Getting the mud out

[cmpentecost]

Johnboy,

This is looking great!  I know removing all of those spots takes a lot of time.  Thanks for keeping me posted!

Christine

[glennab]

Hi JB

One option with the wall would be to mask it out and replace what's there with a gradient that matches the existing colors.  Because of the hair and other details, you could use an alpha channel to create the mask (Katrin Eismann's book on Masking & Compositing goes into detail about accomplishing this type of mask, and it works amazingly well {I've used it at work and on one of my restorations}-- she may also have a tutorial on her web site: photoshopdiva.com).  In the long run, it would save you an incredible amount of time and probably look better as well.

Have a great Sunday!

Glenna

[Johnboy]

I thought I would give an update. The patch tool and I have become great friends. I still need to work on the white dress and the wall. I The boy's white collar had a nasty stain but was able to get it out (I don't think even Tide would have worked). I think I need to burn it in a little as to me is seems too white compared to the rest of the photo. Yet once I get the dress done it may be OK. There is sill more work to be done on the arm of the woman on the left and also on her face and hair.

Does anyone see something I missed other than the areas noted?

Progress photo:


Thanks for the suggestions. It is off to work on the dress. I think I'll try Glenna's suggestion about the alpha channel for the wall. Hopefully I'll have more later today.

JB

[glennab]

Hi JB

What you've done so far looks super.  I think the little guy's shirt is fine.  There's plenty of definition. Makes him look like a fine young gentleman.

Have you tried the spot healing tool yet?  I can't believe I just discovered it, but it does amazing touch up on small spots.  I needed to get rid of a couple of blemishes on a person on one of our covers at work, and it did a perfect job.  It samples directly around the area you click on and replaces the unwanted gunk with an average of the surrounding pixels. You don't have to sample from another area. I tried it on one of our volunteers' works in progress, and it did a fantastic job on small blemishes with good pixels around them.  As with the other tools, it has limits, but can also be a gem in the arsenal of mud cleaners!

Have a great St. Patty's day.

GG

[zapphnath]

From what you've done, so far, it seems you have a pretty good grasp on the Patch Tool.
It's my favorite Photoshop tool and I'd suggest you continue to use it for the rest of this image. 
The dress might be the most problematic.  When a blob falls on a fold, take a big selection around it and move up or down the fold to the nearest "clean" spot.  You can see, in the original selection, what the tool is going to use so you can just line up the fold.  (This works in any area with heavy contrast - try it where their hair meets the wall).  It just takes trial and error and you might have to patch the same area a couple of times to get it to look right.
Keep up the good work. :up:

[klassylady25]

JohnBoy, what program are you using?  I've grown fond of the Spot Healing tool in CS2 myself.  You're on the ball.

[Johnboy]

Thanks for the input.

I am using Photoshop CS. I never thought of using the Healing tool for spot removing until I saw Kenny's tutorial. I did use it some on the dress, but used the Patch tool most of all. The dress has given me some problems. I started out by using the color picker to get a white from a good area. Then on a new layer started painting with that foreground color. When I adjusted the Opacity to match the white areas I blew out the shadows in the dress. So I ended up filling in the white areas with the color that was there. Now when I apply the painted layer it is a little better. The Blend mode is "Color" and the Opacity is 15%. Yet now that I look at it after I have filled in the white patches I begin to wonder whether the dress is a light pink or white or is the "pink" mud stain? What are your opinions? There are some areas that need more work.

Pink?                                   White?
     

Thanks for the help.

JB

[Ausimax]

JB, I would think the dress is white, what you have looks close to me, with white in these photos you can seldom use pure white or it leaps out of the image at you, you nearly always need to use a very light grey colour.

Max

[glennab]

Hi JB

Just to add to the multiple choices we've all given you, I'd say you could go with either dress color.  The white version doesn't look blown out from what I can see, but it could also be an ivory color.  You may be able to judge by the consistency of the color of the dress in the original.  If there are a lot of darker "drips", then it's probably white.  But I do note that in the image where the little boy's shirt is white, the woman's dress looks light tan or ivory.

You're doing a fine job! (Either with our help or in spite of it!)

Glenna

[Johnboy]

It has been a long day. I have made at least 5 alpha channel masks over the last few days. The good news is that I think I improved the content with each mask. Learning curves can be steep. A minor curves adjustment seemed to help neutralize some of the mud stain. I used the color picker to sample one of the "good" holes in the wall. I was surprised to see blue as the final color. The color sample in the swatch box looked a grey green. Any way here is what I have to offer. I am open to any further suggestions.

Original:


Latest version:


Thanks for all your help.

JB

[cmpentecost]

Wow JB, this looks great!  You did a really nice job removing all of those spots from the clothing.  My only suggestion would be to soften the background.  The blue looks a bit too harsh.  I'm wondering if the background should be closer to the original color in the image???  Otherwise, great job!

Christine

[kjohnson]

Amazing.  masks are the secret eh?

[Johnboy]

I too thought the background seemed strong. I tried different settings for the background gradient, and even dodged it a little to get it to it present state. As for the color, when I sample the wall and even use the healing brush the resulting color comes out blue. I thought it was green. Even the shadows on some of the clothing showed a greenish tint and some of the dark tones on the head shadows on the wall also showed a green tinge. So I am wondering if the wall color and the mud damage are color mixing to create a green allusion or that is how Photoshop is interpreting the selection. Just some out loud thinking. Is there any way to check with the family to see what real color of the wall is??

Any way I'll give a try at finding a green or just dodging the wall more to tone it down.

Thanks for the suggestions.  :up2:

JB

[glennab]

JB & Chris

I like the blue!  Looking at the changes in the hue of the clothing, the color seems quite credible to me.  I ran into that with my Cassanova mom & daughter.  The background looked like mud and ended up being a lovely blue-to-green gradient when I color corrected.  It wouldn't hurt if the blue were subtler, but I think the vibrance of the current blue is very appealing.

JB you've done one heck of a job on this restoration.  It looks great.

Keith, I'm finding that I'm using layer masks more and more as I work on the restorations.  Would never have believed it! There's no better way that I'm aware of to isolate areas of the photos.  Since the masks can be blurred, the result can look amazingly natural.  And information isn't lost, in case you want to reclaim any of it.  But you already know that, I'm sure.

Have a great weekend!

GG

[kiska]

I think the wall might be more of this neutral color.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/76394036