My guy looks like a cartoon

[PhotoBob]

Hi everybody,

I'm working on my first photo, also, this is the first time I've tried posting photos on this forum so I hope I don't screw that up!  :)  Here's the original:



Human faces are not my strong point (I can do horses) and the gentleman on the left has just enough damage to cause a problem. The blue channel did reveal more information, but not all. Hannie sent me another photo of him that wasn't damaged, but was from a side angle. At least I could see how he wore his hair a little over his ear, had a little side burn action going on, and could roughly judge the size of his nose. The PhotoBob version looks a lot like the Saturday morning version.  :-\  Any suggestions?  Here's were I'm at:




The rest of wall is a none issue, I'm concerned with the face.  Thanks for your help.

PhotoBob

[glennab]

Hi Bob

I played around with your guy, and this is the image I got by going to calculations and combining the blue and blue channel (strange, I know) and setting the blend mode to Pin Light. It's not perfect, but when I copied the B&W Alpha Channel from calculations on top of your WIP and set the blend mode to luminosity, the texture came back to the face.  It'll need some tweaking, but not a lot, and you'll have a more realistic face. As you said, the bricks won't be a problem from there.



Here's the calculations channel on top of your WIP, set to luminosity.



See if this works for you. You've already done most of the work. I suspect just a little judicious masking, cloning and/or healing and color tweaking will be all that's left to do.

Cheers,

GK

[PhotoBob]

Thanks Glen!   :wnw:  :wnw: That's so cool ! I'm saving this little technique!

PhotoBob

[Jonas.Wendorf]

Pin Light doesn't change anything with your image if the pixel values are the same on both layers so you didn't even have to use the calculations, but just use the existing blue channel at Luminosity mode :up:

[PhotoBob]

Jonas,
That's how I started out. I even fiddled with the brightness levels and contrast of the blue layer after I pasted it in as a layer and changed the mode to Luminosity, until I felt it showed the most detail. I think the secret ingredient missing is EXPERIENCE!  :)  Thanks for the tip!

PhotoBob

[glennab]

Hi Jonas and Bob

I can't dispute you on whether the Calculations effort was worthwhile, but I use it often, and when I place a color channel over itself and play with the blend modes, I do get different results.  I may not have used Pin Light (I forget to write these things down), but I've noticed that many volunteers avoid calculations when I've found them to be invaluable in bringing up detail on images.  Not every time, but often enough that if "channel surfing" doesn't work, that's my next step. It's also important to note that above the red channel in calculations and hidden is "gray" and that mixes with color channels sometimes to create great results. A lot of what I do is unconventional, but my brain is a little off-center, so that's my excuse.  Definitely wayyyyyy outside the box.  I don't know if I'll ever totally understand the blending modes, but I know when I see something that works, so I go with it.  Someone on one of my Facebook groups was looking for suggestions as to what he could do tutorials on - maybe I'll suggest both Calculations and Blend Modes.  Jonas, thanks for jumping in and clarifying things.  (Note to self: write down what I do, even if I think I'll remember what I did 2 minutes ago!  Memory is fading with old age!)

Cheers,

GK

[Hannie]

Hi Bob,

You can also work out your blue channel layer (luminosity) a little more, lighten it some and repair damage in face and hair.  Then paste it on your restore with a hide all layer mask and with the white brush paint back the face and hair only.

Hannie