The blacks...

[Lynnya]

Good morning all!
Just starting on this one and not sure what I'm going to do with these blocked blacks.  There's nothing to go on in the channels... any suggestions appreciated..

[Hannie]

Lynn, after doing Levels and Curves you may find that the blacks are not so much blocked anymore?

[Lynnya]

Hi Hannie.. thanks.. please take a look at this and see what you think? :-\


   

[kiska]

Maybe take Hannie's face and mask it in on your restore.

[Lynnya]

Oh... um... okay, if you think so Kiska..

[Lynnya]

I did an auto curve did it help?

[Shadow]

[Shadow]

Hmm, maybe Margie has some other pictures that might show her in this outfit and what the background is? Thinking there's too much black right now. This is really fast .... not sure what you put behind her?  :P

[philbach]

Well it looks like she is in front of some bushes on her right. And with the Blue channel you can get a good idea of the shape of her hat.  Perhaps on her upper left there is some green vegetation as well. 

[Hannie]

Lol Lynn, love the alpaca restore!

The auto Curve looks better, it is still a little dark and blue I think.

What if you do  a Color Balance adjustment layer and set
cyan +26
magenta -4
yellow -29
Add a Curves layer and the preset from Default to Lighter.

[Lynnya]

Thanks everyone for help... I'll keep at it..

[Lynnya]

So... I know this outfit was very black and a lot of it, like a costume of some sort? I'm kinda stumped with what to do with it.. how does this look...I used Hannie's color scheme..




now I can see red in the black!!! :crazy:

[philbach]

I like What you did with her face and background.  I took a look at the original using the blue channel and I think the contour of the hat is as follows;

[Shadow]

Really coming along. Great tips from Hannie and Phil. Look forward to the final.

[Lynnya]

Thanks Phil and Shadow.. don't know why this one is giving me such trouble.. maybe it's cos I have a cold. :-[