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Shulty Girl Feedback Request

Started by Angie, December 17, 2012, 03:52:18 PM

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Angie

This photo looks like it may have been textured and kept in an album page that caused some damage when it was removed. If you look closely you can small dots over most of the image. I'm stumped as to how to efficiently remove them. Suggestions? Thanks!

Take Care,
Angie

Creative Cloud CS6

Tori803

Tori
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." -Calvin Coolidge

Hannie

Hi Angie,

This is one those photos that looks like it would be easy to restore, but it really isn't.
I tried the FFT filter but the damage is not regular enough for that to work.  You will probably have to get rid of those mark the slow way.  I would zoom in ultra close in important areas like face, hair and patterns in the clothing.  With the rest you can be a little less carefull.

It almost seems to me like the background color would be a cyan blue?

Hannie
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

lurch

Really nice color correction. I had thought that the lighter color in the girl's dress was white, but couldn't force it without really bruising the rest of the colors. Pick #1 - the shadows tend to purple-magenta-red (depending on where you measure) quite distinctly. I corrected those in Lightroom by desaturating the component colors to a greater or less degree. You could probably do the same in Photoshop with a Hue Saturation adjustment layer. Pick #2 - there's a faint yellow cast across the girl's nose bridge and cheekbones. That may be fixable with a color-mode layer.

@Hannie - the backdrop goes tannish naturally with color correction; that's most likely what it really was, though you're right in that studio portraits often have a blue backdrop.
<C>

Angie

@Hannie it is definitely more difficult than one would think at first glance! I wanted more of a challenge, and I know I can do the restoration, I was only hoping there was a magic fix I was unaware of :)

@Lurch you are on the money with the color correction, I ran into the same problems you mentioned. I have set the image aside since posting this thread so that I could come back to it with fresh eyes. It definitely needs more work to get rid of that mucky look.

@Tori thanks for the link, I have learned so much from just that thread!

Now I feel like I need to get the color right before going to work on the dots.

Thanks to everyone for the input, it is a huge boost! Just when I think I am helping this organization, I soon realize it is actually helping me!
Take Care,
Angie

Creative Cloud CS6

glennab

#5
Hi Angie

I've played around with your image a bit this evening (haven't done this in a while and forgot how much fun it is!), and I'm going to post my results here.  They're very down and dirty - I didn't do much clean-up; just worked with color correction and getting rid of some of the goobers (this is an OPR technical term).

I used the eyedroppers in the Curves menu and basically used the numbers I posted a few years ago:
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,1304.msg13416.html#msg13416

I created a layer above the original and blurred it a bit to take out the smallest dots, then masked the details - her eyes, the lace - her hair (at about 50% opacity to keep some detail and minimize the dots), her nose, etc.

I duplicated the layer again and masked out the little girl. I then went to Selective Color and removed some of the magenta from the blues and cyans to get better color in the background and blurred it more to even up the blobs. The patch tool took care of most of the damage.

As I said, this was pretty down and dirty, so the image here is far from perfect, but I think the color is improved from your original and definitely shows a blue background.

In your last post you chanted the OPR mantra: "it is definitely more difficult than one would think..."  I can't tell you how many times I've said that and seen other volunteers use similar words!

Anyway, here's my version. I hope it helps:


Cheers!
GK

Tori, your reference took me to a thread that included posts by Ray Norman (truckersau) and John Boy and brought tears to my eyes, since we've lost both of them and I miss their expertise and sense of humor.

What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

sagahr49

Hi Angie,

I fully agree as a newbie here, participating in this forum has definitely added some new tools to my toolbox while I have had the opportunity to help people restore their heirlooms.  I followed Tori's link all the way to the RetouchPRO site where I learned where to get an FFT filter, as well as how to use it.  Applied it to a half tone picture of my mom, took out the dots and made the pic look so much better!

As a heads up, I restored a picture of this very young lady a couple of weeks ago, and it is in the gallery on the second page of recent additions.  Perhaps you can get some clues regarding her skin tone, etc. from that picture.  By the way, when I look at the pic I posted in the gallery, I think I left her skin tone a bit too warm.

I played a bit with this photo too, and learned a couple of things.  First, I applied the FFT filter and it got rid of maybe 70% of the dots.  To clean the rest, I used frequency separation, and used the patch tool on the high frequency texture layer.  That allowed me to get rid of most all the other damage without muddling the color in the low frequency color layer.

I did the normal levels and gray scale on your work in progress photo, and found exactly what glenna shows in her picture, that there is a difference in color across the girl's face, with her jaw area being a lot more pink than her nose, cheeks and eyes.  Based on the earlier picture, I would chose the color of the cheeks and nose to be correct, and that of the chin as needing correction.  I did that based on the hair color too, since her blonde hair looks washed out in the band that includes her chin and the lower part of her ears. 

Good luck with the color correction, I am sure it is going to take some effort to get it all smoothed out!

Regards,

Steve
Windows 7 x64, PS CS5, Nikon Capture NX2, Lightroom 3.6

glennab

#7
Hi Steve

It's wonderful that you took the time to help Angie and give her a different perspective from mine.  You obviously have a wealth of expertise.  

One thing that I wanted to comment on is that it would be very helpful if you'd post an example of the image you got when you did your "tweaks."  As one of the original OPR members, I can tell you from much experience that the best help any of us can give someone who asks for feedback is to show examples of what we've done so the person who requests it can determine what method works best for them - with a visual rather than just descriptions.  We all do things very differently, and I've learned so much by having my posts critiqued by multiple members - with images - so that I can see whether I'm on target or way off base - and then use the techniques that are comfortable for me.

I think so far out of the box that sometimes I can't even find my way back to the box, so other volunteers have wonderfully brought me back to earth and have seen things that I totally missed or have suggested methods that I'd either not learned yet or hadn't thought of. Also, I'm retired and while I try to keep up with the latest and greatest tips and tricks, I can't upgrade Photoshop, so I'll use whatever works in my version (CS5) and may not be aware of what's available to those who were able to upgrade.  We also have volunteers who use other software than Photoshop.

I'm so glad to see all of you new volunteers, because I think you'll bring fresh ideas and unique perspectives to those of us who've been in the trenches from the beginning.  I'm also happy to note that so many of you are posting not only your own work but suggestions for others who are slogging through a tough restoration.

I appreciate your willingness to jump in and offer your critique.  Please continue, and be aware that it would be great to see your work for comparison.

Welcome to OPR, from sunny Florida, and bless you for joining our incredible community.

Cheers
GK
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

sagahr49

Hi Glenna ..

Thanks from a fellow member of the retirees club.  You and I are using the same version of photoshop.  I haven't really had the provocation to upgrade my version yet.  Same goes for lightroom, I am using the last version of that too.

I will happily post an example of what I did.  Here it is:


ShultyN15_007_before-after_ps-1a_web by Steven Gahr, on Flickr

As I said, I started with Angie's wip, and applied the techniques listed above to reduce the damage left over.  There is a free photoshop action available on the web for the frequency separation technique.  There is also a free FFT filter available, for both the 32 and 64 bit versions of photoshop.  I had the advantage of having lightroom available, it allows for controlling the hue, saturation, and luminosity of specific colors.  I think you could use a selective colors layer in PS to the same effect, just not as easily as it works in LR.  I used that to bring down the magenta and purple in some of the shadows.  I also used the paint brush at very low opacity to even out the hair and skin tones.

Thanks for the suggestions, and I really appreciate all that I have learned from other members for the short time that I have participated in OPR.  Continued learning is very important to me, and I really value the expertise of the long time members here!

Regards,
Steve

Windows 7 x64, PS CS5, Nikon Capture NX2, Lightroom 3.6

lurch

Steve - super job! You even got Hannie's blue backdrop, sorta.
<C>

glennab

Hi Steve

Thanks for posting your image.  It really helps to compare that with the description of what you did.

A suggestion for troubleshooting color correction issues for another volunteer is to use the original as your starting point rather than the WIP, as it won't have tweaks that you might not have made if it were your photo.

Your image definitely looks more polished that mine, because I don't have all of Angi's beautiful clean-up work in it. As for the color, yours is much cooler than mine, and I think a tone in between would probably work best on the finished image. That's so much an individual preference that all we can do is offer our best results and let Angie choose what works for her - then she can get feedback from her distributor.

We're all still learning.  One of the most wonderful things about OPR is the interaction among members.  I appreciate that you're joining in our ongoing dialog!

Bless
GK
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

GailGreen23

I know you are prob. done with this image by now but I am not sure if anyone mentioned the Spot Healing Brush tool in Photoshop - i work in CS5 and the tool is available. It is a lifesaver on those little spots. On a blank layer over the original, just use the tool, pop it over the spot and voila- in most cases, it corrects from the surrounding pixels. Make sure you have "content away" and "sample all layers" clicked on the options bar on top and it works great (unless you are very near other pixels that are far darker or lighter in color.)
Gail

MCarroll

This is all very useful and informative however I couldn't find the FFT plugin anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction, please? I'm working on an image now that could use it. Thanks!


sagahr49

Here is the link I used to the 64 bit version of the FFT filter.  It also has some good information on where to put the files needed.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/software/33084-here-fft-64-bit-photoshop-2.html


Regards,
Steve
Windows 7 x64, PS CS5, Nikon Capture NX2, Lightroom 3.6