June 06 Contest Discussion

[makeovermagic]

sorry about the mess -- i'll give it another try -- hope it's not too late.

[makeovermagic]

i think i got it -- I HOPE I GOT IT -- please let me know if i didn't get it

thanks, and i apologize for the inconvenience.

Marsha

[soleah]

Thanks for the gallery, Marsha. I hope you don't get tired of it.

[makeovermagic]

Soleah, Lorraine & Swampy (from the voting thread),

Your welcome!

Marsha

[blue dog]

I posted my L A T E entry under Critique. Please give me a comment or two.

At the last minute (after the deadline) I finally saw that the perspective is way off and decided to fix it, since I was already late. Now I see that no one else fixed it. Was that an oversight or artistic decision?

[T Paul]

First off congratulations to ALL that tackled this challenge!!!

And the winner is....Soleah

The Prize:

A Coloriage v.2.0 plugin, donated by AKVIS

Top 5
Soleah - 54
Doug Colwell - 34
Cazubi - 29
Lorraine - 26
TwinbNJ - 17

[Gary Richardson]

Congratulations Soleah for your well deserved winning entry.

Congratulations also to all the "medallists", and indeed to all entrants. This was a fun one.

[Peter S]

Congrats Etc. Stc. A great job done.

HEY I got one vote anyway - I'm happy.

Peter

[Lorraine]

Congratulations, Soleah. Your entry is excellent.

Congratulations to everyone who entered.

Lorraine

[soleah]

Wow! Thanks Gary, Peter, Lorraine and everyone else. This is truly an honor.

This isn't my first time at colorizing but I struggled just the same. First time I've done colorizing using only one layer. I thought since this is such a busy photo, it would be less confusing and would save time on naming layers.

I'll post my methods a little later.

My congratulations to all the participants. We all deserve a big round of applause.

[Doug Colwell]

Congratulations Soleah - definitely well deserved!

[cazubi]

Congratulations soleah. You did a beautiful job.

Cathy

[soleah]

Same to you too, Doug and Cathy.

Here’s my technique:
It was not the best but I hope you’ll find something useful.

Restoration:
1. Cloned/Copied foliage to cover card backing.
2. Used NeatImage on a duplicate layer, reduce opacity to 50%
3. Applied high amount of USM, mask fill with black. Brushed back sharpness on mask using white to various shades of gray.

a. White brush on eyes, nose, mouth & hair
b. The darkest gray was applied on the background.
c. For the folds of the gowns & men's jackets, used dark gray.
d. Various shades of gray on the rest.

Note: The image became blurry when scaled down to 750x750 jpeg file. I have to compensate by using a high amount of USM.

4. Curve adjustment layer, no change in values, opacity 60%, blending mode multiply.
5. Curve adjustment layer, no change in values, opacity 80%, blending mode screen.
6. Curve adjustment layer, no change in values, opacity 35%, blending mode soft light. Applied black brush on the mask to cover background. This will “lift” the party from the background.

Note: Steps 4, 5 & 6 will add density and crispness to the image. I especially like these because there’s no need to spend time tinkering with values except the opacity. Effective on faded, blurry b/w image such as this one.

7. Levels adjustment layer applied only on the men’s jackets and the lady’s dress on the left. Made it a little lighter.

Note: On the jpeg file, the darks lost some of the details. Otherwise, this one is not necessary for me.

Colorization:
8. Add sepia tone using hue/sat adj layer, opacity 80%. - To ensure coverage
9. Blank layer, blending mode color. Brushed on appropriate color.

a. For the bride’s gown, I chose off-white as the main color.

Note: Initially, the 3 brides maid, the wall, and the flower designs on the carpet have its own layer because I can’t decide on the color yet. For each I used solid color adjustment layer in blending mode color, this way I can easily change color at will. When I was satisfied with the colors, I merged everything in one layer. I still applied some colors to it after merging.

10. Blank layer, blending mode luminosity

a. For the bride’s gown and veil, used white brush at 20% opacity. This will take out the dinginess/grays on the gown.
b. For the bridesmaids’ gowns, used white brush at 15% opacity on the highlights only, to make the gown look light and airy.
c. For the men’s jackets and the lady on the left, used 10% opacity black brush. Also applied some on the hair.

Finishing Touches:
11. New layer fill with black, blending mode color dodge. With white soft brush at 2-8% opacity, brushed on the existing highlights to emphasize it.

a. Low opacity brush on the gowns, men’s jackets and on the "floozy".
b. Used higher opacity brush on choiced highlights on the bride’s wedding gown to simulate satin fabric.
c. Lower opacity brush on facial features like top of the brow, nose, cheek, chin, hair
d. Apply Gaussian blur

12. New Layer fill with white, blending mode color burn. With black soft brush at 2-8% opacity, brushed on the existing shadows to emphasize it.

a. Used lower opacity for the facial features and hair.
b. Brush on shadows or folds of the gowns
c. Apply Gaussian blur

Note: Step 11 & 12 will add dimension and sharpness to the image.

13. New layer fill with gray, blending mode overlay

a. Add noise
b. Apply Gaussian blur

Don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. I'm very glad to share these with you.

Attach image:
1. After restoration
2. After colorization
3. After finishing touches

[Lorraine]

Soleah,

Thank you for the great, detailed description. I've printed it, and am following your techniques on the original photo as practice.

Lorraine

[TwinbNJ]

Soleah,

Congrats on a wonderful job. Thank you for the detailed steps.

[Swampy]

Congrats, Soleah!

[Shalford]

Winner from the start!!

Well done Soleah

[soleah]

Thanks Lorraine, Jill, Swampy, Shalford. It was fun and hope to see you all in the August contest.

[Northernshadow]

Congratulations Soleah!

just got back home otherwise would have posted sooner!
no more vacations till fall now...