Need guidance please

[Judy]

Kate,

I am a little confused, on your reply #9, there are folds of fabric under the boy's leg as there is in Kiska's.  Somehow your removed them by the last version in playing with the rug I suppose, and it is my impression that is why the leg looks malformed.

I don't see anything much wrong with the right arm though I might try (probably unsuccessfully) to reduce the shadows beneath the elbow that makes the shirt look like it is clinging to the arm.  It could have just been twisted, however, and looked weird on the original.  Such things are possible!

Judy

[glennab]

Hi Kate

I'm coming in a bit late on this, but I wanted to post the image I color corrected using both Curves and Levels, as well as the rather down and dirty way I recreated the fur of the rug for the right side of the bottom.  It needs to be worked on more, but I'll tell you what I think is the best way to handle it.  First I'll post the image:



I used the healing and patch tools intermittently for the rug.  I sampled small areas from the good portion under his leg on the left and in the left corner and kept adding to the samples until I filled up a decent-sized area.  I kept sampling until I got rid of obvious repeats in the pattern and shading until I got something that looked okay (as I said, it's down and dirty, but gives you an idea).  A lot of the background cleanup was done by selecting bad areas and then filling them with content-aware fill.  That worked really well.

Something that I just learned in a tutorial - and I may be way behind the times on this - is the clone source menu.  It's amazing.  I just cloned one striped area on the sleeve and asked the clone source to rotate it 180 degrees.  Probably the best way to accomplish a credible copy of the good arm would be to clone each section to its own layer and then tweak and distort as you need to.  But the clone source will give you a good start.  Use a hard edge and 100% opacity and flow - then you can mask out anything that doesn't fit.

Also, I used calculations to get a B&W template for his leg.  I used gray and the blue channel and set the blend mode to pin light, then saved the image as an alpha channel.  I still find that calculations gives me the best template when I'm trying to see behind the muck.

Here's the image:


I hope this helps and doesn't confuse things.  I hate to see you get discouraged, because this little guy can be completely restored, and I think you can get a good color correction.  I know we all have different ways to go about these things, but I thought I'd share what works for me.  Since I've been retired for more than a year now, I've spent a lot of time taking webinars and tutorials, and have discovered some wonderful new ways to defeat these stinkers.

BTW, it looks to me as if his trousers have a pattern on them.  It's faint, but it seems more than just debris.

Good luck!

GK

Once I posted this and could see the images, I realize that the rug still needs a lot of work. I still see obvious repeats.  But working at it will help with that.  And possibly the clone source will help move the direction of the fibers to a correct alignment.

[Oldfaded]

Glen I am stoked! I didnt now about the clone source area.. Im going along fast! and its looking good.
I will be getting off the computer before long but wanted to thank you very much.
Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up a bit more in the morning!
I have renewed faith! :)

[Oldfaded]

Just a real quickie to show that I 'got' the use of the new clone source tools! that is really a wonderful thing. All I did was the reconstruct the arm, and that is a rough attempt.
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[glennab]

Kate: One word: Awe Some!  Looks great.  GK

[Oldfaded]

Its a little bit better, I think, but I think someone else could do much better than I ..hehe need more practice. :)
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I AM loving the new clone technique!! THAT is awesome! :)

[Hannie]

Kate, the only thing that you need to redo some are the levels and curves adjustments like Kiska described on the first page of this topic and you're ready to go!

Hannie

[Oldfaded]

Thanks Hannie!
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[Hannie]

Looks great Kate!

I think you work in Adobe RGB (1998) color profile, that is fine but when you upload to Photobucket (and to Photoshelter after you're done) you should convert to sRGB IEC61966-2.1
You can do this by going to the menu Edit>Convert to Profile.

The curves adjustment layers, here are the spots that I picked.  (black and white on one adj. layer and grey on a new one)
The grey spot you wanted to choose different ones till you find one that looks natural.

Hannie

[Oldfaded]

 :-[ Im ashamed to say I did that, and for me I kept coming up with a too noticeable blue to the photo, so (hands head) I used 'auto' adjust instead of using my dropper......
I took a look at the 'convert to profile' adjustment, this is what I see, now to me it looks like it is showing the final in rgb, and my destination spaces for adjustments are all preset?, dont know that I understand that much.
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[Hannie]

No need to go to the Advanced tab.
This image will show you how convert to sRGB IEC61966-2.1, also check off the "Flatten Image"box.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=12699214

Hannie

[Oldfaded]

ah yes, ok, and if I do that, do I need to keep going back and forth? or can I just reset that and forget about it.
I really dont want to have to reset that before uploading to OPR etc... :( Im going to need a long check list....hehehe

[Hannie]

Normally when you download a photo to restore the color profile is sRGB IEC61966-2.1 already so you don't have to do anything.  I noticed a few floating around that are Adobe RGB (1998).  Or perhaps you prefer to work in Adobe RGB (1998), if so then you only have convert to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 when you have finished your restore and it is ready to be uploaded to Photoshelter.

I you choose to work in Adobe RGB (1998) and want to post on the forum you can make a copy of your photo and convert to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 before you upload to Photobucket.  It will show the colors better on the forum then Adobe RGB (1998) would.

Hope this makes sense.

Hannie

[Oldfaded]

yes it does Hannie. Thank you for explaining that for me. :)