Kurt's BABIES! (First OPR Projects)

[Ratz]

Hi Kurt,
you are doing an amazing job on this one. it's just beautiful. My first thought on the bg was also venetian blinds on matching windows with some kind of furniture in the middle.
I think the owners will be overwhelmed by what you've been able to do with this image, I wouldn't have had a hope of even starting this one. With the other pics of the young man to work with, it should come up like new. :up2:

[kstruve]

Whew!  What a Holiday season.  I had a nice long break, but it's good to be back.  I haven't done any work on this photo the past couple of weeks, but I'm going to dive right back into it.  You've probably all heard about the snow we got here in Colorado and the closing of our wonderful "all weather airport", Denver International Airport, which stranded about 4,000 people on Friday the 20th and 21st.  Felicia and I were supposed to take a flight to Phoenix Friday, but of course, that didn't happen.  We drove there instead.  Then on the way back, Colorado was hit with a sequel snow storm, which delayed our return.  It was quite an adventure, but we saw some beautiful country as we drove through southern Utah.  But, we're back safe and sound.

I had made some progress since the last time I posted the photo, so here it is with the original as reference:



Here's a close-up of his head:



I started in on the man's face, and I'm not too happy with it yet.  I'm working from the bottom up, so his forehead, ear and hair haven't been touched yet, other than some basic color I applied.  My sketched in features are still there as a temporary guide - they won't be in the final version.  I'm still awaiting some reference images of this man (Mike? Hint, hint!)  so I've only been doing some general cleaning and shading until I have clearer direction on his face.

I would love some feedback and comments if you have them.  I hope everyone had a very nice Holiday season!

Kurt

[glennab]

Hi Kurt

I'm glad you and your beloved were able to safely make your holiday trek in all that snow.  What an adventure!

We here in Central Florida, on the other hand, have had to run our air conditioners through the whole holiday season.  Many days in the 80s.  The second warmest holiday on record. I'm sure all of our visitors were in heaven!  I wanted a fire in the fireplace, darn it!

Anyway, good to have you back on the forum.  It's been really quiet with the holidays and the dearth of restorations.

I love the background you rendered.  It has a nice subtlety to it.

That you've managed to pull so much information on the young man's head from all that debris still amazes me.  I showed what you'd done before this post to an artist friend of mine and she couldn't get over the beautiful job you're doing. (That's two of us!)

Did you ever determine what the object is that's behind the couple?  I'm still mystified.

Looking forward to seeing the finished image.

Best wishes & Happy New Year,

GG

[Ausimax]

Hi Kurt.

Sounds like you had a real Adventure Holiday, Can be annoying at the time, but strangely these are the ones you remember most fondly in the future, you forget all the worst bits and the difference from the norm, keep it in your memories.

The photo is progressing nicely, and despite your protestations the mans face is shaping up well also, only wish I had as much skill with PS. I think probably part of my problem is that I have not developed a real work flow pattern, and most of what I do is sheer trial and error, and then when something works I can't remember what I did that worked.

Keep up the good work, and don't forget to post the finished item, so the rest of us can Drool!!!  :wnw:

Max

[kstruve]

Thanks for the feedback guys!  I've been working on a redo of the man's head.  Here is what I've done compared to the original:



Instead of using the healing brush, I've just been using the dodge and burn tools on the original to bring out his face.  I think it looks closer to what the man looks like than my previous version.  What do you think?  I even tackled his ear, but I haven't yet done anything much to his hair.  I'll eventually remove the blotchy patches on him.  I'm just trying to get his features and shading in place at the moment.  His eyes will have to wait until I get reference photos.

Glenna,
I still don't know what that furniture is in the background.  I may just blur it a bit and darken it so it recedes more into the background.

Kurt.

[cmpentecost]

Wow Kenny, I am really impressed with what you have done with this photo.  You are definitely on the right track.  I agree with you on doing a slight blur of the background, rather than trying to guess.  Afterall, it's the people who are the focus of the image.  I'll be anxious to see the finished product!

Christine

[kjohnson]

You've been able to dodge your way thru that, um,  muck? Wow!

Never thought of using the dodge tool for retouching. Or do you dodge using another technique? Thanks for taking the time to post your techniques along with the images of what you're working on.

[Kenny]

Wow Kenny, I am really impressed with what you have done with this photo. 

It's Kurt's not mine. =P


I agree, it's a masterpiece in the making.

[kstruve]

Thanks Christine, Keith and Kenny!  (And all others who took a look)

Keith,
I kind of lied when I said I had been dodging and burning on the "original", what I have actually been doing is working on the "A" channel (from LAB), because the A layer showed the most information of his face.  And that is underneath a skin tone layer that is set to Color blending mode.  That way, when I dodge and burn the A layer, it doesn't change the saturation of the color.  For the Burn tool, I have the exposure set to 5% and Range set to Highlights.  For the Dodge tool, I have the exposure set to 5% and the Range set to Shadows.  That way when I work over the image, the two tend to even out the patchy areas better, plus, I'm not "painting" the image, instead I'm enhancing what's already there.  Then I go over it with either the Clone Stamp or the Healing Brush to eliminate the remaining patches.

This is pretty much how I've been working on this photo:  The first thing I did was to convert the original to three different color modes, then copy all the useful channels from RGB, CMYK, and LAB, and paste them over the original RGB file as separate layers.  The ones that I used were Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, A and B.  [For the A and B channels, you need to invert (negative image) the image, then adjust the Levels to increase the contrast.]  Each channel shows some aspect of the image better than the others.  For instance, I used the Magenta layer for her skin and hair and his hand - the Yellow channel showed her dress and his suit the best, the Blue showed the background the best, and the A and B channels showed his head the best.  So for each channel (now on it's own layer), I selected the portion of the image it showed best, Feathered the selections by a few pixels to avoid crisp edges, and created a layer mask to reveal only those areas.  Then I have separate color layers on top of them set to Color blending mode, so I can tweak the colors separate from the shading.

Thanks again for looking and sharing your thoughts!

Kurt

[Ratz]

Kurt, this is a truely amazing restoration, I've been watching it all happening and I am in awe!
I am from the trial and error school , and could never hope to do a job as good as this on such a damaged photo.
You have taught me a lot by just sharing your info on this one...thank you.
I am only using elements so I don't have channels to play with, I now know how limited I am in what I can read out of a pic.
I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and spend some money to up-grade.
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us! :up:
vicki

[kjohnson]

Kurt,

Thanks for the detailed info, I'll review it the next time I'm restoring. I took look around in the LAB channels on my last OPR photo but I didn't seem to find anything more revealing there, than I did in the RGB or CMYK channels. Guess it really depends on the image. 

Again, thanks for sharing.

[cmpentecost]

Oops, sorry Kurt!  Too many "K's" in the forums for me to keep track!

I, like Ratz, am truely impressed by what you have done.  I've looked at this photo, wondering what I'd do, and never would I have thought of taking the approach you have taken, which is outstanding.  I guess that is what is so nice about the forums....it provides a constant learning curve.  I'd love to have more people submit their restoration projects to the forums, because we all really learn from them.

I'm glad you are part of OPR and the forums.  You are truely valuable!

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for your detailed explanation of how you are working this image, unfortunately you didn't draw pictures for the PS illiterate like me, so I am hoping you can clarify several things for me.
I have no trouble with channels, copying them into layers, how to best use them is another matter

I kind of lied when I said I had been dodging and burning on the "original", what I have actually been doing is working on the "A" channel (from LAB), because the A layer showed the most information of his face.  And that is underneath a skin tone layer that is set to Color blending mode.  That way, when I dodge and burn the A layer, it doesn't change the saturation of the color.  For the Burn tool, I have the exposure set to 5% and Range set to Highlights.  For the Dodge tool, I have the exposure set to 5% and the Range set to Shadows.  That way when I work over the image, the two tend to even out the patchy areas better, plus, I'm not "painting" the image, instead I'm enhancing what's already there.  Then I go over it with either the Clone Stamp or the Healing Brush to eliminate the remaining patches.

This is pretty much how I've been working on this photo:  The first thing I did was to convert the original to three different color modes, then copy all the useful channels from RGB, CMYK, and LAB, and paste them over the original RGB file as separate layers.  The ones that I used were Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, A and B.  [For the A and B channels, you need to invert (negative image) the image, then adjust the Levels to increase the contrast.]  Each channel shows some aspect of the image better than the others.  For instance, I used the Magenta layer for her skin and hair and his hand - the Yellow channel showed her dress and his suit the best, the Blue showed the background the best, and the A and B channels showed his head the best.  So for each channel (now on it's own layer), I selected the portion of the image it showed best, Feathered the selections by a few pixels to avoid crisp edges, and created a layer mask to reveal only those areas.  Then I have separate color layers on top of them set to Color blending mode, so I can tweak the colors separate from the shading.

Thanks again for looking and sharing your thoughts!

Kurt

Could you explain the bit about the "skin tone 'layer"  I don't have a good understanding of the use of Color Blending mode and what you mean by skin tone layer?  I have been trying to use your method on a image I have, and I must admit I can't get it to return the sort of result you do.

Sorry to be a pest, but I am afraid my background understanding of PS is pretty thin, and my comprehension of some aspects is limited ( I put it down to old age, sounds better than stupidity  :-[ ).

Max

[kstruve]

Max,
Sorry I wasn't very clear about what I was talking about.  It's not you, it was my all-too-brief explanation.  Here's what I was talking about ... this time, with pictures!  I've cropped down my file and eliminated all but two layers for the sake of clarity.  Below is the Magenta channel on it's own layer with a mask applied to it to reveal only her skin and hair - this is what it looks like after the damage has been cleaned up: (I restored her hair with separate layers, which is why it still looks damaged here.)



Since it's grayscale, I created another layer to replace her skin color.  I set it's blending mode to Color as shown below.  It looks strange by itself.  You'll notice that the color isn't applied with much precision - it doesn't need to be.  Just roughly block it out.



When both layers are turned on, the color blends with the grayscale layer below it and it looks like this:



This is how I've been handling this particular restoration.  I've been doing it this way only because the original colors are so destroyed as to be unusable.  I hope this helps.

Thanks!
Kurt

[kiska]

Kurt, great tut!!! My only quibble is your reference to 'grayscale'. It's actually a BW layer in RGB. Might be confusing to some. ...............How a grayscale can take color.