Restoration Hint Please!

[Sherry]

It's been a long time and I've been away from restoration work for an even longer time... shame on me!

I've scanned a faded image for a friend. I faced this same problem the last time I was doing some photos and since I haven't started back up with my restoration work yet I thought I'd ask a question now.

I had so much difficulty working with a photo that faded in the center and had color around the edges. Is it best to choose only the faded area to work with first, then do the photo as a whole?

Thank you for your help!
Sherry
South Lake Tahoe, California

[Wendy]

Hi Sherry ...

Yes that would be the way that I would deal with ... I would select the faded area, slightly feather the selection and deal with the faded part then once that is sorted deal with the image as a whole :)

Wendy

[Sherry]

Thanks Wendy!

[Pauline]

Sherry you might want to check out photoshoptv's latest podcast where Scott Kelby worked on a photo that was faded in sections. He would select an area and put a fairly big feather on the selection and then chose levels to bring it back to life. The tutorial is 3 parts in the pod cast and very good. Sounds just like what you need. :)

[Sherry]

Thanks so much! I'm back home now so will take a look see...
Sherry

[Sherry]

PhotoShop TV? I thought you meant the Video section. Do you mean the Online Learning area?

Thanks!
Sherry

[Pauline]

http://www.photoshoptv.com/

It's the March 13th episode of their podcast. You can see it here.

[Sherry]

Ah... thank you!! I didn't know about this. I use PS as well!

[Pauline]

Well Sherry where have you been? :eek: They update it usually late on Mondays and while I don't have the full photoshop I still learn stuff and Matt, Dave and Scott are entertaining to watch.

[Daviskw]

Hi Sherry

A good way to deal with that type of fade is to pick a large soft brush, I often use a 300 pixel. Then set the selection brush mode to Mask in the option bar.

Doing this gives you a great idea of what will be selected and feathered. When you have the area you want to darken covered, inverse the selection and open a levels adjustment layer.

The selected area is transferred to the mask. Now darken the area as needed. You may need to do this more than once to get it right. Remember you can always adjust the mask with a feathered brush to trim things up.

Butch

[Sherry]

First to Pauline ... I've been here, I just did not continue taking my PhotoShop magazine when PE came out. I had thought I would start using PE more then PS. However, I have gone through 2 Editions of Katrin Eismann's restoration book using PS, with not enough time to start the 3rd Edition and find I try things in both programs ... double the work :o)

I have so many other projects I have not had the time to spend with photos and I am trying to correct that now.

To Butch ... I will have to also give that a try!

Thanks so much to both of you for the helpful hints. I have NEVER been let down when it comes to asking for PS, PE or PageMaker help. I know that soon I will be trying the InDesign Guru's next!!!

Sherry

[Sherry]

Hello again Butch!

Right off the bat after choosing my brush, I do not see any "Mask Mode" selection option???

Sherry

[Pauline]

Sherry are you sure you have the 'selection' brush and not the regular brush? That sometimes causes a problem. If you have the proper brush on the top tool bar there will be a choice of 'selection' or 'mask' in a drop down menu.

Katrine's boo is great. I have one of them and love it. I have toyed with getting her newest book, but wonder if it's worth the fortune it is when I just have elements.

There's never enough time to get stuff done. I had such good intentions today and ended up in a bit of a mess trying to figure some other computer stuff out. When I can't find something I just can't let it go until I figure it out. And now my daughter has asked me to print some pictures for her in special sizes (and of course I can't just print them without fixing red eye, etc.)........and on and on it goes! :eek:

[Sherry]

I will check ... I am hear right now downloading that episode you told me about. I watched it earlier but didn't have time to go through the motions. I just quickly tried Butch's thought and figured I was doing something wrong ... no I had the regular brush :o

Sherry

[Sherry]

So okay... I'm REALLY dumb ... I can't find the Selection Brush :o

[Sherry]

Oh dear ... I forget that we are in Elements and I opened PS ... need to go look there :o

[Sherry]

Color me red ... opps, pun :o)

I tried Butch's thought and though it's way cool, it is not working either as PE nor PS will see that the faded center area as color. It darkens but not with color.

Grrrrr... I do not want to rebuild as I have never done that trick :o

Sherry

[Daviskw]

Hi Sherry

You should post the picture... love to see what you are tying to do

Butch

[Sherry]

Happy to Butch though I can't seem to get it small enough to upload ... any thoughts?

Sherry

[Sherry]

I will try again...

Sherry

[Daviskw]

Hi Sherry

The picture I downloaded was pretty low quality. I’m afraid there is no color in the center. All you can do is remove all color, lighten to match then colorize.

I did a quick colorize attached, I’m afraid I am not good with color but with a higher pixel count photo and time you can bring it back some

Butch

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5053/workingcopytosend6md.th.jpg (http://img62.imageshack.us/my.php?image=workingcopytosend6md.jpg) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1316/workingcopytosend10ka.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=workingcopytosend10ka.jpg)

[Wendy]

Hi Butch ...

Nice work on that one ... you did a good job on it !! :)

Wendy

[Sherry]

WOW!!! Am I impressed!!!

I have the original scanned at 600 resolution. I could not get it smaller for uploading even by zipping. So I took it to 72.

No color in the center was my problem as I could have the areas around the edges looking brand new but only darkening the center.

I am VERY interested in the procedure you used. If it isn't too much trouble, can you give me some details?

I would also like to know if you just copied and pasted the images into the Post? It's so much nicer to be able to show the problems. I gather the other addresses you used were a place to show them?

I can't thank all of you enough. You are all simply the BEST!!!
Sherry

[Sherry]

Well, I gave it a shot with what you told me and got as far as the Remove Color. Adding color back in baffles me I'm afraid? As soon as I choose Colorize it colors the whole area a hue of red.

You have quite obviously been using PE for some time and have spent LOTS of time doing it ... which I have been lacking in.

At least I know it's possible if given enough time to figure it out.

Do you Copy the Background and then use Layers for all procedures?

In the dark, but seeing the light :o)
Sherry

[Wendy]

Sherry ...

Try this ..

Create a new layer above you image
Set its blending mode to colour
then paint on that.

Use a new layer for each colour ...

Do let us know how you go on :)

Wendy

[Sherry]

Whoa ... just watching Possession while I walk on my treadmill so feeling very British at the moment ... and then an email from Wendy!

I sure wish I could confine myself to one interest. I'd then have plenty of time to take with all of this. Add in a car registry for which I do a newsletter and web site, then a web site for my high school class, then a web site for a friend who raises Akitas ... then, then, then ... oh my!!

I will give it a go after my shower and lunch ... as always thank you!

Tah!
Sherry

[Sherry]

Are you talking about details for doing what Butch suggested for his redo?

If I Duplicate the Background Layer ... as not to work on the original Layer ... I do not get a Blending Mode choice?

Sherry

[Daviskw]

Hi again Sherry

Here is what I did;

I removed the color from the picture. I used a channel set to grayscale then back to RGB in Grants tools but any way will do.

Then I used the soft selection brush in mask mode to select the center with just a small feathered overlap, then inverted the selection.

I opened a levels adjustment layer and equalized the luminance. A little touchup on the mask blended it pretty good.

Now I colorized it, grass first then flowers then green stalks. The grass in the center did not match the grass on the edges so I used a hard-edged clone and the healing brush to fill to the edges.

For the grass I opened a picture of mine with grass and sampled the darkest, lightest, and mid colors. I made a note of the middle colors HSB settings then set the foreground to the dark green, the background color to the light. I made a selection with a small feather of the grass area. Then opened a gradient map adjustment layer. It used the foreground/background colors and I edited the map to include the mid color. The grass is done but if needed a grouped Levels or hue/ saturation layer will help get the color as you want it.

Now I colored the yellow/white flowers. I do not use a color layer I use an adjustment solid fill layer set to the color blendmode. Then I invert the mask so I can paint the color onto the flowers as needed. That way I can change the color later if I want.

After the yellow/white flowers I opened a new solid fill adjustment layer and set the color to pink/mauve in color blendmode. Inverted the mask again and painted those flowers on.

For the green stalks I opened a solid fill adjustment layer set to green below the flowers so all I needed to do was paint over the whole area, not in between the flowers.

Hope this helps

Butch

[Sherry]

Grant's Tools?

[Sherry]

Oh my ... those are some instructions for a quick fix!

I am having trouble with that edge of the mask and trying to blend well right from the beginning.

Do you think it would be good to do a Levels Adjustment Layer "before" I remove the color?

It's a surprise when I do the Layers Adjustment without the color. Even the detail of the photo comes back!

Wish I could "pop" over to St. Louis to watch this done!!

Back to trying again!
Sherry

[Daviskw]

Grants tools are not needed. You can remove color with a Hue/ saturation layer or just remove color from the menu.

The Grants tools allow you to check the different channels in a picture. Sometimes there is less damage in one channel or another. But it makes little difference in your case.

Grants tools are an add-on that will work in PSE 3 but not all in 4.0

Bottom line… not important in this case.

Butch

[Sherry]

I did look at the Channels in PS and I think the Blue Layer was the best one with the least amount of loss.

S

[Sherry]

This is beginning to show me my skill levels need a lot of work. I bombed out as soon as I got to the grass ... yikes!!! Did NOT look anything like grass and I could not find where I might put in the HSB level numbers within the Gradient Map.

If I hadn't of restored quite a few other photos to know I am a capable person, I'd not be having a lot of confidence right now :)

So if anyone is following this thread, fear not, after much practice you CAN and DO accomplish things!!!

Sherry

[Daviskw]

The gradient map is not necessary, I just like the way in colors grass.

But I click on the gradient and the editor opens. There I already have the start and end colors I set in the Foreground/ background. Then I just click right below the gradient near the middle. When the slider appears I click the color box. The color picker comes up and I enter the middle value there in the HSB boxes.

Butch

[Wendy]

Hi Sherry ...

When I suggested creating a new layer above the image and changing its blend mode to colour ... I meant a new blank layer and you chabnge the blending mode at the top of the layers palette.

Then you pick a colour and paint on the blank layer ... the colour shows up on the image but all the detail shows through because the blend mode is set to colour ...

Wendy