Need Some Help With A Restoration.....

[Orphanannie]

Good Day, Newbie Here.....

I would like some help with a restoration I have been working on. First problem I do not know how to upload the pictures in question for anyone to see....

Thanxs for the help with this portion of the problem...

Andrea

[Wendy]

Hi Andrea ...


First resize using Save for Web:

Open your image then do File>Save for Web
When the Save for Web dialogue box come up there is a section over on the bottom right hand side where you can change the pixels size (see A) if you tick Constrain Proportions then you only need to change the longest side then just click on Apply. Next take a look at the new size (B) ... if it is still too big then use the quality slider (C) until the size is OK

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1oU339hS3qhxM5k9hXDdeC21dpFM0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1oU339hS3qhxM5k9hXDdeC21dpFM0)

Set the longest side to 750 pixels then adjust the quality slider until the image is around 150K and save it with a new name.

then go to
http://www.pixentral.com/index.php

Follow the instructions on the site and then when your image is uploaded copy the URL from below the image (where it says forum) and paste it into a message here :)

Hope this helps :)

Wendy

[Orphanannie]

Thanxs Wendy, for the tip. Will give it a try and then I will start with the problem with the pixs.....

Andrea

[Orphanannie]

Wendy,

Can both pictures be uploaded at the same time?

Andrea

[Inspeqtor]

Hi Andrea,

Yes both pictures can be uploaded at the same time, but you will have to do one first, copy and paste the url to your message, then copy and paste the 2nd picture below the first picture into the same message you are sending to the forum.

Any photo you see posted here from pixentral, you can double click on the photo for a larger image to view.

[Orphanannie]

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=13W4L9c5YDQKKuvlv4YyaKkjVOq0]http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/13W4L9c5YDQKKuvlv4YyaKkjVOq0_thumb.jpg[/URL]


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1gjba36jbWPDJilud2JtEa0zV3RO1q_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1gjba36jbWPDJilud2JtEa0zV3RO1q)

Hope these posted correctly......

I removed the yellow cast to the picture. Cleaned up the spots of mold, etc..
I need help the with lighting around the little tyke....

Please help.....

Thanxs in advance for any suggestions and techniques

Andrea

[Orphanannie]

Think I goofed somewhere. When I tried double clicking on the first image it didn't enlarge. What did do wrong?????

Andrea

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I think that you may have missed the end off the URL :)

Wendy

[Orphanannie]

OK.. Let's try this again. Here are the 2 images.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.......

Andrea



http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1P8ByfB1ajFHqXegnLSjPrPOawerUT0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1P8ByfB1ajFHqXegnLSjPrPOawerUT0)


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1l1eyvLJeabgbWcwOjNnBvrVxG90_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1l1eyvLJeabgbWcwOjNnBvrVxG90)

[Wendy]

Oh my goodness ... there is serious deterioration in there :)

I just took a quick look at it and the top three quarters of the Red Channel is very badly damaged and the Green Channel isn't much better. The good news is that the Blue Channel still has lots of information in it ..

I would be inclined to start from that .. here is what I can see in the blue channel:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1fXIXbRWQyuvyoaOFfXBW8tKCWbU_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1fXIXbRWQyuvyoaOFfXBW8tKCWbU)

I used Photoshop to view this but with Addon Tools you can also do this in Elements ... but it really isn't a job for a beginner. You would probably be better gaining some more restoration experience and then coming back to this one later.

Wendy

[Orphanannie]

Wendy,
I agree, this picture sat for many years where the Florida sun and humidity was, I suspect the villian. I removed alot of green specks, and other things, that I am assuming was some sort of fungus growing. If I can get it back to sort of what the original was like the lady will be happy. This is an image of her son, who was killed in action in Desert Storm. She is putting together a family collage to give to her grandaughter, in memory of her father. I have done other images for her, but this is tough. I can not get the lighting around him correct. I have taken the layers class and I tried to use some of the methods, but to no avail. I know that I do not know the ins and outs of Elements, so that is why I am reaching out to all of you that are so talented in this area.

Thanxs for the help.........

Andrea

[Orphanannie]

Wendy,

May I send you an email ?????

If not it is OK.....

Andrea

[Wendy]

Hi Andrea ...

Is this the full sized image or do you have a larger copy ??

I would be inclined to use the B&W ... restore that (actually its not too bad in B&W) and then either give it to her in B&W or maybe recolour it.

I did a tutorial on how to recolour images ... its in the Subscriber Area>Tutorials and its called Colourizing a Photograph ..

Normally I would love to help out with something like this but at the moment I am really pushed for time so am not able to.

Maybe one of the others will be able to help you with it :)

Wendy

[Orphanannie]

Wendy,
I totally understand about your other commitments, you are always there with an answer to questions. I thought about converting to B/W an then colorizing. Maybe this is the best way to go.... seeing as to the condition of the original. Just one quick question though... I have Matt K book on restoration, and have taken the layers class, could you point me in a direction as to where I can learn more restoration techniques? I have not seen many postings on this subject.

Many thanxs for all the help with this image........

Andrea

[Ellen]

Hi Andrea, You may want to visit this site,
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/
there are forums and a lot of tutorials. It's mostly full photoshop but there is a lot you can learn there. Hope this helps, that looks like a tough photo to do.

[Daviskw]

Hi Andrea

I used Grants tools and Selective color. I selected the yellows then maximized the settings and selected absolute as well.

Then I used color layers to smooth...or add color. I used a gradient map to adjust color to the skin…. a layer with the layer mode set to color would work as well for skin color.

Then a lot of healing brush and cloning and noise reduction and a small amount of sharpening.

Butch

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1pAfe76zV5HNfmRPTMAPHcG2RnWR_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1pAfe76zV5HNfmRPTMAPHcG2RnWR)

[Inspeqtor]

Butch,

My mouth must have dropped 6 inches when I saw what you did to Andrea's photograph! You are truly amazing! I KNOW she will be thrilled when she sees this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Andrea

I used Grants tools and Selective color. I selected the yellows then maximized the settings and selected absolute as well.

Then I used color layers to smooth...or add color. I used a gradient map to adjust color to the skin…. a layer with the layer mode set to color would work as well for skin color.

Then a lot of healing brush and cloning and noise reduction and a small amount of sharpening.

Butch

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1pAfe76zV5HNfmRPTMAPHcG2RnWR_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1pAfe76zV5HNfmRPTMAPHcG2RnWR)

[Daviskw]

Thanks Charles... I hope it helps

Andrea give my condolences to his family. Please tell them how much I appreciate their sacrifice so my family can remain safe and free.

God bless you young man.

Butch

[Wendy]

Hi Butch ..

Oh what a great job you did on that !! :)

Wendy

[Orphanannie]

Good Morning Butch,

Not only did my jaw drop, but I sat and stared at this picture over 2 cups of coffee this morning.... It is BEAUTIFUL !!!!!!!!!!. I have already sent your condolence to the family.. Thank you soooo much for the work you put into this. You folks are the GREATEST..:D:D:D

Now if I may... Just how did you do this? I have PSE5, can I recount your steps and learn just how to do this???

Ellen... Thanxs for the link, I am off today and I will poke around the site.
Charles and Wendy.... Thanxs for all your help....

I have been reading the forum for some time now, and the help everyone offers is overwhelming. This may be the push I needed to really start learning to do more with this program and even have a gallery !!!!!

I am a subscriber so we shall see......:D

Andrea

[Cmcburnett]

Butch, awesome job on restoring the picture as usual. Its amazing what you can do with an old photo. The baby's eyes sparkle and captures your heart and to know his life was taken while protecting our country even draws you deeper.

Andrea, thanks for sharing your photo and the history behind it with us. I look forward to seeing you around the forum.

[Elemobe]

Butch, I have often been amazed at what you do with some photos, but this is something else!!!

So now I have decided you are not real, you are a plant by the guys at Adobe and in actual fact you are an incredibly sophisticated computer that can restore photos and redraw images:twisted:

But thinking again, you are much better than that, so you must be human after all:D:D

[Daviskw]

Hi again

You really need Grants tools or another add-on that allows access to channels. There are other procedures to simulate channels without add-ons but they are fairly complicated and hard to work with.

With Grants tools it is fairly simple to extract fair information from this picture.

If you double click on the red and green channels you will see there is very little information and just as Wendy has said the blue channel is the only useful one.

Double click the blue channel action.. the picture should now appear grayscale.

Now from the menu….Select>All… then…Edit> Copy

We have the blue channel copied but we need a new blank layer to paste it to… so…Layer>New>Layer
In the dialog box look where it says normal…use that drop box to change the layer mode to Luminosity. Normal would work too but would be strictly B&W… Luminosity allows some of the good color info from the red and green channels to show thru… then press OK

Now paste the blue channel info into this new blank layer with Edit>Paste.

The result will still be light so we now want to duplicate this new layer... do this by Layer>Duplicate Layer… then OK

Now to darken the image we need to change this layer mode to Multiply… with the new layer active look in the layer pallet menu bar… The first drop box should say luminosity or noraml… click on this drop box and select Multiply…. This will darken the picture and make it pretty good. If it is not dark enough for you just duplicate the layer again and again until it suites you. If the last duplication is too dark then just reduce the layers opacity until just right.

Now it is time to get rid of most of the spots and damage… open a new blank layer at the top of the pallet… leave its mode to normal…. There are many different ways to do this but to keep it simple use just the clone or healing brush tools. When you choose one of these tools be sure to check the tools option bar and make sure….” Use all layers” is checked. It is called different things in different versions of Elements but you will understand which to check.

Now take your time and use the healing brush by sampling a like area with good detail and clicking on the bad areas. If you are close to a edge the healing brush will often smear it so when next to edges I use the clone tool. I select a good area about the same brightness and clone…sampling often… You may want to reduce the opacity of the clone tool but that is up to you. I often do areas...say the curtain then open a new blank layer and work on another area… say the boy. That way if I mess up I can just erase on the layer or delete it without loosing all my previous work.

OK should look pretty good now and all you need to do the following;

Add color
Remove noise
Sharpen

To add color there are many ways…some hard some easy they all work. Rather than talk about gradient maps I will just talk about blank layers set to color and solid color adjustment layers set to the color mode.

Here are a few things to remember…. You cannot use the following procedures to color anything white or black. You can’t change a color if there is none there…. Remember gray is a color… that is why you can change a dark gray to say red. If you have an area of white you want to color you will need to clone to it or apply a gray first or use the normal mode. The trouble with normal mode is it will obscure detail below it… where color mode will not…. BUT don’t worry this is not a big problem in this case. As a side note…lol… as if you needed one… if you do use solid colors or gray to fill blank areas or over-smooth an area with coning or healing, then you may want to add some noise. This is especially important on skin. Real quick I add a blank layer…fill with 50 percent gray… add some noise then blur the noise a small amount… then change the layers mode to overlay...and finally group with the layer with the fills or mask where not needed. If you need to do this I can talk you thru it better.

I won’t go over every color but will just use the pants as an example… By using luminosity at the beginning you may have a hint of the color but in this case we know it is a red. Open a solid color adjustment layer at the top of your layer pallet… Pick a nice red color to begin… you can always change it later... then press OK… the whole screen will be red that is ok… Change its layer mode to color in the option menu… now you can see the picture it is all red… we will change that now.

Click on the mask attached to the adjustment layer… it is the white box to the right… Hold the Control key on a PC or the Command key on a Mac then press the letter “I”… the color will now disappear …Just what we want… This procedure is the same as filling the mask with black... if you have not used a mask before you will now.

Make sure your foreground color is white….. choose a soft brush small enough to paint in the pant area… click on the mask one more time just to be sure it is active then paint on the pants area… where you paint will reveal the red color…neat huh… If you paint outside the lines don’t worry… just change you brush color to black and hide the mistake. Remember this when working with masks... White reveals and black conceals
Working with masks this way makes changing mistakes easy… AND if when done the color does not look right… just double click the adjustment layer and change the color…or reduce the layer opacity.

Use a different adjustment layer for each color… If you are not sure what color to use… open a picture say of a person with blonde hair or good skin tone… sample that color then use it in your adjustment layer. Often when coloring the color will look wrong… but often it is just too strong and needs an opacity change… OR when other colors are added it will look different. Using an adjustment layer allows you to make these changes anytime.

Now the alternative… just open a blank layer and set its layer mode to color…. Select a brush and a color and paint away. The problem with this procedure is it is hard to make changes… but it works.

OK color all done… now if you think it needs it apply noise reduction and sharpening. I often stamp a layer to do this I… open a blank layer at the top of the layer pallet… Then Select>All…. Edit>copy merged… copy merged is important here… then Edit> Paste. You now should have a composite layer you can always erase if you like but the noise reduction and sharpening will now be on the picture as a whole… They call this procedure...” Stamp visible” ... if you ever here it mentioned… there are lots of shortcuts to make one but the procedure I just described works fine.

Ok now use your noise filter under filters and adjust as you like… The same with sharpening… I used Unsharp mask.. with a setting about amount 100… radius .5 if for the web… 1.5 if for print… threshold at 0.

All done… I know it is a lot but this is not an easy picture… hope it helps and I have not forgotten anything.

Butch

[Daviskw]

Charlotte… Linda thank you

I did forget to mention the eyes…

Again there are many ways to enhance eyes. On this picture I did the following;

I opened a levels adjustment layer… I made no adjustment just oK… I then changed the layer mode to screen. This brightened the hold picture. I filled the attached mask with black then with a soft white brush I painted the iris to brighten it.

I then duplicated this layer and changed the duplicates mode to Overlay... this deepened the bright color… then it is just a matter of adjusting the two layers opacity until you are pleased with the result.

The pupil and border of the eye were still to light so I opened another levels layer….set its mode to multiply… then again filled the mask with black.

With a soft brush at about 50 percent opacity I painted a thin line along the iris edge and blackened the center pupil. Then I clicked on the mask and applied a small gaussian blur around .9… then adjusted layer opacity as needed.

OK one last thing I opened a blank layer set to normal… used a small brush set to white… and painted catch lights in the eyes… then adjusted layer opacity as needed.

Butch

[Orphanannie]

Hi Butch,

I just wanted to say thank you again, not only for the work on the picture but also the directions on how to do it.

I have a few others to work on, so I am sure I will be calling for help!!!!

Till then, Have a great evening:)

Andrea

[troush]

Butch,

Although I haven't had to retouch any pictures, your explanations above are awesome. Great ideas and tips to glean from your instructions.

-Trish

[Inspeqtor]

Butch,

I copy/pasted your instructions along with the before and after photos for future reference. Thank you for the very explicit instructions!