Color Question on this photo

[philbach]

Hi, I've posted the before and after photos, and I am wondering about the color of her hair. Is this lady's hair more red than the retouch or does the current color seem to correct?
Thanks
The Original


The Restored

[kiska]

I think her hair is definitely red. Your color correction has gone too blue.

[philbach]

Thanks Kiska.  One thing I probably did wrong was to do global color correction rather than what you did by masking the face.  I will work with it some and repost

[philbach]

I've increased the saturation on the above photo and using a mask increased it a little more on the hair.  What do you think now?  The contrast is a little less than Kiska's color correction.

[Hannie]

Just to make matters worse, this is what I got after a curves adj. layer (gray point) and some red adjustment in curves as well.

Hannie

[philbach]

I used curves on a the gray point which is circled in yellow and lightened up the face some.  Her face color is still somewhat darker than Hannie's and there is less contrast.  Her hair here is "more red"than Hannies, but I think I am getting closer

[Mhayes]

Hi Phil,

This is an improvement, but this last one where you are showing us where the gray point is; I think you are too far along in the game to do this. Had you done the gray point on square one, then it would have worked.

Sometimes a Levels Adjustment where you go to each channel and move the sliders for each of the channels is all that is needed. When that doesn't work; I like to find the gray point in Curves by using the method started by David Cross and Glenna posted on a tutorial some time back. Starting with the original, go to New Layer menu and checked the box to fill with 50% gray. Then go back into your layer and on the drop down menu pick "Difference." When you do that, look for areas that have turned black---happens when the 50% gray meets gray. I take the dropper that will let you mark up to 3 places that are black. After I do that, discard that layer and then bring up the Curves Adjustment and click the eye dropper on the areas you marked. In this case it was the inside of the girl's eye--your left. On the right side I got a different color. When using this method on the original, you will notice that there is no gray in the background. There might be after you make several adjustments, but it isn't there in the original.


Great job on the repairing and the color is getting better!


Margie

[philbach]

Thanks Margie the method that I used to find the gray point was the David Cross technique and was on a "late edition" which was pretty darn far along as you mentioned.  The hair color on my latest restore is redder than Hannie's and seems right to me.  Its her face (skin) color that perhaps should be adjusted some.