This is my first image and first real go at altering a photo. It's not great, but it's a start. Was hoping for some feedback.....Hope I get this upload right. :dizzy:

Hi StarLaughter,

Welcome to RP!

Your Pictures were rightly uploaded. (many of us here, had some trouble with uploading images the first time ... :wink: )

I think you did a very good job in selecting the cross and eliminating the tall palm tree ....

The transition with the new background is nice and smooth.

The only thing I'd change, but this is only my opinion, is the colour of the new background which, at least on my monitor, looks and make the whole picture look, a bit 'flat'.... you could try to darken it, play with gradients or with Filter>render>Lighting Effects.

:wavey:

Thanks Flora.

Are these ones any better?

Wow .... I love the left image .... I think the impact of the cross against the sky is tremendous!!!

The only thing, now,...(gosh I'm getting booooring....) is the 'tree-line' at the bottom of the image .... It doesn't blend in smoothly with the new background ...

To correct it, try the following:

Create an empty Layer on top of all the others (blending > Darken).

Selecte a soft (fuzzy) brush (Opacity 30/60%).

Alt + left click in a sky area close to the tree-line to pick the right colour.

Paint over the tree-line to blend it in with the rest of the sky.


Hope this could help.

:wavey:

Oh Flora, you are far from boring. If people don't point out my mistakes I will never have a clue.......and right now I have no clue, but with helpful pointers like yours I will slowly get there.

I made the adjustments (I won't bore you with the image again), and it looks so much better now. I love it.

Thanks

I've been searching and reading threads for a while and have come to the conclusion that the photo I'm working on also cannot be restored.I've tried a couple of things from Katrins book R&R but the results were subpar. I'd like to post and get a few responses as to whether or not his photo can be properly restored. Any help would be appreciated.

pcbrown - I'm a bit confused as the photo you posted actually looks quite easy to restore, at least to a monochrome image. What in particular is the difficulty you're having with it?

The problem is that the wifes friend wants it to look like it did when it was taken. I made a real nice BW white, tell me more about the monochrome

Black and white is the same as monochrome. Was this originally a colour image, then?

Black and white is the same as monochrome. Was this originally a colour image, then?
Yes, taken in Germany in 1958. I'd like to try coloring it but cannot find a tutorial that explains everything to someone new at coloring. Like the best way to make the selections. A tut that hits every detail.

Yes, taken in Germany in 1958. I'd like to try coloring it but cannot find a tutorial that explains everything to someone new at coloring. Like the best way to make the selections. A tut that hits every detail.
On the edge of the photo I have a sample of the womans dress and a small sample of the background.She also said she was blonde but this photo doesn't seem to support that, Lokks more to be light brown to me.

The absolute bestest colourising tutorial I know (although it takes a different approach from almost all the others out there) is the Primary Colorizing tutorial at Worth1000 (http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015) (if you try that one and it doesn't suit you, there are a couple of other colourising tutorials at Worth1000 in their Tutorials section). The only thing I would say is download the sample image they use in the tutorial and work through the tutorial using that first, because that will make things a lot clearer. It's not an immediately intuitive process, but it is easy to follow and seems to produce better results than many other techniques out there.

A lot of people with light brown hair seem to get described as blonde - I guess it sounds better than "mousey". If you aim for the blonder end of light brown/browner end of blonde you'll probably be in the right ball park.

Hi pcbrown,

Welcome to RP!

An excellent Tutorial on colorizing black & white pictures is to be found right here (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=32) at RP.

I colorized your picture using the technique described in the Tutorial.

Not knowing what the original colours were, I used my imagination .... :happy:

Hi pcbrown,

Welcome to RP!

An excellent Tutorial on colorizing black & white pictures is to be found right here (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=32) at RP.

I colorized your picture using the technique described in the Tutorial.

Not knowing what the original colours were, I used my imagination .... :happy:
That was an awesome job. How long did it take you to learn this.

That was an awesome job. How long did it take you to learn this.

Thanks pcbrown!

The first time I started working with pictures was nearly 4 years ago .....

Colorizing isn't really my 'cup of tea' .... There are many, here, who can work magic in colorizing pictures .... I only wanted to show you an example of what can be done.....

:wavey:

Do you have any idea about the correct colors? I just guessed at these. I think her dress may have been pink, but I was going for a bit more contrast.
The best thing to remember when coloring is that there are millions of colors, so don't limit yourself to just a few.

Leah,

I had seen that tutorial ... and tried it only once on the same picture downloaded from the tutorial site .... as I said .... colorizing is definitely not my cup of tea ... compared to Vikki's beautiful, very natural result, mine seems a made-up doll....


Vikki,

I always admired all your work .... but the pictures you colorize are really breathtaking ....

pcbrown wrote:
On the edge of the photo I have a sample of the womans dress and a small sample of the background.She also said she was blonde but this photo doesn't seem to support that, Lokks more to be light brown to me.

I do hope he finds a way to let you know ....

:wavey:

Flora, thank you! Your coloring looks great. It's just a different style.
I don't care for the tutorials where you are instructed to select areas, or the hue/sat method. The one I use it the Primary Coloring method at this site (it's not easy, but I like the results).
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp

Vikki showed me the primary colorization method from worth1000.com a while ago, and I've use it a lot, and feel it produces very nice results. Like Vikki I used it on this image. I find that the primary colorization method doesn't always give me the best skin color, so I usually add additional layers (blending mode color) to tweek any colors that need adjusting.

I also compared some methods for converting to grayscale before I started colorizing: image/mode/grayscale, channel mixer (with monochrome selected), and then the channels. I went with the green channel which looked the best to me, and opened it up a little with a levels layer.

Flora, I couldn't agree more about Vikki's tremendous skills in colorizing.

Alan

Vikki,

Thank you very much for the link .... I had been there once already and tried it ... Been back yesterday and I'm going to try it again... :rambo:

Alan,

Wow!!...Just beautiful .... Gosh ... I really have to try it again.... :classic:

Very nice Alan!
I noticed right away how much better the lettering looks on your version. I didn't even think to fix that.

Thank you Vikki and Flora for the nice words.

Vikki, must be the work I do on document restoration that made me go after the lettering. :-)

Alan