Hey folks,

I came across this site while trying to find techniques for this particularly frustrating problem with cracking and emulsion discoloration. To my non-cal monitor, the wavy lines appear to be an almost blue tint, though nothing I've tried selection-wise seems to be able to isolate them from the broad dynamic range behind. Of course, I would not like to sacrifice facial detail. I've masked the couple in the foreground and applied a minor surface blur in CS3, intending to rubber stamp/healing brush the details. The original is just under 2" square scanned RGB at 600 dpi.

Any suggestions?
many thanks,
tony

53051

Hi Tony,

Welcome to RetouchPro.

I've started on this image and I'll go back and finish it later - these are the results so far and what I used.

I changed the crop to landscape. Depending on what is important in the image you can save yourself a lot of time and energy by invisaging the end result. If the buildings are equally important, then you would have to leave it as a portrait.

Levels adjustment layer - individual channels - bring sliders into the majority of the information.

B&W adjustment layer - Used Green filter preset.

Used a plugin called 'Neat Image', you can download this for free (just google it), the free version is limited to images 1024 x 1024 - to smooth out the image.

Used Gaussian Blur filter set to about 1.5, added layer mask (brush to black) and painted back over the people.

I shall continue with it later.

Back again.

I did a little bit of healing, cos the rest is your job :nod: you can see the outcome of that on the woman's coat.

Decided that the people needed lifting a little bit so I used the central point in a curves adjustment layer to brighten slightly. Used inverted mask to paint back in the people, avoiding the woman and child's face because I thought they were bright enough.

Used the High Pass filter to sharpen the people a little bit, with layer set to overlay I inverted the mask and painted back the people - lowered the opacity of this as well to about 50%. High Pass only set to about 1.

That was it really. The second image has been given a slight sepia tone in a hue/sat adjustment layer.

EDIT-I haven't done any work on the cars, buildings etc., in the image you may find that you want to touch up the few offending pieces that are there.

Wow... thanks! I downloaded that demo plugin and will be purchasing it. Per usual, it seems it always comes down to the quality of the selection. I'm wondering if a gradual mask from foreground to background before applying the dust and scratch filter might soften some of the shallowness to the depth of field. Looks cool, but a little unreal. I messed with what you did to try and gradually sharpen to the foreground, but at this resolution it's hardly satisfying.

Wow. Again. thanks for your help!
Tony

53059

Hi Tony,

You could always use a gradient on the layer that you do the gaussian blur on to bring the foreground more into focus.

I didn't use the dust and scratches filter, too much trouble trying to get it all just right LOL