[CathyH]

Hello,
I'm working on some old photos for a 50th wedding anniversary gift. First I color balanced this photo and the background seems to be faded more on the left hand side, and I don't really know where to begin on fixing that.
can anyone give me some tips?

Here is the original photo.

Thank in advance.
Cathy

[DaveS]

Hi Cathy,
Duplicate image.
Run Levels Adjusment layer blend mode set to multiply.
Copy the adjustment layer and run a gradient filter on the layer mask.
Merge onto new layer Control>Alt>Shift>E
Run Curves adjustment set to screen and lower opacity to 70%.
Run the gradient filter over the mask.
Merge onto new layer and run Layer>Adjust>Levels>Auto Levels,
Then run a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
I then merged again and added a colour layer which ithought might add a bit of interest and then ran the highpass filter over all set at about 4 just to sharpen a little.
There are lots of ways to do this and I'm sure someone can come up with a better result.
Dave

[DaveS]

Sorry File didn't upload first time.
Dave

[Kraellin]

contrast/lighten a/l to get some contrast back
some darkening of the wedding dress with darken brush
some sharpening on the faces and a few other select areas.
a tiny bit of softening here and there.

not sure what you meant about the fading on the left. seemed the right was more faded to me, but then maybe you meant their left and our right?

Craig

[Panpan]

I used shadow/highlight, contrast curve and neat image.

Pierre

[Cassidy]

1. Curves adjustment using lighter area at back (faded) as black point,
highlight of dress as white point.
2. Brightness Contrast to lift the contrast slightly.
3. Dodge and Burn layer to darken re-lightened fade area and to give more
definition to faces, flowers and groom's pants

[CathyH]

Thank you Dave, Craig and Cass and Pierre, for helping me with this photo.

I should have mentioned I'm working with photoshop cs2.

Dave, I tried do follow what you did. But I don't understand what you mean about "Run the gradient filter over the mask."? I did the high pass filter and I liked that.

I tried all the other suggestion too, to see what happened. Here is my version.
Mainly, I added selective color layer to bring up the black to 18%. Next I did a Curves adjustment layer set to multiply, and used the eye drop tool to find the black point and the white to find the whitest point. Then I did a hue/saturation layer to change the over all color, it looked yellow still. Then the high pass at 4% blending mood set to soft light.

[Kraellin]

nice job, cathyH

you've still got a blueish/greenish tint in there. i'd be very tempted to simply desaturate the whole thing, but then, maybe that tint is what you're after. so ok.

you might also want to look at some of the colorization threads in here and colorize this picture.

Craig

[DaveS]

Hi Cath,
sorry I took so long to explain only just in from work. The gradient tool when used on a mask acts like a filter allowing parts of the mask to be used and not used depending on the gradient, just like painting black and white on a layer mask. Hope that explains what I did.
Dave

[Kraellin]

btw, cathyH, whereabouts in southeast michigan? i used to live in ann arbor/ypsilanti.

Craig

[CathyH]

Craig I live in Warren, about an hour north east of Ann Arbor.

Dave, thanks your description and layers palett that does help, I will give it a try.

I agree that the photo still has a blue tint to it, and I'm finding that anything I up load looks different than it does when I'm in photoshop. I think I will try colorizing it too, that should be fun. Thanks for the suggestion.

You guys are great. Thanks again.

[Kraellin]

warren... not sure i even know where that is. i used to date a girl that lived on telegraph, though. oh well thank you.

and you're welcome.

Craig