"Non Restore" Cha!lenge!

[Niksmum]

I did this with the first posting so the res is low  :(
My color correction matches Tori and was done the same way, curves and levels.
The rest was mostly cloning. There is still some work to be done I think. Any ideas on how to get rid of the painted look and make the face more "real" looking?



Niksmum

[seekingoz]

I just joined a few days ago and want to check on how to upload my challenge image to the forum. There are a few places that are slightly more than challenging. Needless to say, I have questions.

Judy

[Mhayes]

Judy, a good place to start is to go to The Volunteers Welcome Center as it has answers to most questions. Here is one from there: http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2002.0.html

Margie

[G3User]

Great image Hannie

I used a different approach.

Used a threshold layer to identify white and black points, didn’t worry about trying to set a 50% grey point as I have never found it to be much use.
Used levels tool to correct image with the black eyedropper set to 10 and the white to 245 so I have room to move later if I need to. Adjusting channel gamma sometime helps, not this time.

I put colour samplers on the sleeve of the front woman, on the face of the last woman, one on the noticeboard behind her and another on the document hanging from that noticeboard. Then used hue/saturation to correct colour, initially selecting a yellow from the last woman’s arm and a second from the wall below the notice board behind her. I didn’t get too concerned about the colour of the last two, the lighting for the photo is a combination of flash and room lighting so they don’t need to be completely neutral.

Did an overall boost of saturation to bring the faces back to near original

The attached image shows the changes made to those 4 points as a result of the hue/adjustment layer. I also checked the grey on the dividers and they are near enough to neutral. Only wish some of the other images we see had such a useful feature.

Suspect that ultimately a crop will be the way to go, the large area of the divider to the right will be impossible(?) to recreate realistically



Athol

[Hannie]

Wow, this restore is coming along really well, great job everyone!   :up2:
We may even be able to do this one without a crop? 

Athol, I always forget how to change the black and white dropper values, had to do a search and here it is!
http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,3071.msg27848.html#msg27848

@Niksmum:  what if you use Tori's blue channel tip to bring back texture in the lady's face?

If anyone has any questions on any of the techniques shown here, don't be shy to ask!  :)

Hannie

[lurch]

I was wondering if this was the proper place to post a WIP. Turns out it is. Now all I have to do is figure out how to delete the copy in the other topic.



So far I've color balanced with curves to neutralize the neutrals, set white and black points where they look good and adjusted the left-hand woman's skin (all with curves), desaturated a skoche, done a shadow/Highlights move to get a little detail in the right-hand woman's black vest, and done a local curves move to improve the right-hand woman's skin. All this was after a quick white balance in Lightroom, with a little manipulation of highlights and shadows, white and black points, and moderate noise reduction.

[Mhayes]

Thanks Lurch.

Margie

[Tori803]

Question: Is the middle lady's hair blond or white? Do you think she's wearing glasses?

[jesterjeni]

 I think the hair has a touch of blond in it, and it looks like she has glasses.. I have processed this image in every way i could think of and my  results are consistant with everyone Else's.

[lurch]

I think the woman in the middle definitely has glasses. Her hair looks like it might be blond turned gray, but there's not enough info in the damaged photo to tell, really.

[G3User]

I agree about glasses. Convert to CYMK and have a look at the yellow chan, she could also have some sort of a head scarf showing behind.

At least, that is what a male thinks :cool:

Athol

[Hannie]

Yes glasses, I'm sure.  Tori, the face of the lady on the right looks really good!

The lady in the middle is going to be a real battle.  There is some detail in the Blue Channel but it is just bits and pieces. 
(to see the Blue Channel click on the Channels tab in the Layer palette on the right and then click on Blue)

I copied the Blue Channel and pasted in in a new image of its own (File>New, change Grayscale to RGB; Edit>Paste)
On this new image I did some healing and heavy duty smoothing.  I only concentrated on the centre lady, the rest is going to be hidden in the Layer mask later on. 

Talking about Layer masks, if you have questions on how to use them, please ask!  (I found them to be vital in the type of restores that we do)

Long story short, this is what I got, it can be pasted as a new layer on top of the restored layers of your WIP (Work in Progress).  Click on the Layer and change the Layer mode to Luminosity.  Use a hide all Layer mask, click on that mask and using the white paint brush bring back the centre lady's face. (black hides and white shows what is beneath the mask)

Hannie

[bjtx]

I decided to start working on the damaged faces since they scare me the most. If I can't get the faces right there's no point in spending time on the background

Tori-- Pretty much the way I feel at this point.  My WIP 2 includes a some improvement to the background.
However, I've come to a stand still until I work out something for a realistic facial restoration, which doesn't seem achievable for me.   I might just quit.
I enjoyed working on the background, but feel defeated with the middle face.

I agree about glasses. Convert to CYMK and have a look at the yellow chan, she could also have some sort of a head scarf showing behind. At least, that is what a male thinks :cool:
Athol

Athol - I also think she has apparel on her head.  Could it be something like a Nun might wear?  My WIP includes it.  But, that doesn't help the facial features restoration.  :(
btw - your color correction  :up:

Good luck to Athol, Tori, Lurch & Nicksmum  --  keep up your good work !

Hannie, thanks for your help.

[Niksmum]

Had another tweak  :)



Niksmum

[Tori803]

Betty, I've been proceeding slowly with the middle face. After my last steps (that I posted about earlier) I've been using Hannie's smooth copy as a guide to where her features are located. Then I started working on the neck using the healing brush and the patch tool. I also added a layer above my working layer to paint on color for parts that I'm having trouble with (trying to keep painting to a minimum.) I'm still smoothing out the line of her chin, which is a little too heavy handed. But I'm hopeful that this method will work throughout the face. Maybe this will work for you too.

Tori



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