was hoping to get more of the stain off the wall.
So from here it is patch, patch, patch.
Thanks again,
JB
Hi JB,
I don't know of any way to get more stain out of the wall other than cloning any areas of good colour out over the rest of the surface, the healing brush and healing brush tool may do a lot of it, I usually clone in each colour area and where they meet clone over the other colour at low opacity to blend the colours seamlessly, then go over with the healing tool to replace texture.
The other alternate is to carefully select the wall area, don't include shadows, then select the light and dark colours from the wall and fill the selection with a radial fill from the centre, then perhaps add a little noise - unfortunately I find this method is usually too even and artificial looking.
Max
The patch tool and I have become great friends tonight. I am posting what I have done so far. I did move the white pointer in the Levels adjustment layer for the RGB selection to get some more detail in the white dress. It was only about 15 points back to full right. It was just enough to see some of the shadow detail.
I started on the right and am working my way to the left. I am up to the boys head. I have not done anything to the white dress. I have tried to "patch" out some of the smears in the hair and the faces. I am not real happy how some of it is working. The smears seem to be dominate in certain portions of the hair on the boy and the seated woman. If nothing else I have succeeded in blending some of the smear so it is not so streaky. Have I missed anything in what I have done so far?
Original: (http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/951/postoriginalaj2.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Latest edition: (http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/63/postcorrected2na4.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Thanks Kenny for the post tutorial. It worked great.
Christine, just to let you know I am going to be running late on this. I picked it up last weekend and probably won't get it done until next week.
JB
John, it certainly looks much much clearer. I think once the spots are gone it will be ready to send home. :up:
Kenny
Hi JB
The color looks fantastic! Now it's time for the click, click, click of the clone & heal tools. I'm hoping that my perception is correct, that the areas of discoloration are fairly contained and won't be as obnoxious as large swaths of muck. Can't wait to see the finished restoration. Fine job!
Glenna
Glenna, I think the wall and white dress will be the real challenge. Getting some good color for the wall may not be easy. I have played in a couple of places on the wall, but the water mark stains make it hard to find good information to work with. I think it will be as Max said in an earlier reply that I just have to start off with a small good piece and build it from there. I have tried the patch tool on some of those wall marks and get a yucky result when it blends with the brown mud stain. That is why I was hoping someone had a good "mud shoveling" solution. Time to get shoveling, I mean clicking.
JB
Johnboy,
This is looking great! I know removing all of those spots takes a lot of time. Thanks for keeping me posted!
Christine
Hi JB
One option with the wall would be to mask it out and replace what's there with a gradient that matches the existing colors. Because of the hair and other details, you could use an alpha channel to create the mask (Katrin Eismann's book on Masking & Compositing goes into detail about accomplishing this type of mask, and it works amazingly well {I've used it at work and on one of my restorations}-- she may also have a tutorial on her web site: photoshopdiva.com). In the long run, it would save you an incredible amount of time and probably look better as well.
Have a great Sunday!
Glenna
I thought I would give an update. The patch tool and I have become great friends. I still need to work on the white dress and the wall. I The boy's white collar had a nasty stain but was able to get it out (I don't think even Tide would have worked). I think I need to burn it in a little as to me is seems too white compared to the rest of the photo. Yet once I get the dress done it may be OK. There is sill more work to be done on the arm of the woman on the left and also on her face and hair.
Does anyone see something I missed other than the areas noted?
Progress photo:
(http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/3787/progressif3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Thanks for the suggestions. It is off to work on the dress. I think I'll try Glenna's suggestion about the alpha channel for the wall. Hopefully I'll have more later today.
JB
Hi JB
What you've done so far looks super. I think the little guy's shirt is fine. There's plenty of definition. Makes him look like a fine young gentleman.
Have you tried the spot healing tool yet? I can't believe I just discovered it, but it does amazing touch up on small spots. I needed to get rid of a couple of blemishes on a person on one of our covers at work, and it did a perfect job. It samples directly around the area you click on and replaces the unwanted gunk with an average of the surrounding pixels. You don't have to sample from another area. I tried it on one of our volunteers' works in progress, and it did a fantastic job on small blemishes with good pixels around them. As with the other tools, it has limits, but can also be a gem in the arsenal of mud cleaners!
Have a great St. Patty's day.
GG
From what you've done, so far, it seems you have a pretty good grasp on the Patch Tool.
It's my favorite Photoshop tool and I'd suggest you continue to use it for the rest of this image.
The dress might be the most problematic. When a blob falls on a fold, take a big selection around it and move up or down the fold to the nearest "clean" spot. You can see, in the original selection, what the tool is going to use so you can just line up the fold. (This works in any area with heavy contrast - try it where their hair meets the wall). It just takes trial and error and you might have to patch the same area a couple of times to get it to look right.
Keep up the good work. :up:
JohnBoy, what program are you using? I've grown fond of the Spot Healing tool in CS2 myself. You're on the ball.
Thanks for the input.
I am using Photoshop CS. I never thought of using the Healing tool for spot removing until I saw Kenny's tutorial. I did use it some on the dress, but used the Patch tool most of all. The dress has given me some problems. I started out by using the color picker to get a white from a good area. Then on a new layer started painting with that foreground color. When I adjusted the Opacity to match the white areas I blew out the shadows in the dress. So I ended up filling in the white areas with the color that was there. Now when I apply the painted layer it is a little better. The Blend mode is "Color" and the Opacity is 15%. Yet now that I look at it after I have filled in the white patches I begin to wonder whether the dress is a light pink or white or is the "pink" mud stain? What are your opinions? There are some areas that need more work.
Pink? White?
(http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/9153/pinknj2.jpg) (http://imageshack.us) (http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/1458/whitegl5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Thanks for the help.
JB
JB, I would think the dress is white, what you have looks close to me, with white in these photos you can seldom use pure white or it leaps out of the image at you, you nearly always need to use a very light grey colour.
Max
Hi JB
Just to add to the multiple choices we've all given you, I'd say you could go with either dress color. The white version doesn't look blown out from what I can see, but it could also be an ivory color. You may be able to judge by the consistency of the color of the dress in the original. If there are a lot of darker "drips", then it's probably white. But I do note that in the image where the little boy's shirt is white, the woman's dress looks light tan or ivory.
You're doing a fine job! (Either with our help or in spite of it!)
Glenna
It has been a long day. I have made at least 5 alpha channel masks over the last few days. The good news is that I think I improved the content with each mask. Learning curves can be steep. A minor curves adjustment seemed to help neutralize some of the mud stain. I used the color picker to sample one of the "good" holes in the wall. I was surprised to see blue as the final color. The color sample in the swatch box looked a grey green. Any way here is what I have to offer. I am open to any further suggestions.
Original:
(http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/951/postoriginalaj2.jpg)
Latest version:
(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3554/test31masknv6.jpg)
Thanks for all your help.
JB
Wow JB, this looks great! You did a really nice job removing all of those spots from the clothing. My only suggestion would be to soften the background. The blue looks a bit too harsh. I'm wondering if the background should be closer to the original color in the image??? Otherwise, great job!
Christine
Amazing. masks are the secret eh?
I too thought the background seemed strong. I tried different settings for the background gradient, and even dodged it a little to get it to it present state. As for the color, when I sample the wall and even use the healing brush the resulting color comes out blue. I thought it was green. Even the shadows on some of the clothing showed a greenish tint and some of the dark tones on the head shadows on the wall also showed a green tinge. So I am wondering if the wall color and the mud damage are color mixing to create a green allusion or that is how Photoshop is interpreting the selection. Just some out loud thinking. Is there any way to check with the family to see what real color of the wall is??
Any way I'll give a try at finding a green or just dodging the wall more to tone it down.
Thanks for the suggestions. :up2:
JB
JB & Chris
I like the blue! Looking at the changes in the hue of the clothing, the color seems quite credible to me. I ran into that with my Cassanova mom & daughter. The background looked like mud and ended up being a lovely blue-to-green gradient when I color corrected. It wouldn't hurt if the blue were subtler, but I think the vibrance of the current blue is very appealing.
JB you've done one heck of a job on this restoration. It looks great.
Keith, I'm finding that I'm using layer masks more and more as I work on the restorations. Would never have believed it! There's no better way that I'm aware of to isolate areas of the photos. Since the masks can be blurred, the result can look amazingly natural. And information isn't lost, in case you want to reclaim any of it. But you already know that, I'm sure.
Have a great weekend!
GG
I think the wall might be more of this neutral color.
http://upload.pbase.com/image/76394036
(http://i.pbase.com/o6/93/579993/1/76394036.vDTfE3yu.wall.jpg)
I may be getting closer in obtaining a subtler blue wall. I drug a copy of Kiska's file to my desktop and opened it. Then tried samples from the two areas marked. The area on the right showed a dark sample similar to what I had originally. If you look in Kiska's post, notice the book just under the right most leaf on the plant on the bookcase. You will see a white circle next to the book. That is the area I took the sample used in the earlier post. Since that gave the more vibrant color I ruled that selection out. When I tried Kiska's sample from the center it seemed to be lighter. Below is the change using the color pick from that center area.
(http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/3446/test31maskbc1.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Kiska, may I ask what you did in the cmyk-curves layer and what shift(s) you made in the Hue/Saturation layer? I really like the color result you obtained. :up:
Please eagle eye for anything else I may need to touch up. In my former life, I would have client's ooh & aah over a poster or brochure only to miss the misspelled words.
JB
JB;
The cmyk thing is a Katrin Eismann trick. I use it mostly for skin tones, as it is easier for me to manipulate the yellows and magentas.
Do levels and curves on the original.
Duplicate, flat, the adjusted original.
Image>mode>cmyk the duplicate.
Image>adjustments>curves
For these skin tones I lessened the yellow and increased the magenta a little.
Select All>Copy>Paste the cmyk as the top layer in your original. Change the blend to color.
The hue/sat was a slight decrease in the master.
Kiska,
Thanks. :up2:
JB
I have been playing some more. Hopefully this photo is ready to send home. There are two versions of the wall one is blue and one is green.
Blue wall:
(http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/7063/augillardmallevels5x7blic3.jpg)
Green wall:
(http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/2460/augillardmallevels5x7grjq3.jpg)
Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Since this is my first one it has been a long learning curve for me.
JB
Hi JB
You did a fine job! I'd say you can be proud to send this photo back to its family.
Glenna
Nice job, JB the owners should be thrilled with your efforts.
Max