Image Help - - Need Advice with clean and fix faded pic

tomvason · #1 06-21-2005, 03:10 PM

Hi folks,

I love this website. I'm thankful I came across it!! Its great. So, I hope you experts will have some advice for me on how to deal with this picture.

I have done quite a bit with it, however, it is not cleaning up near as well as I would like.

What would you advise on taking care of this one?

Gary Richardson · #2 06-22-2005, 01:17 AM

Hi Tom,

Welcome to RP. Your picture is a little small to see the detail well, the file size limit is 100K, so you could try posting a larger version if thats possible.

In the meantime, will try having a go with your posted image, I'll get back to you if I have any success with it.

tomvason · #3 06-22-2005, 03:45 AM

Thanks Gary, I do appreciate it.

Here is another copy of the pic. Maybe this is better.

Thanks,

Tom

Gary Richardson · #4 06-22-2005, 04:00 AM

Hi Tom, had a quick go with your picture. Results not great, but possibly an improvement on the original.

Created new layer, and did a bit of cloning, using dark areas of background to mask blown areas.

Then new layer, set blend mode to soft light, fill with 50% grey. Now using soft black brush set to about 5-10% opacity, paint in darkness to some of the blown areas on the figures.

Levels adj to up contrast a little.

Will try with slightly larger version, if results better will post.

tomvason · #5 06-22-2005, 06:05 AM

Thanks Gary, that's great! Especially the hair on the child holding the baby!

Here is a copy that I have done some work on. However, at this point, it seems to look to cartoonish!! Esepecially does it look this way where I have tried to reconstruct the hand of the young girl.

I have used several methods to get to this point. Cloning, healing brush, patch tool, etc...

Keep in mind, I'm a complete novice at all this. I appreciate all the help I get. Thanks,

Tom

Flora · #6 06-22-2005, 08:03 AM

Hi Tom,

Welcome to RP!

I had a quick go at your picture.

I worked on the smaller one (the only one up last time I 'was' here...)

I cropped the picture.

I used the Heal brush (mode>replace first and normal then) to minimize the strange stripes on the left side.

I used Levels and Curves to balance shadows/highlights

I used a hair brush on the hair of the girl holding the baby.

Hue&Saturation for a light sepia tone.

Dark vignette around the corners..

Mine was a quick try ... only to see if it could be improved.

Your restoration looks a bit like a painting but I like it ... What I would do is softening the transition edges around the people and decrease the intensity of the black door opening at the back which, in my opinion, is a bit too strong...

tomvason · #7 06-22-2005, 08:10 AM

Thanks Flora, your effort looks great!

All of this is a big help. I will post again shortly.

Tom

Gary Richardson · #8 06-22-2005, 09:11 AM

Had a play about with the second image, a bit more detail to work with. Didn't really do anything different.

Flora, really nice job on the figures.

tomvason · #9 06-22-2005, 09:21 AM

Hi Gary,

That looks great, especially the background! What did you use to bring out the background that way? No matter what I do, I can see no details (other than the door frame). Could be my monitor's display settings. Not sure. However, I can not find those details, even though I know they are correct as this picture was taken in front of the same house that this family often took pictures in front of.

Great stuff!!

Flora · #10 06-22-2005, 10:32 AM

Tom, Gary,

thank you so much for your kindness!

Tom,

looking forward to seeing your final result!

Gary,

great job restoring the plank wall (? ... did I say that right?

) ....

Gary Richardson · #11 06-22-2005, 11:56 AM

Hi Tom,

I cheated with the wall, and stole it from another picture (one of the challenge images), one with a similar planked wall. Copied and pasted into picture, then adjusted size and hue/sat to get a reasonable match. Masked it to fit round girls head.

Flora, yes, plank wall is fine. I know I've used planked wall, but both are valid.

Drach · #12 06-22-2005, 12:23 PM

I think the wall is different. If you check the marked area (the circle) you can see that there must be some vertical wood sheets. It seems there are 2 horizontal sheet above those. That means when looking from the side instead of this..

\
\
\
\
\
\

its more like this..
_
||
||_
||_'
||
||_
||_'
||
||

Also there is something above the dark horizontal area (see marked area). It's over the complete width of the picture. Most likely another wood sheet.

Just an idea..

tomvason · #13 06-22-2005, 10:58 PM

Here is another attempt at fixing this picture.

I am very frustrated at this point as the more I try to clean it up, it seems to start evolving into a cartoon type look.

Also, no matter what I do, I can't get the dirty look out of it. I'm using various filters and have followed several tutorials, but end up with it looking like a painting instead of a photo.

The hands are a mess and that is one of the most difficult areas to deal with. I have also added color to it, in hopes that it would bring out some areas that I could work with more closely.

Anyway, here is my latest attempt. I don't wish to go any further until I get some feedback from ya'll.

Thanks for all your help,

Tom

Gary Richardson · #14 06-23-2005, 12:52 AM

Hi Tom,

First of all, be aware that certain areas of this picture will be very difficult to clean up. Most namely the area of the girls hands and the little girls legs.

You will almost certainly not be able to restore this back to an "as new" state, as there is not enough "good" picture data to work with. You may be able to borrow from another image, but this in itself poses significant problems.

Just a few hints when cloning.

1. ALWAYS Clone on a new layer.
2. Be aware of the texture of the image you're working with, and choose a brush thats appropriate (ie vary the hardness/softness to suit).
3. Try varying opacity of brush to blend things in rather than softening brush (sometimes this works better).
4. Vary brush size. Sounds obvious I know, but you'll find its easy to get stuck using a brush of one particular size, when a different sized brush may give better results.
5. Try experimenting with the clone brush set in different blend modes, this can sometimes help with certain cloning difficulties.

By working on a seperate layer, it is easier to correct cloning faults, by simply erasing them and re-doing them. Also you can vary opacity of layer as another adjustment.

Don't try and clone the whole image on one layer, choose a small area and try to get it right. Then another layer, and work on another area.

You can merge layers once things are right to keep file size down (be careful to make sure you're happy with things before you do this, as its difficult to step back once you've merged.)

Flora · #15 06-23-2005, 01:11 PM

Hi Tom,

what Gary said ...

I'm one for 'as close as possible' to the original and try-everything-you-can, but, in some cases, particularly when good/vital picture data is missing or damaged beyond recognition, it is just not possible ....

One thing I always try to keep in mind is not to lose 'the' focus ... meaning... unless it is some historical 'document', where every single detail can be of vital importance, when working on a picture portraiting people, I concentrate on them ... what good is to put a lot of time and effort to perfectly reconstruct a plain, non-descript background, if then I can't restore the eyes in a face or bring the main subject of the picture to an acceptable condition?

With this in mind, I learnt to 'crop' away, entirely or partially, non vital-damaged parts , I learnt to hide or cover such parts, to borrow from the same or other pictures when reconstruction is nearly impossible ... alas, what I haven't learnt yet is to perform miracles ...