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Sepia or Black and White

Started by Lynnya, October 23, 2016, 08:54:26 AM

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Lynnya

Good morning from chilly Florida this morning   8)

I'm wondering, as this picture is so old if this is in fact Sepia or should I go with black and white....
Also, I'm assuming we keep the frame as is? even though some of it is missing??

this is what I'm getting for color correction



Maybe I should make it black and white and then if sepia is needed I can do that after...hmmm
never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Mhayes

#1
Hi Lynn,

I love these old photos. This happened to be one where the photo was stuck to the frame and could not be removed. Because of that you really have two separate pictures being color corrected: the actual photo and the picture frame. That is going to mean you really have two separate "neutral grays." The frame fits that and I went with the frame as I could not find a good gray in the photo--the closest I came was a slight black around his coat and around his eyes. When I say "black" that means when I add a layer and have the mode at "Soft Light" with 50% gray and then changing my layer to "Difference," I will see in black what comes closes to gray. On the photo, nothing worked and when I used the eye dropper for gray; my picture ended up having a blue cast which was not correct. The frame worked, but it was more to correct how the photo was taken on the copy stand. Below is the "Difference Layer." Later, rather than delete that layer I moved it to the top and turned off the viewing icon.



When I got to find neutral gray I always do it first and only if if a normal Curves or Levels doesn't do the trick.

The next thing I did is something I've not used in Levels before and was also something that I came back to after changing to B/W. Since this is not a color photo; I was more interested in getting the tonal range to look better. In Levels I pulled down the menu and tried different settings and what I like best was the "Midtones Darker."



I then did a B/W Adjustment layer (still in sRGB mode) and looked through different variations to see what looked best and I chose "Neutral Density." Normally I go with the blue or green channel, but not this time. The reason this looks lighter is that I did a screen print before I went back and changed the Levels Adjustment to Midtones Darker.



The next step I did is something you should ask your distributor if it is OK to do, and that is remove the frame and fill. I took the eye dropper  and clicked on a corner which is the poster board the picture is on. I then took the Elliptical Marquee tool and used it to outline the photo inside the frame. Once I got it as close as I could; I went up to the top of the menu and chose "Inverse." That meant that I just had the outside and then since I had already picked the color I wanted, so I could now go to Edit and pick fill (foreground color). To separate out the photo from the background I went back up to "Select" and did "Inverse" again to get it back to my original selection. I used the eye dropper to pick a light color in the man's coat, and then I went back to Edit and chose "Stroke" and used a 5 pixel width (inside) and hit OK.



As mentioned before ask your distributor about doing this. Had this been an ornate frame I might have done something different. I don't think that adding the frame in would look all that great especially since parts are cut off. As to your question as to whether to change to "Sepia," I wouldn't. If Quality Control thinks it should be--it will be added. The variation of sepia that we get back is all over the place and better to have the upload as a B/W.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Lynnya

Thanks so much Margie... I was praying for black and white as I'm well into it now.. thanks for the tutorial..I'll try it all out..
Lynn
never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Lynnya

#3
Margie this is where I am so far.. any good or no? Should I go on or start over  :cool: p.s. I didn't even now there was a neutral density!!! you learn something every day...

never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Mhayes

Lynn, I'd like some other opinions on this as I hate to steer you the wrong way. Too me it looks like it's been over-sharpened and the highlights are blown out some. That may be just because you changed to B/W from where you left off? The neutral density is not one that I use very often, but it seemed to work this time. I do like that you filled in the background around the frame.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Lynnya

Hi Margie.. I didn't sharpen or anything.. this is where I am right now.. I'm waiting on Bambi for frame comment.. still a little cleanup to do...

never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Lynnya

#6
Ok.. I have done some more work on this nice gentleman.. there are two versions - this is with the frame


and this is without - which should I submit please...


Well I asked Bambi and she's put them both in the "done" folder for quality control to decide...so that solves that little problem  ;)
never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Mhayes

Lynn, they both look good.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Lynnya

never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Shadow

 :up:  Another good one girl!!