A Little Help Correcting This Pic Please

M
Posted By
Mathias(2)
Jan 13, 2007
Views
609
Replies
26
Status
Closed
<http://www.awesomedigital.com/Play001/corrected/0001.jpg>

Any suggestions on the best way to remove the brown spots from this picture?

Or some good sites to check out that explain how?

And a color one also
<http://www.awesomedigital.com/Play001/corrected/0002.jpg>

Thanks Much
Mathias

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CF
Cecil_Fuselier
Jan 13, 2007
On the pants, I would you the clone stamp..on the folded damaged part I would try the patch tool..but other more experienced guys might have better ideas…I have repaired a lot of my parents old photos using those simple tools…then used spot healing to repair challenges on the faces etc….just my $0.02 worth
Cecil
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
I looked at the B&W image and here is how the image went:

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=15z53UXmQbKTtH6t17 XyKgLcMym5jH0>

There are many techniques that are helpful and fortunately or unfortunately these tend to be skill and experienced based.

General strategies
1 – try different techniques

2 – save regularly

3 – be a critical judge

4 – if something does not work go back to an earlier version that looked sweet before the most recent adjustments.

5 – every image seems to require its own solution.

Helpful hints in this case
6 – put a frame around the image (the ragged edges make it look worse than it is)

7 – for scratches use any shortcuts (by removing white edges it makes cloning or patching easier as any bleeding in will be similar to the background anyway)

8 – faces are critical!

9 – see #8

Especially specific
10 – use select tool where there is a lot of noise/mush then apply a bit of GB at 2.5 to 3.5 (CTRL+F after first attempt and apply once, twice, or more. By selecting first it restricts GB to the selection – there is no point applying GB globally if it needed very, very locally)

11 – use #10 at edges of shadows to restore some sort of natural gradient

12 – be prepared to be absolutely ruthless when cloning or patching (I removed part of an auto beside the tree)

13 – the more you do the better the results will be
B
Bernie
Jan 14, 2007
IMHO, mastering the clone stamp and haling brush is essential for this kind of restauration of photos.

The texture on the second photo is a pain and there’s not much you can do about it AFAIK, but someone else may have come up with a way of dealing with it…
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
There is a repeating pattern there – if it can be separated maybe if can be differenced out? But, in any case, changing a grey pattern repeat to a less grey one … It looks a tough one to me.
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 14, 2007
Sweet, thanks ya’ll for the suggestions.

deebs,

What did you do to get rid of the brown splotches on the picture?

That’s the big part I can’t figure out how to fix without messing up those sections.

Mathias
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
OK, I didn’t want to say too much but:
Scratch removal: PictureIT (the scratch removal tool is brilliant – one click stuff)

to B&W, initial cloning on the jeans, create Frame and export as large as possible: EGD

Pixel adjustments Photoshop CS (best carried out at 100%).

By the time the image was in PSCS the framework was in place and fine fine-tuning was required (there is more to do on the faces but that is time consuming).

For stuff like this where the mush and noise is related to the processes of those times it seems better to replace one mush/noise with another. So in cloning apply spots not linear trends as these by their very linearity may become too obvious.

In essence: rough cloning folloed by fine-tuned cloning then GB applied to selected regions.

The selections are critical too: must be non-linear, ragged shapes that contain very similar attributes.

I did sharpen a bit but that was because the image was reduced to about 95 K for posting at pixentral.
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 14, 2007
Thanks deebs.

Just hints are good too to make me think more.

I did just discover a cool way from one of my Photoshop books to get rid of the color by itself.

From Scott Kelby’s Channels Book.

I just took at look at each channel, and the red looked the best by itself. So from the channnel options, I chose duplicate channel and made it’s destination a new document.

I’ll post the the fixed one when I finish it. Probably tomorrow.

Mathias
S
Scubabix
Jan 14, 2007
You forgot the real #1 step, NEVER, NEVER use your original file to work on. Rob

wrote in message
I looked at the B&W image and here is how the image went:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=15z53UXmQbKTtH6t17 XyKgLcMym5jH0>
There are many techniques that are helpful and fortunately or unfortunately these tend to be skill and experienced based.
General strategies
1 – try different techniques

2 – save regularly

3 – be a critical judge

4 – if something does not work go back to an earlier version that looked sweet before the most recent adjustments.

5 – every image seems to require its own solution.

Helpful hints in this case
6 – put a frame around the image (the ragged edges make it look worse than it is)

7 – for scratches use any shortcuts (by removing white edges it makes cloning or patching easier as any bleeding in will be similar to the background anyway)

8 – faces are critical!

9 – see #8

Especially specific
10 – use select tool where there is a lot of noise/mush then apply a bit of GB at 2.5 to 3.5 (CTRL+F after first attempt and apply once, twice, or more. By selecting first it restricts GB to the selection – there is no point applying GB globally if it needed very, very locally)
11 – use #10 at edges of shadows to restore some sort of natural gradient
12 – be prepared to be absolutely ruthless when cloning or patching (I removed part of an auto beside the tree)

13 – the more you do the better the results will be
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 14, 2007
Here is the before and after

< http://www.awesomedigital.com/Play001/corrected/0001_Before. jpg> < http://www.awesomedigital.com/Play001/corrected/0001_After.j pg>

The after is a bit dark because it’s a grayscale that I saved as a jpeg. The acual image in photoshop is lighter.

I’m not sure what I will do with the edges. I may just leave them as is.

Thanks again to all.

Mathias
DR
Donald_Reese
Jan 14, 2007
Forget the corrections. who lets their kids hug a decent size bear? maybe this is the last photo of the gang before lunch?
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 14, 2007
I THINK it’s stuffed, but perhaps it’s alive and somebodys pet?

Back in those days, they didn’t have seat belts either and the kids still grew up just fine.

Mathias
DR
Donald_Reese
Jan 14, 2007
Thats for sure. heck,now the playground material is cushioned,so you dont hurt yourself if you fall down. nice rework by the way.
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
I’d guess that anyone associated with the original image is probably well pleased with the way it has turned out.

I still think that more work needs to be done on both yours and mine namely to the faces.

Bears?

It seems a hang-on from times gone by.

There are a few (well, at least one, cities in the UK that had a bear cage where an animal was displayed for the paying (or free?) pleasure of all. It goes back to the time of horse drawn carriages where dependency on animals was quite high.
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
Try:

1 – select part of one face (especially the darker bits)

2 – paste to a new layer

3 – apply a lighten blend mode and adjust

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1R1wDc6ikbOXbXDGU4 maPTtrEqf1>
D
deebs
Jan 14, 2007
Ooops – I missed the Edit deadline.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1f242u7EE0uiXZYyD1 a6aSAQsoY4>

shows a bit of an improvement to the faces but I think the image of young girls face needs a bit more work to crispen up and remove ungainly contrast.
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 15, 2007
Thanks deebs.

Good suggestions. I’ll go back and work on the faces.

Mathias
D
deebs
Jan 15, 2007
Two out of the three faces seem ok so far but the young girl’s image needs a bit more fine-tuning

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=122ABJ0VJUfQzh6p9R eIFeHKePUZCg>
D
deebs
Jan 22, 2007
M
Mathias(2)
Jan 22, 2007
Thats sweet work deebs!

M
D
deebs
Jan 22, 2007
It is a great dynamic – forums I mean.

When one person poses a question on one continent and other persons may take a creative drive some continents away. It is fantastic.

Thanks to you for posing a creative question.

A humble deebs.
R
Rod
Jan 22, 2007
D
deebs
Jan 29, 2007
It was not easy getting the colour of the bear right.

It took a lightened layer blend under a multiply blend to add a dash of of richness.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=15MBPbjqEJNN6RcyRh GSaKR2pVl0Z1>
M1
Mathias_1
Jan 29, 2007
deebs,

You should go into the photo restoration business.

Mathias
D
deebs
Jan 29, 2007
I must admit it was a great project and one that took me into new areas of working methods. But i don’t know if the professional skills are sufficient to generate an income.

It took ages to find a colour for the bear ar method to make that colour appear meaningfully sweet.

The girls yellow top was the next most difficult whereas the hair colours were easy-peasy.
CC
Christopher_Carvalho
Jan 29, 2007

1. Select a portion with the lasso tool (I started with the bear fur behind the boy’s arm)
2. Feather selection slightly (3 pixels works)
3. Image/Adjustments/Replace Color, adjust the Fuzziness slider until most of the area is white, meaning it will be altered. I used 155. In the Replacement box at the bottom of the dialog, click inside the Result square to bring up the color picker. Then click on the black fur of the bear in a good area. Make final adjustments to the Hue/Saturation/Lightness sliders to tweak the color. I chose H=168, S=-44, L=7. Because the colors are splotchy, you’ll need to work with small areas one at a time that have just one color cast to get the best result.

This approach will also work on the blue splotches, boy’s arm, and hand, since they have good detail information. The lower part of the jeans lost detail, so it will need the Healing Brush tool to fix that.

-Chris.
R
Rod
Mar 28, 2007
wrote:
I must admit it was a great project and one that took me into new areas of working methods. But i don’t know if the professional skills are sufficient to generate an income.

It took ages to find a colour for the bear ar method to make that colour appear meaningfully sweet.
The girls yellow top was the next most difficult whereas the hair colours were easy-peasy.

Did you look at the bear in the one I did. Mine is
a brown bear.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/e282c031d1.jpg

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

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