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Baby Boy

Started by jaytrumpet, September 19, 2012, 11:57:51 PM

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jaytrumpet

I probably went way overboard on this one, but I was stumped; there was just to little information for me to do a credible job. His skin is still pretty "dirty" looking, will the Frequency Separation technique work on this one? How would you go about it? I think I bit off more than I can chew.




Hannie

Hi Jay,

You are a hero for taking on this project!
I can see you have already done a lot of damage control, there is not much left of the background to help you further.

The only thing thing I can tell you that may be of help is what my my work flow would have been with this one.  (of course I would not have picked this photo in the first place  ;))

Firstly I would have used a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and check the monochrome box.  You can always add sepia later.
Next a Levels/Curves adjustment layer to bring back some detail.
From then on mainly,  I would zoom in really close and spend the next couple of weeks cleaning/healing and trying to repair what is left of the background.  (in no particular order)
I would try a Noise Reduction adjustment layer with layer mask to keep the detail; of the eyes, mouth, fingers etc.
Also I would not worry too much about making it look like new, just preserve as much detail as possible.

In the example below I have done a partial restore with noise reduction & levels correction

Hannie

Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

lurch

Frequency separation would be a good candidate to try with this photo. You'd have to work on both the blur and texture layers. I'd try to blur with enough radius to eliminate most, but not all, of the noise. And pick the area you want to clone on the texture layer with care. And, as Hannie suggested, your job will be much easier if you change the photo to black and white first. Restoring the sepia would be the last step. There are lots of techniques to do this; I'll share my favorite if you'd like.
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