This picture was taken by my friend Ginger of her parents 50th wedding. This is the only one of Mom and Dad dancing and it came out very dark. I play with photoshop but have no idea where to start to help Ginger on this one. Can someone redo this picture for me?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Jean

Jean -- this was taken with a digital camera - right?

It's not just dark -- there's missing detail in the blue and the green channels. We can make it better with some work, but it probably will take some painting skills to correct the skin tones.

I'll let you know what I can do with it, and hopefully some other of our folks here will have time to work on it.

CJ it was taken with a 35mm and then I scanned the image in. Should there be something I should have done in the scan? I do not know anything on channels so any help would be greatly apperciated.

Jean

So is that like "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies" ???

Sorry sissy --- I just had to add that in! LOL

But on a serious note this is an area both Jean and I need help --- we just do not understand channels. :(

And I have read about them! I guess I am Channel challenged!

Don't worry about "not knowing about channels" -- I didn't "know nothing" about them until I came here almost 2 years ago -- and I had READ about them also. ;) I am STILL learning about them.

They are a very important part of Photoshop and digital editing to learn, and you can start by looking at a tutorial right here at RPro--
Jak's Tutorial - Replacing a Color Channel (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/replace/index.html)

Hi, I did not like anything that I did that tried to keep the color, so here is my b&w version ...
Roger

CJ - thank you for the link - I went, I learned -- I tried.


roger_ele - the B&W came out much clearer than what I am capable of doing.

Jean - Here is what I did to try and fix this. This has been a difficult learning image for me.

I just could not get rid of the noise -- any suggestions are welcome.

Jill and Jean -- I haven't been able to work this out either. If you can re-scan, you might be able to get rid of some of the noise, improve the color, and/or obtain more detail. Perhaps not, but it's worth a try. :)

I don't own Neat Image, but I have a demo version that I tried which helped. Someone with skill in using Neat Image might be able to help here.

The shadows are blocked out with no noticeable detail in the man's arm, backline, and coat. The worst part is that nasty colored noise on their skin tones. We have some painterly retouchers here that could do better than I have -- you might send it to Doug to see if he'd like to use it as a Members' Retouching Challenge. (try a re-scan, first)

If I figure something better out, I'll let you know. Maybe someone else will be able to fix it better. :(

I re-posted a newer version based on LAB (per Chuck's rendition) , Neat Image, and some layers of cloning and color burning. I hate not being able to fix something successfully -- I will learn to do this one better sometime.

CJ...real quick that is not our parents. It is a friend of mine family and she asked me to see if we could help her. When I found I could not do anything with the picture Jill suggested posting it.

Roger....I think the B/W came out really good.

Jill your's came out much better than mine. I am still working on it.

CJ....I can see where the neat image is going with the picture. I can see how it works to clean up the noise that Jill and I are fighting. What is neat image? Is it a plug in or it's own software?

Chuck... WOW this is a very workable picture. Great skin tone. You have managed to clean it up real well.
Now the question is may I print any of your renditions (Roger, CJ, Jill and Phil) to put in the album that Ginger is making?

Everyone one that has posted so far is much better than mine. Can not bring myself to post yet.

Jean

Jean/Jill -- misunderstood about whose parents. Excuse, please.

Chuck -- much better! Good job. Interesting -- you had success at working with the LAB format. I tried Calculations on varying channels in LAB, CMYK, and RGB, but never hit a good formula. I'm going to try all LAB now to see if I can re-create one similar to yours.

I re-posted a slightly better version, but it's so blurry that it's not usable. Back to the old drawing board.

Oh gosh I was on the phone with Jill while I was typing (just as I am doing now) and for some reason I typed Phil instead of Chuck.... I am sooooo sorry. Here you are doing such nice work and I can not even get your name straight. No wonder I can't fix the picture either.

Jean:blush: :blush: :blush:

Chuck...CJ What is Neat Image?

Got the second one Chuck and Chuck I must say this is great and am going to try and print it. Did I say Thank you Chuck?
Well if not Chuck, I would like to say thank you Chuck.

CJ I am also looking forward to your next submission. I would like to print a few so Ginger can pick what she likes.

Jean

So Jean that still does not answer the question:
"who is Phil ? "
and is this something I should let your husband know about !

CJ and Chuck I am learning more thank you both!

Once again thank you! Can not wait to try it out.

Jean

Still don't have a good technique for this one, but I did less with this submission than the other that I uploaded, and the many others that I have tried since last night. I did a bit of smudging, which I am NOT practiced at or good at, but it helped on her neck, I believe.

Jean -- you're getting really good at smudging, so this might be one thing for you to try.

CJ...This one came out great!!!! May I print it out for Ginger?

Thank you so much for all the work you have done on this. Chuck, Roger and you have really given me something special for the family and I know they will be very pleased. I plan on sitting Ginger down and showing her how hard this picture is to work with so she will know just how much time and energy you have put into this.

Thank again

Jean

Jean, you certainly may print mine for her, but it's still not good. I know that keepsakes don't have to be perfect -- we see the reminder of the people we love rather than the qualities of the image. Hopefully, Ginger will take some more photos of her folks having fun -- with proper exposure, etc. ;)

This one is good practice for problem photos - I'll keep trying to get it better.

You and me both CJ --- All the people who helped here did a great job. When I told Jean this image was way past what I could ever do with an image I knew you guys would come through and help --- This will mean a lot to Gigner and her family! Thank you.

Thanks, always Ok to print anything I do:)
Some awsome color one's have been posted!
Roger

I've been trying a Fred Miranda action for noise reduction. I need to learn how to use it, but here's an example of what it can do.


Hmmm, looking at it full size here makes me think I need to do some smudging. :(

I downloaded NI and worked on the image again - followed Chuck's steps -

Everybody did such a great job in restoring this very difficult picture which, as CJ said, wasn't only dark, but very noisy and lacking details in the green and blue channels!

What I did here was:

1) Changed to LAB Mode, selected the 'b' channel and 'Ctrl+I' inverted it. This corrected the very strong blue cast giving the picture a slightly more 'natural' colour.

2) changed back to RGB, run the picture through 'Neat Image' ... I see Chuck provided the link already .... :)

3) from then on, always creating different layers for each task, it was just a lot of selective blurring and airbrushing (playing with mode and opacity), Curves and Selective Color to correct colour and contrast and a light High Pass filter to sharpen.

Way to go, Flora! I was hoping you would have time to take on this challenge -- wonderful! I'll have to try that invert b channel also.

Jill -- good results -- are you getting more used to looking at channels now? :)

P.S. -- Flora! That b channel inversion really does the trick for this photo -- how did you learn to do that? I experiment with all kinds of channel changes, but haven't read about or ever noticed that result -- Thanks, I'll be trying that on some old challenge pics that gave me trouble. (There's more than a few of those here. ;) )

Flora..You did great with a really tough picture. Yes all the flaws you mention is why I posted here so I could get the expert help :) . Flora I did print your's but will not give it to Ginger until I have your permission.

CJ, Roger and Chuck believe it or not your submissions printed out really good!
Thank you I know Gingers family will be very pleased.

Jean

Chuck,

Thank you so much for your comment :)

CJ,

thank you so much for you kindness ....

As for the 'b' channel, I haven't read it anywhere.... I just tried it after having fiddled with the RGB and CMYK channels ... which also gave acceptable results, but this, was a 'one step' definite improvement .... I've also tried it with other problem pictures....but it doesn't always help .... :(

Jean,

thank you so much for your kind words .... and boy... this was a real toughie .... Of course you can use my restoration of your picture anyway you want ... I'm very flattered you liked it enough to print it. :) Just let me know if you'd like to have the single (not before&after) bigger size ...

:wavey:

Flora.... That would be wonderful!!! Please send me the single.

Jean

..here it comes... :wavey:

Again thank you Flora. Did you tweak this a little more? It looks cleaner.

Jean

You are welcome :)

and... yes .... I did .... :)

But what also helped is the fact that not having to compress it as much as the B&A one, I could add less noise (to reduce compression banding) .... :wavey:

I tried my hand at smudging this. I'm not totally satisfied. I'd love to try smudging it from Flora's version. Would you mind, Flora?

If anyone thinks they can improve on this, please be my guest.

Tyeise

Not at all, Tyeise ...... please, be my guest . :)

Thank you so much, Flora, for allowing me to use your image to start with. It made it much easier to work with.

I removed the background, changed the contrast a little, and then smudged it. This time, these colors seemed to work better than the blues. I'm still not real pleased with his mouth, but I like this much better than the last one I posted.

Tyeise

Tyeise - what a great idea! Both submission look great,but the colors you used on the second submission compliment the image more. I know Jean will ask you this sooooo I'll ask first, is it OK if she prints this out ?

Tyiese.... What a great idea! As Jill stated I would not have thought to do what you did. Your first was a wonderful piece but I know how hard this image was to work with, as you can see I never posted any of my tries (they were that bad!). Working off Flora's (who is unreal in pulling the subjects out of the dark) on your second try is wonderful. May I print this out for Ginger?

Thank you for all your hard work.

jean

You certainly may print it! That's the whole reason for doing this. :) And I agree that Flora's work is absolutely spectacular. Wish I could sit beside her and learn for a few hours!!!

Tyeise