If you got a chance to read my post in the work forum you'll see the frustration I've had with this customer. Still, I want to get this done but I'm starting to think... hmmm... complete lost cause. Please please help. If it helps please read my thread in the work forum so you know why I can't get a better scan. I'm attaching a clipping since it's for a customer. What I'm showing you is the sky. Now imagine a group of about 30 men in this photo too. How would you do this? I really really really really need help. I'm begging :bow: :dead:

i believe what you want help with here is the posterization, yes? when i first ran into this sort of thing, i'd just use a light to medium opacity on the clone tool and clone it out, giving a gradient across the hue spread. you know, just blending the colors in together.

but, that can amount to a lot of cloning in some pics. and smudging tends to make these look unnatural. without actually taking the pic and working on it, you could try a very light gausian blur. this would tend to bleed one color into the other. just be careful with that as you dont want to lose all your definition.

you could also try a median filter, but that also can tend to lose definition. so, take it on a very light application if you try that.

i'm guessing that the best way to do this might be to make a duplicate, blur the dupe a bit, then use a blend mode like screen or overlay or luminance to get a more natuaral look.

you might also try one of the first two methods on a duped layer and use a blend mode and varying opacities to blend the two together, getting the best of both.

if none of those work, there are still other tricks that might work.

Craig

tk,

It's really is hard to tell how save-able this image is with only the sky to go on, as it's easy to flatten out - which isn't really an option with a face! Maybe you could post a bit with a person with their eyes blurred out or something?

To be honest I think that this is probably a hopeless case though, reading your other post it sounds like whoever he is getting to scan it doesn't know what they are doing, or he isn't communicating it properly. Maybe you could research a company near him that does photo scanning and recommend he goes there, after you've confirmed they know what is required.

Neb - Maybe you should make a new thread for your question, as it's not really relevant to this thread?

Wow this is so squarish when I used the fill tool it gave him cool square glasses HAHA :lol: . I was afraid that this would be a hopeless case. I'm trying to run some of the advice from above but so far no luck. I'm near quitting time today. I can only stare at a photo for so long. It is horrible there seems to be a lack of communication. I have tried to be as thorough as possible. He seems irritated in his emails which bothers me because I truly want to help the guy out. Here is one of the faces. I hope maybe this helps. I guess worse case scenario I'll just have to tell him I can't do it. Oh well. :depressed