Scrapbookphoto's or one way of working on them

[Atlantis]

A series of screenshots of how I managed to improve my batch of scrapbookphoto's :

















Hope it helps.

[Mhayes]

Atlantis, thanks for the very great tutorial!  I like the screen shots that showed the changes taking place.   :up:

Margie

[TerryB]

Excellent step-by-step tutorial Atlantis, absolutely excellent.

[Hannie]

Hi Atlantis,

That was a great tutorial, thanks for posting.  I have one question about the last image with curves 2.  Did you want the white, gray and black to stay the same but everything in between a little lighter?

Hannie

[Atlantis]

Yes, it was all about final finetuning which can be different on every photo as would be the first layers as well. I used the same set of layers on the batch but set the sliders a little different according to what that particular photo needed. Sometimes I also try different opacities or blendmodes on layers to get what I want. I showed this set to give a general idea.

[Hannie]

Very nice workflow Atlantis!

Hannie

[philbach]

The first two steps.

Just wondering.  What I usually do on the just about the first step is to use the channel mixer to blend the best channels or use the best channel and then convert to monochrome and after that use levels to increase contrast.  My idea being to start out with the best definition before I start working on the contrast.  Is this better? Or does it make any difference?

Thanks for posting the tutorial.

[Hannie]

Hi Phil,

There really is no best way to do these black and white GHF photos, or any photo for that matter.  Your method sounds great too.
Like Atlantis said it depends on what the photo needs.
I sometimes make different adjustment versions of a restore and compare the results.  When I decide which one is the best I pay attention to such things as loss of detail in the shadow sections and tonal range.
The method that leaves most detail intact is the method I will use for that particular photo.

What I like about Atlantis approach in this photo is that the original detail is not repainted but left as it was and that is what the GHF is looking for. 
Checking the monochrome box in a channel mixer adjustment layer is a really good way to turn the photo B/W but still retain the RGB color space.   We need the RGB mode for QC to add the sepia later on.

Hannie

[Atlantis]

If you look at step 2 and 3 you can see I checked the monochrome in the channelspalette as well.
And yes, every photo needs it's specific approach and yes I do try to stay as close to the originals as possible to avoid a painted look. But then again sometimes there is so much damage it cannot be avoided. Me not being a painter I try to avoid that kind of photo's :D