It's a start.
(https://i.postimg.cc/pphJs06D/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/pphJs06D) (https://i.postimg.cc/VJXB8J1v/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/VJXB8J1v)
Candy, looking good. When I first looked at this one, I thought you had sharpened it. When I downloaded and worked on it, I found it to be the same. I know that you aren't finished with this one as still damaged on your left hand side. What I did try to do is to tone out the blown out highlights that were in the original. I added a new layer with 50% gray and the mode Soft Light. With my foreground changed to black and my brush opacity varied as I brushed over parts that I wanted darker. Yes, still over blown, but not as bad.
Funny when I uploaded this one I thought: Bet Candy will take this one. ;D
(https://i.postimg.cc/62q6Xcfb/Koniecny-D.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/62q6Xcfb)
I'm with Margie, saw it and immediately thought of you. Good luck. Look forward to the final. :)
Great hint, Margie. It's one I've never tried. I'll give it a shot because it did make a difference. Sometimes, I'm still in the dark ages with tricks in photoshop. lol
You both were right. I love these pictures. I like working with the fonts and often it's something a lot of people don't want to mess with.
Another approach it to totally exaggerate the apparently blown out area with a curve.
The attached is from the blue layer which seemed to have slightly more detail. It isn't usable as is but will give some idea of the detail of the dress of the girl on the left. Not much help to the second girl.
Athol
(https://i.postimg.cc/DJ3Fr84K/Capture.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/DJ3Fr84K)
Athol, that worked really great in that it brought back detail in the girl's faces and did away with the blown out parts.. Use that with other and do a layer mask to bring the parts you want.
How about this?
(https://i.postimg.cc/FYFRkD1X/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/FYFRkD1X)
Better. I would use Athol's as a layer and yours and then do a layer mask where you can have the best of both worlds. You can vary your opacity on your mask.
Athol, could you upload that last image but without the Curves illustrated. I can get min to look as good as yours in Curves.
Margie, The first is just the blue layer, the second is with a similar curve as I didn't keep the original. As usual my best work always seems to get lost :halo:
(https://i.postimg.cc/bGPGZfSv/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10-BLUE.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/bGPGZfSv)
(https://i.postimg.cc/F167jLk8/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10-BLUE-plus-Curve.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/F167jLk8)
Using a couple of your suggestions and a few of my own.... I've backed up the picture to regain a base.
Here's where I am.
(https://i.postimg.cc/bGQ1jYxj/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/bGQ1jYxj)
Update. I've worked on this today and I think it's looking decent!
(https://i.postimg.cc/7fvpFZwX/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj2a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7fvpFZwX)
Candy, yes, this version is an improvement and good job with the picture on your left. Here is what I did with Athol's photo using curves. Your work was the bottom layer and then his was the top layer. I did a layer mask to conceal all and then painted back in what I wanted--especially with the front row with the girls and also darkening some of the books. When I got where I wanted I did a merge visible and did what I posted earlier where I added a layer with 50% gray and soft light as the color mode. This is basically another layer masks that lets me darken and lighten as I want. I lighten the children's faces as some seem either too gray or the girl on the far right too dark. Not perfect but I think it evens the photo out. Yours is good, just wanted to tweak the contrast more evenly. The wall should have been left as you had, but didn't see that until now and too late to go back.Below is the comparison.
(https://i.postimg.cc/q6GbQFWw/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10-combined.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/q6GbQFWw)
layers combined/layer masks
(https://i.postimg.cc/ygytrWZ0/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj2a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/ygytrWZ0)
P.S. Athol, I bet your dog is too blame for your loss. :cool:
Margie, perhaps not the same method but I do believe it's ready to go home.
(https://i.postimg.cc/BP5BND38/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj2a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/BP5BND38)
Candice, yes! Now the photo is so much more even and not broken in half if that makes sense? The girls in front look good and their faces more detail. :up:
Makes sense to me. The left side of the picture was blown out. Another problem I ran into was a LOT of fringing. To remove that I has to use my smudge tool and work with each individual's face, then bring out the highlights again. Ran into the fringing around the pictures and books too. Oh, and I tried to give the teacher a more natural look behind her glasses. She looked a bit goolish! I've a couple more things in the books and then she's being sent home.
Thank you all for your input!!
Final:
(https://i.postimg.cc/gr8wSYvy/Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10adj.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/gr8wSYvy)
Well done Candy. Had to smile at: "Oh, and I tried to give the teacher a more natural look behind her glasses. She looked a bit goolish!" Perhaps this was due to years of working with the little angels?
Well!!?? LOL :halo:
Beautiful restore! :up:
Thank you!!
Update. Sent home.
(https://i.postimg.cc/RqKwzhyd/Scherf-B-19-004-2-5x3-5adj.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/RqKwzhyd)
Hello Candice,
I was Newbie1 a while ago, now I'm Newbie3. In the current dearth of photos, I've been practicing on some photos in the Forum and found your <Koniecny-D-03-003-8x10.jpg> (I assumed it's OK to download).
I'm stumped: how did you restore the upper left corner? At first I thought you inserted a photo of the painting, but it isn't the Homer I thought it was, and, even worse, could not find it in the complete Homer collection. Also, I thought you just copied the books from any other shelf, but not so (but you did copy the shelf label from the neighboring shelf). I'm very interested in knowing how you restored the area (besides having a friend go to Midland and take a pic of the area).
If I could correct the upper left, then I was thinking to use the blue channel to eliminate the uneven color cast, add a gradient to correct the uneven exposure, and apply the border from the red channel. Does that sound reasonable?
Many thanks! -- Gary Kern aka GKTus Yes, "Tus" is Tucson, AZ
PS: I'm using Affinity Photo, so if a trick unique to PS is required, all is lost for me.
GKT, if you're referring to the picture, I did everything by hand (mouse) I don't use a pad. Most of the information was there. It was a matter of filling in the missing pieces. The way my mind works I'm not sure I could tell you the exact steps now but, often I use the paint brush at a lower opacity and paint in the missing areas and then use the clone and/or heal tool to fill in the missing information of the man and child, frame and background. BTW, I looked for the picture, too. lol I do my work in Photoshop CS4.
For the books... a book is a book. Most people will not be searching the shelves, so you can get by with a small amount of artistic license. I corrected the brick pattern by cloning from other areas The restoration is about the kids. There is where I wanted to be really picky and was. There were also several great suggestions made in how to correct the exposure on some of the kids. You may have noticed that most, if not all, of the picture had a LOT of fringing. This is where patience comes in. I use the paint brush set at a lower opacity to fill in the areas. Sometimes I set the brush with just a bit of noise, too. Then I'll come back and use the smudge tool to help blend. I'm always sampling color so that the areas match well.
I hope this helped explain my process. PS.... welcome back!