Fixing Blown Out Image

[rnbluvva]

Hi!

I posted this in another forum... long story short, I have a terrible cell phone image where the mother is sitting with her baby in front of a window and the light is just washing everything out and the shadows are deep.

The thread and original image is in this thread:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-restoration/12145-washed-out-front-window-image.html
Link to original image:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/att...chmentid=26912

Can someone point me to some good tutorials on using the Shadow/Highlight Feature in PS CS2?

I played around but I noticed as i did it that huge blocks of image data are lost and showing up as funny pixelated squares (it looks that way anyway).

The original image is the one posted in the other thread, my attempt at using SH is here.

SH Values are as follows:
SHADOWS
Amount: 60%
Tonal Width: 50%
Radius: 30%

HIGHLIGHT
Amount: 42%
Tonal Width: 90%
Radius: 100%

ADJUSTMENTS
Color Correction: +20
Midtone Contrast: 0
Black Clip: 0.01%
White Clip: 0.01%

Any feedback or help is much appreciated

[Flora]

... me again ....

Instead of writing the Tutorial I got involved with this one .....

First Great Job!! .... This picture is really difficult!!!

Among the fading, noise, blotches etc., here the worse problems are:

the solid white blocks at the joung mother's back .... and nothing can really be done where there are no details whatsoever ....

The blocked blocks of shadow on the woman's 'decollete' ....

Well, I concentrated on trying to bring out as many details as possible in the mother's face evening out blotches, discolorations, moothing skin etc .......

The procedure is practically a 'clone' of the one used for Isaac ... (the same one I'll be decribing in my Tutorial ....)

[rnbluvva]

Flora!

Wow I am amazed at how you got the detail in her face to show. I tried all last night and could not get that much detail. I would love to know how you did that, esp. with her eyes, nose etc.

I tried so many ways, but just was not able to get that, so if you could share how you got the eye, nose, lip, side of face etc. detail I would love to hear it.

Excellent, excellent job!

[bart_hickman]

I'm impressed! How'd you get her right eyebrow?! I had actually done some exploration over there to see if there was any signal at all and could find nothing but jpeg artifacts and yet you have a nice clean eyeball with eyebrow! Did you paint something in?

This reminds me of those sci-fi or crime shows where they have a hopelessly distorted and pixellated image and they just tell the computer, "computer, enhance photo please", and like magic the image clears up.

Nice work.

Bart

[rnbluvva]

Yup pretty freaking incredible work huh Bart. I tried and tried to get that other eye and eyebrow and even the upper lip and parts of the nose and had no luck... so I am sitting here checking my email every 10 minutes in hopes that Flora will share her secret with me because i am dying to know how she achived this miracle. I had massive problems with JPEG artifacts in this image and it was just killing me!

I am in awe as well!

[CJ Max]

Flora does amazing work indeed - very talented. I love viewing her efforts.

If you go to the individual channels, RGB in PS, you may find that one will give you more details than the others. Then it's a matter of making adjustments in curves, levels, etc.. Noise can be removed too with other software.

If there's another method, I'd love to learn it. I'm still a beginner at this too.

Cliff.

[rnbluvva]

CJ- I am going to try to start over again with this image. I have to try to get more detail in the face as Flora did.

I will try channels this time.

Flora, did you clone the left side of the face to get the right parts? I am dying to know how you did this amazing work.

Thanks!

[rnbluvva]

CJ- just having a look at the channesl and Blue and Red have huge JPEG artifacts in them. I don't even know where to begin with this method.

Green looks OK, so what do I do with it? Where do I start when using Channels? Any links to Tuts that deal with restoration using channels would be much appreciated.

I have Neat Image Pro to reduce noise. Can I apply that to the seperate channels?

Thanks

[Flora]

Hi,

....does the "better late than never" thing still apply??

Actually I've been writing the tutorial in fits and starts ... I'm in Sout Africa (near Cape Town) at the moment ... and the whole country has been 'affected' by regular and very, very long power cuts .... To say that it has been frustrating is an understatement .... Anyway ... the tutorial is here....

I do hope it answers some of the questions...

Thank you so much for your great comments!!!

Originally Posted by bart_hickman

Did you paint something in?

Yes, I did... Using the blank Layers step described in the tutorial...

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

Flora, did you clone the left side of the face to get the right parts? I am dying to know how you did this amazing work.

No cloning whatsoever ... I tend to keep the cloning as my last resort ... I simply sampled from darker areas around her eyes and carefully painted the missing parts on a blank Layer set to 'darken' following the very very faint natural lines/shadows.
I'll post a snapshot of my working Layers so you can see...

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

I have Neat Image Pro to reduce noise. Can I apply that to the seperate channels?

Absolutely yes!!! You can apply it to single channels or to selected parts of the image only ... here you can find a Tutorial I wrote on using Neat Image with selections ...

Hope this helps ...

[rnbluvva]

Flora!

Thank you so much for persevering through rolling blackouts to write this wonderful tutorial! Excellent work! I appreciate this so much and I know it is going to help many people

I have to say you did a great job painting the Mum's eye, nose etc features with a Darken layer. I am going to have a go at that today. If you could post up a snapshot of your layers, it would be helpful.

Thank you for the link to the Neat Image tutorial as well. I am having another go at this image today and hope to post results this evening.

Hope your stay in SA otherwise has been good

Thanks so much Flora.

[Flora]

Hi rnbluvva,

Thank you so much for your kindness!!!

.... I just don't seem to be able to 'catch up' regularly .... sorry ....

Anyway, here is the snapshot of my workflow fro your picture ...

Hope it still helps ... and sorry again for my delayed answer ....

[rnbluvva]

Flora,

I really appreciate you posting your workflow. That helps me a lot! And no worries on the time, I surely understand how crazy life is!

Hope you are well