RED!

[Lynnya]

Yup.. it's red alright.. someone has been playing with the red muckerupper!!! :mad:  Color correction is minimal.. will tweak probably several times.. wonder what will happen here..  :crazy:

 

this is the blue channel and then blue channel in luminosity blend mode... it's a start!!

 

so... I painted back in the basically "good" parts.. skin on girl, man's face etc.. then I desaturated the reds.. hid all, painted the bad reds out. Then I did the same with the yellows.. I know I'm ending up with no color in the background and on some of the skin but I'm hoping to "recolor" those parts.. at least.. that's my plan..
We'll see what happens. ::) Any suggestions gratefully accepted..

[Shadow]

Oh my! Red indeed. Like where you have taken it so far. These are such difficult images. Look forward to learning a bunch.  ^-^   Good luck.

[Mike Morrell]

Hi Lynnya,

Like Shadow, I'm looking forward to learning a lot from your work on this too. This photo is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

I learned a whole lot from the link you sent me to the Phlearn video on 'putting back texture in skin'. Not only about 'skin texture' but also about the process of adjusting (skin) color and tone separately. I'd previously done minor retouches using 'frequency separation' but restoring major damage to both color and luminosity was a whole new level for me.

I realize that 'having learned to use a hammer I now see nails everywhere' but I think these techniques could be useful on this photo. I'm sure sure you know all this stuff so I've posted a new new thread at http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,5159.0.html

Looking forward to your next WIP!

Mike

[Lynnya]

Hi Mike and all,  I wanted to share something with y'all.. (I'm feeling southern this morning)... many of you will already be doing this and beyond but some may not and it was new to me. it was kinda like a light bulb going off thing.. so he's what I found.

Here is the problem.. nasty red nasty.. muckerupper been rampant..

 

Here is the blue channel.. no muckerupper here..



so.. I filled in  the jeans with a color from under the yellow mess



I used luninosity brush on an empty normal layer but I think normal brush would have been ok too..

I selected the jeans from the blue channel layer and Pasted Special-Paste in place on the filled in jeans layer..



I added a new adjustment layer of Hue/Sat and ticked the colorize option and tweaked the color to match the jeans (or what ever you are texturizing) and it looked like this..



I then masked out the overlapping parts, brought the opacity down a little and added a touch of blur... what little bit of damage was showing can easily be fixed. I think though it gives back a decent pair of jeans and can be used on lots of situations.

Here's a rough and ready end product..

[Shadow]

Awesome tutorial Lynn. Will practice on some screen shots from the gallery. Thanks fro making the time to share it so thoroughly!

[Mike Morrell]

Agree wholeheartedly with Shadow!

Mike

[Lynnya]

I'm exhausted...he's where I'm at.. this might be the most difficult restore I've ever done...

[Shadow]

Wow! You've come SOOO far! Remarkable work Lynn.

[Lynnya]

Thanks Shadow.. I'm kinda stuck.. I don't know where to go from here... any suggestions or help with direction greatly appreciated..  :)

[Shadow]

Good morning Lynn. If you stopped here it is so far from where it was. I don't know how you do it! Since you asked, there are some little things ... the man's arm could use your magic. The forearm is soft compared to the hand?  Maybe add a dodge burn layer and tone down the girls rt knee and left thigh? The wall switch too . Really little thing ... dark blue strip across your wall painting. Does that help?

[Lynnya]

Yes it does.. thanks Lyn... gives me a focus (which I'd lost)-appreciate your good eyes... :hug:

[Mike Morrell]

Hi Lynnya,

I agree with Shadow - I don't know how you do it! What an amazing restore!

You asked for suggestions and these are mine (all minor):
- I agree with Shadows' suggestions
- Compared to the original, I think you've lost some (undamaged) highlights so that the photo looks 'flatter' than the original, for example:
   > the man's nose and left eyebrow have strong highlights in the original that are reduced in the restore
   > the same is true for the boy's face: both shadows and highlights are more pronounced in the original than in the restore
   > the same is true for the girl's right leg - highlights on her knee are missing

As a amateur photographer I try to look 'through the damage' of the original photo to figure out what kind of photo it is (in this case a flash photo), where the light would be coming from and where the highlights, mid-tones and shadows would fall given the light source. From the original photo I also try to figure out which parts of the photo would normally be sharper and less sharp.

As rules of thumb for flash photos:
- everything that's white (or light colored) is much brighter than darker colors
- everything that's closer to the flash is lighter than everything that's further away.

The color of the wall looks 'flat' to me. With a flash photo, I'd expect a gradient: the further away (from the flash) the darker I'd expect the wall to be. Very picky comments!

Hope this helps,

Mike

[Lynnya]

Thanks Mike.. all helpful insights.. it's still a work in progress but I got lost in the woods... couldn't see the forest for the trees.. taking a break and hearing from others really helps soooo much :up:

[Lynnya]

All suggestions were very helpful in getting me back on track.. I get so I can't see the faults (thank goodness you guys can)... I've been working on it some more.. I'm afraid to do too much more as this is usually the point where it all goes pear shaped...Mike some of the highlights on the man's face were damage when zoomed in.. I did add a little more highlight tho as you can see..... comments and critiques welcome..

[Mhayes]

Great job Lynn. I would suggest taking a break and then coming back with fresh eyes.

Margie