Take a look at the original. The red channel has gone haywire. I found this in a newsgroup full of random photos. So its jpeg quality was really bad to start.
I took a stab at it but my result looks pasty. This is with zero painting. Strictly slider control manipulation. I used a gradiant mask to bland into the better part of the original. To me it looks better because at least you don't have all this red staring you in the face hiding some detail. I pretty much had to kill the red channel. In this case I adjusted the red channels contrast to closely mimic the "better half's red channel. Then something possed me to invert my duplicate layers red channel. I don't know why but you see my result
Anyway....IF this was a good quality image what would you do to fix that redness. Prefereably I am looking for answers that don't involve major painting skill. I am no brush artist. You can imagine...in black and white...problem solved. But that shouldn't be a first choice.

Pete

If you have Katrin Eismann's Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, it covers photos like this (starts on p. 210 in the second edition). I'll plug the book, it's really good.

Alternately, there's a photo kind of like this in Retouch Challenge #17. Some of the techniques used by people there might be helpful.

I agree that a gradient channel seems to be the way to go here.

Cool I'll check out the challenge and this weekend I look for the bokk or similar in the store.
Pete

Thanks Hephaestos,
I had thought about copying a good color channel to the bad one. I even tried it. But with not so great results. Reading the workflow for one of the challengers in challenge 17 I came up with the attached. Still, the colors look pasty though. But its better than the original

OH and I just realized theres a "help requested" forum. I'll refrain and post there in the future
Pete

Hi Pete,

If I haven't done it yet...

Welcome to RetouchPRO! :pleased:

I had a go at your picture .... didn't do anything else but correcting the colour/light 'leak' ...

I'm a strong admirer of Katrin Eismann, but Try to completely replace a channel as 'last resort' only ... Here, after selecting the affected area, I used Hue&Saturation and Levels Adjustment Layers on it ....

Hey Flora, That looks really good. I do see a difference in the sky. But hey it was a low quality image and it wasn't the main issue. I went to Borders Books yesterday. Tons of books on Photoshop, 1 very lame and thin book with a 3 page chapter full of large print on restoration. I think I'm gonna have to see what Amazon has to offer

Flora,

I tried to correct this picture using only the adjustment layers you said that you used but couldn't even get anything close to yours. For example on the hue/sat, did you use the pull down menu and adjust each color? Did you also do that for levels too? Know matter what I did the sky was never blue. Boy is this frustrating. Just what I start to think I know what i'm doing you come along and prove me wrong. :( I tried to do the methods of others on here to get experience.

Hi Pete,

thanks for your feedback and kind words .. :pleased:
..I do see a difference in the sky..You are absolutely right! But, for what I'd understood, this was just an exercise to see what could be done with a picture with a "really bad .jpg quality" and with a severe case of light leakage ... and that's what I did ... a very quick job to show what could be corrected in my case without replacing a channel and ... considering what you had asked.. Prefereably I am looking for answers that don't involve major painting skill. ... Mind you, fixing the sky properly wouldn't have involved 'major painting' ... just a few brush strokes ... but I didn't think that that was what you wanted ... :o:

jenjen,

so sorry you feel frustrated ..... :(
Here is my worflow for this picture done with the adjustment Layers I had mentioned and used...

In Attachment 1 you can see the complete workflow.
In Attachment 2 you can see the result I got by simply tweaking the Reds in the Hue&Saturation AL. (values in the Attachment).
In Attachment 3 you can see the result after the Level AL with the following values:

Nothing at all changed in the composite RGB Channels,
Red
Input Levels: 18; 1.00; 255
Green
Input Levels: 0; 1.00; 241
Blue
Input Levels: 5; 1.00; 231

But, perhaps, the most important factor is the Layer Mask (same for both ALs) created for fixing this picture. (Attachment 4)

Hope this helps ...

Thanks Flora i'll work on that today. I feel like your my teacher or something! :wink:

Jen

What do you think. I didn't know or realize that you could adjust each color seperately in levels and hue/sat.

Jen

Great, Jen!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: