First Restore - Original and WIP

[mark_webster25]

Original


Color Corrected


Red Edges Removed


Any suggestions before I continue?  Thanks.

Mark

[Tori803]

Hi Mark,

I noticed your highlights are blown out in the whites. When you do your color correction, remember to bring in your output sliders in Levels to avoid blowing out highlights. The same goes for blacks to avoid losing detail in the shadows. The amount of adjustment usually falls between 7 - 10 points:

[mark_webster25]

Ok, will look again, but your steps are the exact steps I followed with the above.  I then tried to find the neutral grey which may have screwed things up a bit.

[Pat]

Mark the following link is a great tutorial for finding neutral grey:

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350898

Pat

[mark_webster25]

Not sure how my levels got screwed up but they certainly did.  Here it is again with levels corrected.



Yeah, I ran through that tutorial and the steps in the OPR techniques book.  Not sure where I messed up.

Mark

[Mhayes]

Hi Mark, you didn't screw up. At first I thought maybe it was a case of your monitor needing to be calibrated, so I downloaded the original and did a Level's Adjustment and it came out like yours. You will find that ever once in awhile you will have a photo that cannot be worked the normal way, but needs some additional tweaking. What I did was take your restore and duplicate the layer, then I did a Curves Adjustment. I then use the drop down for the red channel only. I moved the bottom slider to the right and then I went up above the droppers and clicked on the little scrubber. That allows you to pin point certain areas. I click on the guy's face with the carnation and try to bring his color down.

You will probably have to tweak different areas, so keep those layers intact and you will need eventually to do some layer masks to keep what you want and to hide the rest. Also, your last restore while still very red is more so on the Forum and that happens as more of a browser problem with the color red.

Hang in there and you will get there.

Margie

[kiska]

Mark, this might help get some of the over saturated red out. The blue arrow at the bottom points to where I clicked the curves medium gray. You will need to work on different areas separately.

[mark_webster25]

Thank you all so much for your help and your insight.  I never really utilized layer masks, I did take a look at the tutorials that you posted on masks which was very helpful. I'm still stumbling my way through them, but as everything it takes practice.

Mark

[mark_webster25]

Alright, I found many more great tutorials on masking and got a much better grasp on it.  I have been tweaking the color corrections and wanted to see what you think.



Mark

[mark_webster25]

Ok, before I progress any further I would like someone to review / critique what I have done so far.  I would be more than happy for any suggestions on how to approach the arms/eyes, and anything else you can throw my way.  Thanks.



Mark

[kiska]

[mark_webster25]

Thank you everyone for the pointers.  This is been kind of a pain since photoshop shortcuts started screwing up on me.  I appreciate everyones tips.  I wanted people to look this over before I submit this for approval and see if there are any other suggestions or tweaks I should make.



Mark