Happy Thanksgiving to all
Just going through some old photos to practice with and found a my parents wedding picture. but can't seem to reveal the detail of the dark sections of the image. If I look at the red channel I can see the the background and shadows good but I don't know how the use that channel to help me achieve the look I'm seeking.
I would like to fix this photo for a xmas gift for my father. Thanks in advance for your advice.

http://www.jazz-city.net/images/parents_wed.jpg

It would be a really nice Christmas present, so let's fix it up!

Channels were always a mystery to me, but it is amazing what working with them can do when you learn more about them! If I lose you along the way -- please ask me questions (it took me a long time to learn a bit about channels, so you're allowed a question or two ;) )

There's always more than one way to look at a retouch job, and you could turn this into a black and white image, turn it into a b/w image and then re-color it yourself, or keep it a color image and fix the color casts. This MAY have been a sepia toned image (I do NOT claim to know how to figure that out -- it just seems to retain a color cast after doing Levels and Selective Color adjustments, and that makes me wonder if it was toned.)

To improve the overall look of the image, you can use Channel Mixer. The best way is to add a Adjustment Layer and choosing Channel Mixer for your adjustment, but you can also use an Image->Adjust->Channel Mixer command from the menu if you haven't gotten used to using Adjustment Layers yet.

This is not necessarily the RIGHT answer, but it makes the image look a lot better and gives you a place to start. First (always) make a duplicate layer of your original image. Using the copy layer, open the Adjustment Layer - Channel Mixer (or Image-Adjust-Channel Mixer). A dialogue box will pop up with an "Output Channel" listing at the top and 3 "Source Channels" below that. You can change the "Output Channel" from Red (default when box opens) to Green and Blue. Sometimes you need to work with each channel and sometimes you only need to change one or two. As you have already seen, the Red channel looks much better than the other two, so we will leave it alone. Use your mouse to change the Red OUTPUT channel to Green. Go below to the Source Channels -- it now shows +100% for the Green Channel and 0% for Red and Blue. We are going to MIX some of the Red Channel info into the Green Channel to improve it. Move the slider on the Red Source Channel line to the right to about 50% (it will look horribly green -- don't panic!), then move the Green slider to the left to about 50% (total of 100%) - it already looks better - right? Go up and change the Output Channel to Blue, and go back down to the Red Source Channel and move it right to 50% again. Go down and move the Blue slider to the left to 50%. These are not magic numbers -- they seemed the easiest to start with and they help the look of the image. You can play with the numbers. Click on OK when you're done. (You can ALSO make the image a Black / White image instantly by checking the Monochrome box -- you can play with the sliders again to make the black / white image look different.)
You will still have to do some clean up, masking and other work . Hope this helps, but ask questions if you have any.:)

Amazing job, CJ. I copied your instructions and will experiment with them myself on some photos that seemed unsalvagable.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Thanks for the helpfull tips CJ they worked fine and look great now I have a better understanding of channels, I have a place to start now when working with old images.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

CJ's instructions were excellent. If you want to fix up the color a bit afterwards, you can use a low opacity fuzzy brush set to "color" or "hue" (always "color" for a b/w pic...I used "hue" in this case to get the magenta out of the skin tones) and brush on a more desirable color wherever you like.

The autocolor command in the adjustments menu sometimes produces an improved pic, not always, but good to try...might want to fade the effect in some cases. I also used autolevels on this pic, faded away slightly. Autolevels and autocolor are seldom sufficient solutions but can be good starting points if you aren't all that comfortable with adjusting pics manually.

In addition to what's mentioned above, I also used "selective color" and "color balance" first to get rid of excess magenta overall then to warm up the pic slightly as a last step.

Phyllis

I made a grayscale version of the red channel and blended it with the original using soft light. I ran curves to lighten the image and added some contrast. The bride's face had some jpeg artifacts which I cleaned up. I then added a small amount of saturation, I think 8, and adjusted the color.

The faces were now much more visible, but all the detail was lost in her dress. I selected the light areas of the original picture and blended them at about 45% opacity.

Here's what I tried
1.Curves>set the white point>wedding dress.
2.Lighten the image overall>Went into hue/saturation to help elimanate the magenta color cast.
3.Selected the right side of jacket>used curves to darken slightly.
Added slight contrast.
Lots more can be done with this image, like coloring. Hopefully this is helpful to you.
Were you able to come up with something, MrJazz?

Barbie, there's an awful lot of green in the shadow areas. Try color balance adjusted for shadows, then try desaturating the shadow areas somewhat.

Hydia, try hitting autolevels to get some contrast into the picture.

Phyllis

Thanks Phyllis for your advice, and I tried it. It gave the results I was runining into>kicking back in too much magenta. One of my goals was trying to eliminate the magenta as much as possible.

If you have any ohter ideas, keep them coming because I'm still playing around with it, to see what I can get and learn from it.

Thanks:)

Originally posted by Hydia
...kicking back in too much magenta. One of my goals was trying to eliminate the magenta as much as possible.

I downloaded it and see what you mean. It seems to have almost no color except the magenta. You could use selective color, hue/sat, or color balance to correct the magenta, then you could add and subtract colors manually. Just set a fuzzy brush to color mode and paint over his jacket and her veil with black or white to get the color out. Then you can paint over the skin areas with other colors till they look right.

There is not much color variety in this picture in the first place, unless we knew the color of the house and trim. Actually it might be best just to leave it b/w or make it sepia.

Phyllis

Here's the same image with curves to remove some yellow.

I agree with the sepia Phyllis. Also, I will try your other suggestions. Thanks

Phyllis.....I still wasn't able to remove that magenta....you did one heck of a great job!

Ended up running an action, then deleting back, until I found something I could work with, that didn't have that dreadful purple.

Have a great black & white, but this one is a combined effort of several different modes and a bit of touch up.

Originally posted by GOLDCOIN
Have a great black & white, but this one is a combined effort of several different modes and a bit of touch up.

The color fix turned out well. And cropping is a good idea with this pic, unless the house is important to the picture (maybe the house they will live in).

How about posting the b/w version too. And a sepia version made from it.
I think that when you have little or no accurate color in a picture the best approach is to start with a good balanced b/w image and colorize it.

Phyllis

Phyllis.....

Appreciate your encouragement....
Questions, have so many but this one for now.

I had my pc screen pix enlarged to 200%, it was still holding a
great pix, no distortion. But it didn't stay that way after I saved
it, why?
And how does one enlarge the whole or part of a picture ..... ??


It looked so much better than what you see now of MrJazz's
parents wedding that I posted.

This is the black & white ......

I used the history brush to bring it back. First color cast removal with curves white eyedropper. make a snapshot and then paint back detail.