background confusing, color casts

[debg]

In the original photo, it's not clear to me what the fence "is doing" on the left hand side. I improvised based on my best guess.

I removed the blue patterned staining as delicately as I could. This is my second versionπ, and I hope I removed any remaining blue color casts.

Thanks for any feedback . .  .

deb

[Bambi]

Hi, Deb:

Much better on the skintones, but there's still a little too much blue in the damage areas. There's a color shift on her chest that I don't think is shadow. Here's a suggestion:

Open a Curves Adjustment Layer. In the RGB pulldown menu, choose Blue. Put you mouse over the blue cast area on the girl's forehead. Hold down the Command Key and click. A point will appear on the Curves line, selecting that color. Use your Down Arrow key and tap until it lightens and blends better. (As you take out the Blue, it adds Yellow.) It's a very precise way to make very fine color adjustments. This requires only a small adjustment.

It might help the boy's face a little, too. If you find it changes your background too much, select the skin tones and use Curves the same way.

Then, add little more Contrast to bring up the highlights and shadows in their faces.

There are probably as many ways to do this in Photoshop as there are people trying to do it. This is what I'd do (today!), but maybe someone else has a suggestion. The Forum isn't quite as quick on the weekends.

Bambi

[debg]

Thanks Bambi . . . that's actually the very technique I was using (with a mask so I could paint in the areas where needed, with different opacities). Let me repeat the procedure to see if I can nudge it further without getting too yellow. Maybe my monitor needs recalibrating . . . .

deb

[debg]

I've removed a tad more blue. On my monitor, this veers a little too yellow, but see how it works!

[Hannie]

Hi Deb,

Welcome to the forum, great job so far on a really difficult restore!

I have seen a few photos of these 2 siblings.  The girl has relatively fair skin in all of them, I think the lightest area on her arm in the original is more what her skin looks like.

Hannie

[debg]

Thanks Hannie . . . I've lightened her skin in this newest version.

[debg]

Perhaps lighter? I don't know . . .

deb

[Hannie]

Deb, that is such an improvement! 
To give her a little more contrast I tried this. 
(for the curves to lighten I added the boys face in the layer mask)
(the curves for Stronger contrast are in luminosity mode)
This is a very sloppy version and the screenshot also changed the colors some.

[debg]

Here's the latest Curves tweak:

[Hannie]

Deb, there is much better contrast now!

Somehow I felt the overall color of the photo still looked a little off, so I tried Kiska's levels in RGB and then Curves white and black dropper.
For the grey dropper I zoomed in really close and sampled the shady part of the left bar of the fence.

The result is very bright but I feel that the color haze has cleared up?
The girl now is very pale, I should have done these color corrections before I did all the rest... ::)

[Bambi]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! This is looking much better. Great advice, Hannie.

Bambi

[debg]

Hannie, Bambi,

Sorry, I'm a little confused now. What are "Kiska's levels in RGB"? Also, is the photo where you want it to be now? In other words, did you apply more changes yourself that brought it to where you want it? Or do you want me to perform those changes at this end and upload to PhotoShelter? I just don't know how this process works in the forum. Just let me know if there's more I can do. In any event, I see that the photo has been deleted, so I don't know what Hannie's latest changes look like.

Thanks . . .

deb

[debg]

While I'm at it, try this . . . it has more contrast, might be close to what you had posted . . . 

deb

[Hannie]

Deb, you are right, I should have posted this link when I mentioned Kiska's color correction:
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,3257.msg29326/topicseen.html#msg29326

The photo in in my last post has not been deleted and I can still see it, wonder why you can't?

I really like your latest version the best, great job!

:up2:

Hannie

[Bambi]

There it is. You latest version is beautiful. Great job on a difficult restore.  :up:

Bambi