This little fellow is getting a haircut but as you can see there's an awful lot of noise on his face. Suggestions without losing too much detail?
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/face1.jpg)
That's a tough one Tess. I can't be of much help as I'm a trial and error kind of gal. I'm sure one or two of our heros will have a suggestion for you.
Good luck :)
Tess
Can we see the whole picture? How to deal with the noise might be related to the size of the image and the relative size of the boys face in the picture. Sometimes when I zoom in on an area it looks way off, but when viewed full size the noise is not too offensive. Just a thought.
Good Luck
Pete
Here you go. Yes it doesn't look too bad from a distance but I would like to get it a little better.
Click to enlarge.
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/th_facewhole.jpg) (http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/facewhole.jpg)
Tess, I'm not sure how effective either will be, but if you're using Photoshop try going under filter/noise and use either reduce noise or median at a very low number and see if that helps.
G
I ran it through Neat Image. Is it too much or overall will it be ok on a 6x4?
Click to enlarge
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/th_face3.jpg) (http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/face3.jpg)
Wow Tess!! I think the child's face on your right is in better shape than on your left. Can you work the right and then make a selection of a good area, duplicate and then move that over to the left hand side to blend in? The other thing that I do if the color is so blotch up and hard to work with is to make it a black and white and then colorize it. I don't think you need to do the entire photo that way, just the face.
If you did the part about making selections and using them on the left side, then when you reach the point where it is looking pretty good--duplicate that layer. I would then do a Gaussian Blur up to the point that it starts to blur the dots. Do a mask to conceal all and then with an opacity of around 60% paint back in the skin, but stay away from the eyes, mouth and any other area you want sharp.
Another trick you might try after doing as much restoring as you can is to duplicate your layer and go up to Filter>Blur>Surface Blur and use a Radius of 3 and a threshold of 10 to start. I guess this depends if you are using Photoshop, since I can't remember what software you are using.
This is a really cute photo, but you really picked a brute to work on!
Margie
:wow: Wow Margie, I just got a glazed look on my face after reading all those instructions. I'll try to convert them into Paintshop Pro and see how I go. I have managed to bring his sweet eyes out a bit better and do a bit more colouring on the left side.
Tess, what a lovely photo. That poor little boy looks so unhappy, probably just had his hair cut (with blunt scissors).
I think Margie's tips are good, it may be hard to find a good spot to borrow from. I would try to smooth out as much area as possible (I used healing and blur) and only after doing that use Neat Image. (maybe at 40%).
I did half of his face that way, I did it fast so it is a little sloppy.
You're right about the importance of his eyes. If you manage to get them and also the mouth, nose and ears, the rest will fall in place. I wouldn't use the Neat Image on the whole photo, instead keep it a little noisy
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/tess.jpg)
With all due respect, almost all the noise was from the high ISO noise of an inexpensive digital camera. It is original to the photo.
Is it really necessary to clean that when it is only 4x6.
Good point!
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k88/mschonher/tess.jpg)
I duped the image then went to Filter> Texture> Grain. Set it go enlarged grain> 10% no contrast. You can adjust the percentage as much as you want. If you want only to add this grain to the face, use a layer mask.
Mary
OK guys, maybe less is more! ;D
Margie
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up with a compromise between clean it up and leave the noise. I cleaned, smudged, blurred and painted. Then added noise back into the photo.
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/OPR/face4.jpg)
Tess, he is really looking good, especially his eyes and skin! :up: Are you sure that you don't want my 299 step plain to clean up messy photos?
Margie
Girl, at least he has a face now!! :)
Lookin' good Tess :up:
Mighty impressive, Tess, especially considering the mess with which you started. G
Tess,
He looks fantastic! I do not think he needs a haircut now.
Great Job!
Pete
Thanks everyone. I sent him home and picked something a little easier this time. :)