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So what was I thinking... blown up this image shows all this horrid noise, mess, pattern.. my FFT filter won't work for some reason so my plan is to go for Frequency Separation..I'm gonna need some help here guys down the road a bit..
Wish me luck..

Affinity Photo has a FFT filter that appears to me (just based on the small version you posted) to work OK. Do you have access to it (or even a trial version)?

Not sure how frequency separation will help in that there's masses and masses of unwanted texture to remove. Do you want to ask the distributor about fixing the color and damage but having the return print have the same texture as the original as an alternate approach? The texture isn't damage, just the paper the original was printed on (don't you wish that awful paper had never been used?)

Thanks Jo Ann - in last restores I've removed the texture and it's been accepted.. this is where I'm at right now.. could do with some pointers ..


Thanks for the info on Affinity... I'm downloading the trial.. i'ts not as expensive as I thought it would be..

(https://i.postimg.cc/WF2TYChF/shock-cat.gif) (https://postimg.cc/WF2TYChF)

What texture?!!   How'd you do that?!

The texture removal has left a very smoothed image - edges are very soft vs. in the original - and the hand colored look is very different from the original.

I struggled a fair bit with trying to get colors that look good from the original (just ignoring the texture) and although I'm not happy with what I have, I wanted to compare it with your WIP to show the differences between the two approaches in how the faces look:

(https://i.postimg.cc/v15P4sxJ/Mother-child-textured-print-compare.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/v15P4sxJ)

I used a number of adjustment layers - curves for color and contrast and a solid color layer used a bit like a photo filter layer - you pick the opposite color and use vivid light blend mode and a very, very low fill (not opacity). That was getting in the ballpark but faces still looked ugly, so I used some hand tinting (solid color layer in soft light blend mode like you would if coloring a black and white) to get the skin tones and greenery better.

Imperfect as my version is, I think the loss of both tones and detail, plus the hand colored look comes across as less "real".

Really sorry that I don't have a solution with a bow tied around it, but I can elaborate on what I did if you decide to follow that path.

Hi Lyn and Jo Ann.. first off I tried frequency separation see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldhG9fmgC7o Phlearns tut which has smoothed things out too much me thinks.. I think I may start over.. Jo Ann is right about the painted effect.. my next move is to try to get a fft filter to work.. that at least will reduce the Moire. The frequency separation I did back to front.. instead of leaving texture I removed it..didn't work too well..
Oh well back to the drawing board.. any suggestions from others too appreciated.
Thanks Jo Ann for input.

O.K... so I ran the FFT filter in Affinity and it worked pretty well.. I did a levels adjust ment then a curves in cmyk for the skin tones only.. pasted it onto my rgb. This is what I have so far.. ignore the background and the damage.. just trying for skin tones at this point..
Any suggestions appreciated...

It's hard to tell.  This is not the original size so details are lacking. 

right... this is a close up.. the Moire has reduced but the green is still there.. nice touch from the Muckerupper..

I think that's much better, and I have a suggestion for getting rid of the greenish tones. Here's some pictures:

(https://i.postimg.cc/gx9Mk2L8/Mother-child-textured-print-WIP-GMap-explain.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/gx9Mk2L8)

This is based around using a Gradient map adjustment layer to make more even skin tones. The very rough mask on the faces (avoiding eyes, teeth and hair) is one boundary on the adjustment, but I thought that the colors looked a bit too glowing in the shadows, so I used a second mask where I selected the shadows in the image (Color Range| Shadows) and then inverted it, which selects the highlights plus midtones and excludes the shadows

The gradient map layer is set to Soft Light blend mode to get a more subtle effect (overlay is harsher)

To put two masks on one layer I put the adjustment layer in a group and the highlights/midtones mask on the group.

See what you think

Thanks Jo Ann..I'll see if I can figure that out and replicate..

Here's where I'm at.. skin tones only.. haven't touched the background or blouse hair etc yet.. I couldn't make the gradient map cover how I wanted so I ended up coloring over the skin with just color blend mode..

I think this is heading in the right direction - it's lost that hand-painted look. Possibly just a little on the red side, but a curves or levels adjustment should take care of that.

Thanks I'll keep at it then  :up:

You're getting there girl. Look forward to your next WIP. Sure am learning lots from your "challenges"  ;)

I agree with Shadow, I really like how you repaired all those patterns and green stains!  :up:
This photo has lots of spots (color) that need to be cleaned up with a color layer.

My version of levels and curves seems less reddish?

(https://i.postimg.cc/nsRs96Cf/portrait.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/nsRs96Cf)

Yes thanks Hannie.. how does this look..still too red??  Too dark??


lightened up a bit..

I like it Lynn!

Thanks Hannie.. do you think the lighter one??

We're throwing our vote in for the lighter one.  :)

Yes, the lighter one looks good.

Thanks Lyn and Hannie.. I've sent them home..