1st photo repair/colorization critique

[makeovermagic]

hi all -- this is my first ever attempt at fixing a scratch in an old photo and colorizing -- how did i do?

everything that i did in this photo i learned from the fantastic RetouchPRO threads -- so thanks to everyone who contributed to my learning!

i am forever greatful!!

MOM

[asterix]

Desaturate a little colors. Hear and eyes especially. I never seen eye-color like this. Underline the left cheek bone. Other is ok. Regards for your first colorizing.

[Ed_L]

First, let me say welcome to both of you if I haven't already done that. I agree with asterix about the color, *especially* the eyes. The vignette is a nice touch.

Ed

[NancyJ]

Very good work, especially for a first attempt.
I think the saturation is fine, although the eye colour is an unusual shade (for a human being anyway). Looking at the original I would have guessed a pale blue eye colour, or if you're happy with the green, I would use a different shade - less yellow.
I dont like the vignette on such a tightly cropped picture. Perhaps consider extending the canvas slightly so the vignette takes away less of the picture.

[philbach]

Very Good Retouch. I made some changes. I varied the luminosity on the right side of her face to reveal some contours (I wish I could draw better). I also decreased the yellow tint to her skin.

Minor corrections on a very good restore

[makeovermagic]

thank you all for the kind words - i fixed the eye color (i hope) and tried to tone down the yellow skin (although it's not as yellow on my screen), so i hope i didn't make it worse -- on my screen it gives her a little more contour. i also extended the vignette a little bit.

thank you all again. this is a gift for my mother-in-law, and i know she'll love it (she wanted me to add the color).

MOM

[Kraellin]

very nice clean up. professional. i wouldnt worry too much about the green eyes. i dated a woman once who had one green and one brown eye and the green was very close to that. she was always a bit self-conscious about it and ended up wearing colored contacts to correct it, but i always found it a bit fascinating.

i do like that you brought her forward more in the 2nd rendition, but i do believe she could stand a touch more color in her cheeks. not saturation, but color.

other than that, i think it's a marvelous job and reminds me of those 30's studio hand coloring jobs, which your mother-in-law would probably appreciate.

craig

[makeovermagic]

thanks kraellin -- this has been a lot of fun to work on so i appreciate your comments.

i'm having trouble making the cheek color look "natural" -- but i did add some more color - although i'm not sure it made all that much difference.

MOM

[Kraellin]

you're welcome.

but what i was talking about was adding more color overall. the original shows a fairly pasty image. there is some shading, but not really enough. and whereas i've just had a rather lengthy discussion with nancyj about 'pale', i'd add a bit more color if for no other reason than to give the image a bit more depth and contrast.

i worked on one of yours and attached it. i'm not a great colorizer and others could do this better, but it shld give enough of an impression to see what i mean.

but, in all such matters, the real question is, what does the client want? so, if you are the client and you like yours better, then you've done great!

craig

[Ed_L]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Perhaps consider extending the canvas slightly so the vignette takes away less of the picture.

Yes! The picture is tightly cropped, probably in the camera. Extending the canvas should help a lot.

Ed

[makeovermagic]

thanks craig for the added color - i attempted once again to add more color to the cheeks and altered the skin tone a bit - not sure if this is helping or hurting.

ed - based on the original crop of the picture i stretched the vignette as best as i could and widened the picture a bit to accomodate the extra width, but i'm not sure i achieved much -- if i were to extend the bottom of the picture a bit exposing more of the bottom of her jacket and elongating the picture a bit and then stretch the vignette down, do you think that would add anything?

MOM

[Ed_L]

I think you need to be careful that you don't distort the image by "stretching" it. When you increase the canvas size, you would probably have to use selections to move pieces into the newly acquired white area (on a new empty layer). It wouldn't have to be absolutely perfect because the vignette would cover most of it. But it would take some work. What you'd be trying to accomplish is to make the original appear to have been made with the camera a little further away from the subject. Then the vignette would look better without appearing to cut into the image so much.

If you cropped the original image to get what you have, you might be able to leave more of the image showing. That would eliminate "piecing" it together to make it look better. Good luck with it.

[Kraellin]

mom,

ok, let's go back a bit. on the original image you posted, make a new blank layer. on that layer take your airbrush brush and pick a color relatively close to the color you have for her skin. set the airbrush to a very light opacity, low density and a medium to soft 'hardness'. i dont know that all those equivalents translate directly to photoshop, but they shld be similar.

add some color to the entire face. you may want to darken the picked color just a bit or add some red to it, but we dont want too much alteration here from the original. avoid the eyes, lips and teeth, but dont worry too much if you dont. you can always go back and erase. set the blend mode of the blank layer to soft light.

when you've got the face with a bit more color, use a gausian blur to blend it. how much will depend on how well you painted. something around 10 to 20 shld be about right, though. now erase the bits that are outside the skin area or that got into the eyes, lips or teeth.

that shld add some basic color to the image and tone down the brights a bit.

i wont try to tell you what colors here, but now add another blank layer and pick another color and do some shading. gausian blur again and set blend to soft light.

keep doing this with various colors till you have what you want. it's a very easy technique and allows you to correct very easily or even erase completely if you dont like it.

the pink you added on the last one was too much, i think. if you do the same thing on a blank layer with a soft light blend and gausian blur it, it shld blur and blend a lot better.

i shld also point out that i still think you did a good job on the orignal and when you get to a point like that, if you get into something else you dont like, start back from there.

you shld also be aware that there are others who do this stuff much better than i. if you can attract vikki here or flora, you'd get some better help

craig

[makeovermagic]

thanks ed and craig for the additional comments -- i'm working on it and will post when it is complete.

MOM

[Kraellin]

mom,

you're welcome.

it's actually a good excercise for me as well. i need practice in the area also. see what you think of this one. it used the technique i described, but at the end i added a selection on her skin and used the hue/saturation tool to alter the color a bit more back to pale.

craig