For my grandpa's birthday I decided to have a go at restoring an old photo of my grandma (deceased). This is my first go at this and I dont have any special tools or anything, just a plain old PC and mouse - I'd really appreciate some feedback. thanks :)
The picture can be seen here: http://hazelryan.co.uk/

Hi,

Your efforts are wonderful, I'm amazed that it is your first attempt.
I like the colors because they are rich and natural.

Regards

In general it's very good, especially for a first attempt. Looks like you may have a gift for this! You could go for a little more variation in skin tone, and maybe a little colour in her cheeks (not too much, obviously) -- she looks a bit washed out at the moment. Also, for me the hair is a little too monochrome -- but that may just be the colour her hair was, so it's an observation rather than a criticism.

In our family we are not blessed in the hair department :( Obviously I dont remember my grandma ever having colour in her hair :) but I've based the colour on my natural colour (underneath all the dye) and my mothers. Unfortunately we all have that mousy not quite red enough to be brown and not quite bright enough to be blonde colour - though a little artistic liscense probably wouldnt be a bad thing for the picture.
I didnt want to put too much colour in her cheeks as she's obviously not wearing makeup - the picture was taken in 1934 making her around about 12-14 in age (cant remember exactly what year she was born)
I will have another go at bringing out of facial features some more and adding some highlights to her hair - thanks for the advice :)

Ok, had another go at bringing some more colour into her face and hair ...and attaching pictures to posts :)

A lot of people tend to overdo photo manipulation. Second effort is far enough, in my opinion. It's an old photo, it should look like one, just perked up a bit. Good work!
kiska

I agree, the second one is far enough and, I think, a "printer". That's what I was trying to get at - not enough colour to make her look made-up, but in the first one she looked (a bit) as though she was feeling ill -- just a little healthful bloom required!

One thing you might consider (or summarily dismiss) is modifying the background. I think it might help if the vertical lines are truly vertical. Or, if you're so inclined. you may wish to substitute another unobtrusive background for the one that's there.

Your call, of course.

But you've done a great job with this photo!

Good work Nancy. The skin seems to have a high percentage of Cyan. You may want to try and reduce it and see what you get.

Cheers
Dave

Quite the reverse in fact Duv, when I did the curves for the base skin colour I reduced the cyan and increased the magenta and yellow before doing more skin tones with red and yellow layers

Hi, as has been said the background is a little bland, probably because it is similar in tone to the skin colours, something with a little more contrast would display the exellent job you have done on the face a little better. It does look to have a slight magenta tint, at least on my monitor.

Oh. Oh! I think I have a problem and didn't know it. We've got some knowledgable people here on this thread and maybe they can help me on Nancy's pic. OK. Here's what I "thought" I knew. Nancy's original B/W in RGB mode has color cast, at least when I check the info palette. When I convert to Greyscale, all the Numbers match (which they should). Colorizing the B/W in RGB mode will not necessarily get rid of the original color cast. Am I spinning my wheels here?? On the colorized version, the brightest highlite is the collar. It should be white. White has equal values of R G and B. The collar doesn't. Is that even important? The darkest shadow in her hair similarily shows a strong color cast. On my sample attached, the highlites have too much blue and shadows very little. So the question is, shouldn't these values be equal to have a non colorcast, hi contrast photo?
My other concern is skin tone. The only thing that makes sense to me is the wealth of information addressing skin tones in CMYK. I know there are alternatives but when I convert to CMYK and take a reading at point 3, I get readings of 30%, 40%, 48%. Now I know there are a lot of variables but according to Eismann's 2nd page 115, average caucasian should be closer to 8%, 35%, 45%. I have no problem with M & Y, only C. But Nancy says that she has already adjusted for the strong Cyan and Gary thinks there's a stronger Magenta. Sorry to be long winded but this is important to me. I've been doing this for years and maybe I've been doing it wrong. Can someone set me straight?

Most appreciated
Dave

Hi, I know the jpg is in RGB but it was colourised in CYMK then converted back to RGB because CYMK doesnt show in IE and in opera everything comes out too blue.
I dont doubt your technical expertise but as for the 'average caucasion' values well the variety in skin tone for a caucasion person varies greatly but I did try to use your values and no offense meant to you but she looked like a pumpkin. Perhaps if you could explain how you take the reading and which patch of skin you used to sample the numbers I could try again.
Another reason for the disagreement over colour blanace is all moniters vary slightly, I have a flatscreen LCD moniter and colours look quite different on my boyfriend's CRT moniter.
Bear in mind that this is a very old photograph and I didnt want it took look like it was taken yesterday in stunning technicolour. I wanted a softer more artistic look.

Had you done anything to the attachment? It looked identical to mine?

Hi NancyJ,

I'm just started colorizing and haven't enough knowledge yet to help, but I wondered about Duv's attachment also.... It is different, once you download the attachment and view it in photoshop you'll see the registration marks for the areas where he's picked the colors.

oooh thats funky - how do you do that then?

It is neat! :)

Cool. Well I adjusted the colour balance to try to match the values in Duv's post and this is what it came out like. I've also attached the original so if any of you feel like haivng a go at it or using it to demonstrate your advice you can.

Hi,

Here's my attempt.
Hope you don't mind... I used your photograph as a learning tool, since I'm far from comfortable with colorizing.

Converted to cmyk, ran levels, desaturated.
Colored on different layers.
Burned and cloned to fix minor flaws.
Ran despeckle, dust and scratches.
Converted back to rbg and ran neat image.


Edit: I think I made it too light, so I adjusted it in the second pix.

I dont mind at all freelancer :) I hereby give permission for you to practice whatever you like on the photo :) and display it anywhere online for your own personal display :) My grandma is long since departed and I dont think she'd have minded even when she was alive :)

Had another fiddle around with the picture and decided to give my grandma a glamour photo :) Let me know what you think

Thank you, NancyJ,

I like it! It keeps the photo in the right time era. I've collected all the all photos that family members don't want and many of them have that same soft effect.

Your second one looks much better on the contrast though I think the skin tone could do with a touch more yellow, its a little pink :)

Third try is the charm.... I hope!

More yellow in the skin tone now. :)