Another Old/Damaged Photo cry for help ..

[ChristineV]

I am working on a photo of me that had been pretty bent and had spots and other damage. I have done some work on it and still have some more to go.

What I need help/suggestions with is the best way to fix where the photo was sun faded due to being in a frame and under a matte. I would like to bring back some of the color from around the sides where the color was protected from the sunlight and not so faded. Does that make sense?

Here is a before and after so you can see my progress.

Before:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Yv7itkncWDz9gAj7EESA2AqXds2oo_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Yv7itkncWDz9gAj7EESA2AqXds2oo)
After (work in progress):

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1fGtDvgvupzg0Op6Jwago42gDXooVZ1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1fGtDvgvupzg0Op6Jwago42gDXooVZ1)

Gosh, if these are too big I will redo it. Thanks for any and all help and suggestions!

[EJB]

Christine,
The links don't seem to work....or is it me?

[ChristineV]

Hmmm . the files must be too big . I will resize and retry.

[ChristineV]

I resized and they seem to be working now.

[Rusty]

Christine,

My copy of Matt's book arrived yesterday; so far I have only skimmed - flipping pages - but one obvious point is, "try the easy way before the hard way!"

I took your image: made a duplicate layer; changed the blend mode to Multiply... pretty good.
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1K5S9TDelbCuJFBCGRhStgIYJrWcE2_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1K5S9TDelbCuJFBCGRhStgIYJrWcE2)

Matt suggests to try it more than once, so... I simply made a copy of that layer. This produces two layers in a row, both in Multiply blend mode.
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1vha0AMTNxTmezoQPYXBoGjHq5lm4j_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1vha0AMTNxTmezoQPYXBoGjHq5lm4j)

Well, I didn't care for that so I went back to my "1st Multiply" and adjusted the contrast...
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1vl6UQoiheZwiajc6hTsP6hcXcB8LT1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1vl6UQoiheZwiajc6hTsP6hcXcB8LT1)

Hopefully someone smarter than me will now jump on this thread to advise: when do you do the Contrast/Lighting/Color enhancements on this kind of project? Do you do this before or after the efforts to repair the 'physical' faults in the image?

Rusty

PS - you were a little cutie, Christine

[ChristineV]

Thanks Rusty :)

My common sense tells/told me to correct the flaws first which is shown in my 2nd image. I was thinking of using the color picker to pick the darker background color then select the background and paint it on a new layer and add noise, etc to my liking. then adjust the color of the skin to add more color. OR I could add a layer and color back. I am just not sure yet so I wanted to put it here to see what others might suggest.

[Juergen D]

Christine,

Some colorizing may work well, which is something I am not good at. So, I tried all kinds of adjustment layers, several Levels, Contrast, Hue/Sat and a Photo Filter (red) layers. I set the Hue/Sat layer to Multiply, looked pretty good. I did some painting to hide the vignette mat shade and cropped in.
At the end I sharpened very lightly and put it a little sparkle in the eyes, which always has a nice effect.
Overall, it really is the result of trial and error.

Juergen

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1WDwiyVQLOqLs0gj65UcOPUB1Ypoc_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1WDwiyVQLOqLs0gj65UcOPUB1Ypoc)

[ChristineV]

Juergen,

that turned out pretty good! I will take note on what you did!

[Chuck S.]

You know....it's such a nice picture that if you find getting the colors right is too difficult, you could convert it to a very nice black & white or sepia.

The multiply blend mode certainly did a great job in bringing out the detail - nice job, Rusty and Juergen!

Chuck

[Wendy]

Hi Christine ...

Try this technique for adjusting the faded area ...it may work :)

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11992&postcount=7

Wendy

[ChristineV]

Thanks Chuck and Wendy!

I will check that link out Wendy but it is quite intimidating when it starts out with " This isn't an easy one to do .... : :eek:

I still have the dress and was thinking of putting the photo and the dress in a shadow box.

[Wendy]

Hi Christine ...

Oh that comment was just to do with the photo that I wrote the reply for ... the technique actually is really easy to do.

Sometimes it works really well it just depends on the individual image you are using it on :)

Wendy

[ChristineV]

Oh Ok!!! I feel better .. I will be working on it more tomorrow if time allows. The spot healing brush is doing a nice job on the scratches and spots. I think.

[Daviskw]

Hi Christine

I hope you don’t mind that I gave the blanket a color. The color could easily be changed, toned down or removed, but I just thought there was a need of color to make the baby stand out. I am not good at picking colors but you get the idea.

To get rid of the fading I made a slightly feathered selection of the lighter center. Then I inverted the selection and opened a levels adjustment layer…this transferred the selection to the mask and allowed me to lighten the outside to somewhat match the lighter center. This still left a line and did not exactly equal the lighting at the top compared to the bottom but I was going to replace the background anyway so I only checked the blanket area.
When I got the luminosity close I opened a blank layer at the top of the pallet and used the clone and healing brush to blend in the line that was left. I also fixed some of the blemishes in the picture at this time.

I then had most of the faded area equalized and concentrated at darkening the picture and color correction.

I stamped a layer… Select> all…. Edit>Copy merged… and at the top of the pallet…Edit>Paste.

I changed this layers blend mode to Multiply and adjusted opacity as needed. I then increased saturation with a hue saturation adjustment layer to see what color I could bring out from the original.

I knew I was going to change the blanket color so all I cared about was the color on the baby. I checked the white of the shirt and used a levels adjustment layer to make it a soft gray white. This removed much of the magenta caste to the skin. I left the skin slightly yellow and red as many babies tend to be but that also could have been changed at that time.

Just to whiten the shirt and shoes I opened a blank layer...changed its blend mode to soft light and painted over those areas with white.

I then addressed the background. I made a selection of the faded background and filled with color. I then added grain to the background. You could do this from the filter menu in Film Grain or add a blank layer …fill with 50 percent gray… change the blend mode to overlay… apply Filter>Noise>add Noise… I think I used around 3… then apply a slight blur to it. I grouped this layer to the new color background layer… this limited the noise just to the new background.

I did use the noise filter to soften the skin somewhat then sharpened with unshark mask to get a little sharpness back.

I hope you do not pay too much attention to my color choices but maybe get an idea of work flow.

Butch

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1UHVveCZBQVgP1GHXVJj8652KS0TZt0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1UHVveCZBQVgP1GHXVJj8652KS0TZt0)h ttp://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1hzWmqw2o9qUVpVWMcD6T3jkKleMLo_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1hzWmqw2o9qUVpVWMcD6T3jkKleMLo)

[frank abramonte]

Christine, is this what your looking for?
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=16isWokLvpur4bIktMu8I7YFCp0v



http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/16isWokLvpur4bIktMu8I7YFCp0v_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=16isWokLvpur4bIktMu8I7YFCp0v)

[frank abramonte]

a slightly lighter version.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ooIrKWLjGcx5qJD5ha8oEHrbvEtr1


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1ooIrKWLjGcx5qJD5ha8oEHrbvEtr1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ooIrKWLjGcx5qJD5ha8oEHrbvEtr1)

[Chuck S.]

Butch, you are absolutely a wizard! Fantastic!!

Chuck

[nkeevers]

Wow, Butch, awesome restoration job!

[ChristineV]

WOW! Butch! That is fantastic!!! I will definately print out your steps and try that. It is beautiful!

That is exactly the effect I wanted! WowAgain!

[Kathy]

Butch ...

Christine has said it all ....... simply wonderful! :)

Kathy

[msbrad]

Wow, I can't believe the difference.
This is terrific. I think I will print this thread to save the techniques.
m

[Cmcburnett]

Butch fantastic job as usual. By the way, are you a professional editior? I haven't been a member of the forum long but I do know that you are one of the best editior's I've seen. I use to pay to have pic's edited and you are far more talented then any of the professionals I've seen.:rolleyes: Honestly no browning nosing.

[David_Gr]

Try using Levels under Enhance>Adjust Lighting. Use the white eyedropper on something that is supposed to be white, the black eyedropper on something black and the gray on something gray. You can skip the gray if you would like since that is the trickiest to find. You may be surprised with the success you have with this. Scott Kelby describes this much better in "PS4 for digital photographers". It is worth giving a try. I have had pretty good luck using the technique.