How do I improve this photo?

[madjimphoto]

original


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How do I improve this photo? I do not know the ethnic background of the baby.

[Mhayes]

Hi Madjimphoto,

Welcome to the forum and your first post. This photo has a couple of things that will drive you nuts, one the baby looks like a lobster and two, the water damage has caused silvering and loss of detail. The trick is not to overwork areas that have good detail. You will want to view the photo at 100% to 200% magnification to see the damage to repair. I would suggest you start over as it will be easier. As to the baby's ethnic background, yes, it helps to know as to the coloring. However, you also want to stay true to the photo. Even though the baby has an African American father he looks like many baby's by having a good percentage  of red. You can tone tone it down a little, but do not go the opposite direction and have the skin looking like an elderly person---color correct in the beginning and if needed tweak some.  Here are a few things I would do starting over---make sure to keep one layer as the original.

1.  Do a color correction first---see "Technique's Hanbook on your left for tips.
2.  Keep the blanket to the original, but correct damage and color stains. You can do layers and change the mode to lighten and then ease the opacity. Keep the folds in the blanket and do not substitute sharp edges where there are none.
3. Baby's head and hair are going to be the biggest challenge, but try to borrow good areas to fill in head. Check channels to see shape of head. Be careful to have the background around head blend in without having baby looking like a cutout.

When I work in PhotoShop, I change my WIP to a psd. By having layers or layer groups will allow you to try different things without making permanent changes. Keep posting and we will help you.

Margie

[Hannie]

After basic color correction in Photoshop the baby doesn't look quite so red as it does on the forum.
Perhaps the way to go is to make the right upper corner quite dark so it blends with the baby's head?
I tried it (roughly), see what you think.

Hannie

PS
Margie, you have a WG monitor just like I have in my Lenovo laptop.  The reds are over saturated in anything but Photoshop or the picture viewer.  I don't have that saturation problem with my desktop wich has normal gamut (72%)

[Mhayes]

Hi Hannie,

I downloaded your version and it looks good and not as red as what is showing in the forum.

Forgot to mention, but on the original there is a date stamp that you might want to leave in.

Margie