New, and looking for oppinions

[Wolf]

Hi all,
I found this place a couple of weeks ago, and decided I needed a good reason to practice my Photoshop. :) I got this one last week, and have already done some work to it, but I have a couple questions: first is to what degree should I attempt to restore it to. My feelings are that it should be as close to the original photo as possible, and that any further "improvements" might deter from the final product. But I'm not sure if this is an attitude I should have around here. :)
And secondly, do you think the hair is Red? or dark/black? :)

Lemmie know anyone's thoughts! :)
~G

[klassylady25]

You're on the right track with the way you think for restoration of these pictures.  We do try to get it back to as close to the original as we can.  As for his hair, I think it is a bit closer to a brownish/red.   Those are my thoughts.  Welcome to OPR

Candice

[glennab]

Hi Wolf

Welcome to OPR!  Glad to have you with us.

My suggestion would be to color correct your image first. I posted a tutorial on color correction that I was WOWed by at a Photoshop seminar, and if I can figure out how to point you to it, I will.

I downloaded what you posted, and it looks totally different on my computer from what I see on the forum. That said, it appears to me that he has auburn hair.

I noticed that Candy just posted what I was about to tell you, which is that you're spot on in realizing that we're trying to get these photos as close to the original as possible without embellishment or trying to "paint" in something that's not there.  If there are unidentifiable areas in my challenges, I post to check if anyone else can make out something I missed.  But if nothing can be discerned, it's left as is.  It's very disconcerting to leave a restoration incomplete, but there's no sense in sending back something contrived.

I'll post this and then see if I can figure out a way to direct you to the color correction tutorial.

I hope we'll see you on the forum often!

Cheers,

Glenna (aka GK)

This will take you to the tutorial.

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1304.msg13416.html#msg13416

[Mhayes]

Hi Wolf,

Welcome to OPR and it's great to see you on the Forum!

I agree with Candice and Glenna on the hair color--most likely a reddish brown and he looks like he has brown eyes. Glenn's link for color correction tutorial is great. The only thing to be careful of on this photo is finding the midtone that is neutral. Unless you were on a copy run, you would not know that the upper right hand corner (triangle in shape) is not part of the photo. This was the board that the photo was placed on. When you follow the tutorial for finding the midtone, you will find that the upper corner is the first to show up, but that is a false reading since it is not part of the photo and not what you want to use as your mid-tone. Hope that makes sense.


Margie

[mschonher]

Hi Wolf and welcome to OPR.

I love this little red/auburn headed boy.  You are off to a great start but I agree with everyone that you need to do a little correcting before you begin to do any further work.  Here's what I did:

1.   went to Layers > new adjustment layer > Levels.  I adjusted each channel separately.

2.  New adjustment layer again > Hue/Saturation >  Red minus 17

3.  New adj. layer > Curves > auto adjustment

Hope this helps.

Mary

[Wolf]

thanks all, the tutorial is a good help!
I guess this colour correcting is part of what I was wondering about though, I assumed that the images I work with have been calibrated in the capturing, and that what I get is close to the "real thing" if a photo has a cast to it, is it going beyond restoring to try and make it look "natural"?
And as I have found with this photo, there is a honeycomb grain included in the photo which 'could' be removed, but again is that not making it different then it was? an interpretation of sorts?  I know that a lot of this is an interpretation of what "should" be there, but I find, at least with the grain, that I'm reluctant to smooth it out. But that might have to happen anyway, so I can get it looking decent! :)
I'm also interested if anyone has any other directions to point me in on this one, and who might have some relevant tutorials to show me! :) lol
Thanks!
~G

[glennab]

Hi Wolf

The images we're restoring have been photographed pretty much in the state they were when brought to us.  They're not scans, because too many of the photos were still wet and covered with muck.  So anything you can do to improve the color is a great thing.  The honeycomb can be removed with an FFT filter, which I haven't used, because it wasn't available for Macs when I needed it, but one of our gurus ran a photo through it for me and sent me a pretty clean version.  The FFT works on consistent patterns. And I believe Hannie mentioned that there's a version available for Macs now.

Whether you smooth the texture is up to you.  Sometimes if only a little is missing, you can clone & clean up the area, then use the healing brush or patch tool to regain the original look.  Other times you're better off eliminating as much as you can.  It's one of those issues that when we have any doubts, we post an inquiry and get feedback from the rest of the team.

We have great tutorials throughout the forum, but no one has had the time to compile them.  I noticed that John just created a Tutorials menu, so I'm hoping that means that we can get the really good ones in one place before long.

I love that you're asking so many questions.  What I'd suggest you keep in mind as much as anything is to use what good portions of the image you have and do everything you can to keep skin texture, hair, etc. to try to avoid a "painted" look.  Sometimes it's not possible, but it's important to keep the images as photographic as possible. With this little guy, you have a lot of good skin areas, so you should be able to keep the face natural looking.  The hair – well that depends on how good you are at finessing a mess like this one.  I have to depend on our wonderful artist Mary to keep me on the right track with hair, among other things.  Just be assured that if you post for help, you'll get it.

Cheers,

GK