Portrait restoration problem

[Nature1]

Hello everyone. I'm new and would like your help with this restoration project. I finally figured out how to merge the two halves together but can't get rid of the line.

Another problem I'm having is not being able to restore the colors. The original is pretty badly faded. Would I have to go in to each stripe and color pattern and paint it or is there an automated way to do this in PhotoShop 7? I tried the multiply feature but it didn't work very well. I may have done it wrong, too.

I'd really appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks in advance.

Nature1 - Bob
neversaydie@knology.net

[Cameraken]

Hi Bob.
Welcome to Retouch Pro.

It sounds like you have scanned this in two halves and joined them together.
If this is correct then could you please post the two scans separately (including any overlap).

There is not much colour left in this image


Ken

[Kraellin]

nature1,

hi, and welcome to RP.

i couldnt find hardly any color data in this image, other than the red. so, what i did was desaturate it completely. i then scratch remove and cloned out the line that was left. i then ran a mask/selection on the band between the two halves and ran the Fast Fix plugin to even them up. after that i ran the lighten/darken tool over the image to brighten or darken up even more. this was a spot process.

but because there are other problems in the image, i ran a curves and levels adjustment layer to fix those and then ran the lighten/darken tool on remaining bright spots.

somewhere in there on one layer was also a 'clarify' filter.

you've also got an FFT pattern in the image. i mostly ignored this but it could possibly be taken out with the fft plugin.

if this was originally a color photo someone else might be able to handle it. or, if it wasnt a color photo you might still be able to colorize it if desired. to me, it seemed like a black and white that had gone 'red' from time.

craig

[Frank Lopes]

This image looks like it was scanned in 2 pieces and then saved a different compressions before being put together.
As it was mentioned before, there wasn't much color to save, so I elected to do it in BW.

Originally Posted by Nature1

Hello everyone. I'm new and would like your help with this ....
neversaydie@knology.net

[palomino]

I decided to recolor from a b/w just for fun...probably not accurate since I do not know at all what the original colors were. I was unable to fish out any color data...as that red had blotted it all out. This will give an example of what can be done in about a half hour or 40 minutes. Cheers!

-Kate

[bart_hickman]

Hi Bob,

It appears from looking at the edges of your posted photo that there is a good 30-40% overlap between the top and bottom portions. As Ken suggests, posting the two separate halves will make the job much easier and the result much better as we can blend them together rather than having a hard edge.

I'm curious. Was the original too large for the scanner?

Bart

[Nature1]

Hello everyone. Thank you very much for all of your excellent input. Here are the two halves as requested.
Thanks,
Nature1 Bob

[bart_hickman]

I started by adjusting both sections so they were fairly similar overall. I slightly darkened the bottom section (it seems too bright) and slightly desaturated the top section (which looks more red and less blue). I think I might have made some other little tweaks like color balance--I forget now. This is taste-based depending on what the final answer should look like.

The first attachment shows the layer stack. Starting at the bottom, we have the desaturated top section. Then I applied a brightening curve to compensate the dark bottom edge--you can see there's a gradient that gradually reduces the brightening as you go up. In other words, it only brightens the image along the bottom edge.

At this point, I noticed that the bottom section is darker (slightly) on the left than it is on the right--at least relative to the top section. So I applied another brightening curve--this one has a left to right gradient so it only brightens the left side of the bottom section.

For both gradients, I iterated the gradients a couple of times to get the correct look.

Now the two sections are almost well enough matched that you can't see the seam between them--almost, but not quite. So I applied a mask blend the top and bottom sections and thus smooth out this seam.

It's hard to see, but the mask itself is yet another gradient that is white on the bottom (no mask) and black on the top (full mask). The height of the gradient is exactly the overlap between the top and bottom. This smoothly blends the two sections.

I focused purely on the blending issue--I didn't spend any time removing noise, or transforming the images so they lined up perfectly from a geometric standpoint (a very slight amount of rotation and scaling is needed.)

Note I'm using Paintshop Pro. Mask layers look different in photoshop--ie., they're not separate layers.

Bart

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

Bob,

Welcome to RP!

I work with Photoshop CS2. I also used the two halves, joined them and adjusted them in a very similar way as Bart did ....

Done that, as already mentioned, I also found that, beside the reddish cast, there was practically no colour information left on the original picture, so, I used the green Channel (the less damaged one) for my restoration and colorization.

I don't know if what I used are even close to the original colours ....

After fixing the B&W for noise, contrast, spots etc, I colorized your picture following this Tutorial ... Not the easiest to start with, but, in my opinion, the best once you get tha hang of it ...

Hope this helps ..

[Cameraken]

Flora.

That’s Superb. I had nearly finished mine But Its just gone in the Bin.
Great Job.

I’ve tried that tutorial several times and keep getting lost with which layer I should be painting on. So I use the other two tutorials at Worth.

Could you post your Colouring Layers Please?

Ken

[Flora]

Thank you so much, Ken!!

Originally Posted by Cameraken

I’ve tried that tutorial several times and keep getting lost with which layer I should be painting on.

...my problem exactly at the beginning .... so much so, that I'd decided that colouring wasn't really for me ....

I'm attaching the colouring part of my Layers' Palette, the individual colouring Layers' Masks and the immediate result after the colouring procedure.

After creating the three colouring Layers according to the Tutorial instructions, (I actually wrote an action for it .... interested?), I usually start on the red Layer and using a white, soft Brush (Opacity 10-20%), I start 'reddening' the strategic points .... skin in general and cheeks, around face, etc. in particular ....


ALL THE BEST for 2006!!!!

[Vikki]

Very nice Flora!
(have you changed your mind about coloring since getting a handle on this method?)
Vikki

[Frank Lopes]

I had a posted a B&W before...
Here is my color interpretation..

Originally Posted by Nature1

Hello everyone. I'm new and would like your help with this
....
neversaydie@knology.net

[Cameraken]

Flora.

Thank you for posting Your coloured layers.
I think you have to be very methodical to use this method

To get blue you have to paint with black on the gold layer.
To get green? Not a clue
Correcting mistakes is even worse
Hmmm? No wonder I found it very confusing.

But I will keep at it and maybe I’ll start to make some sense of it.
The good news is that I can only get better

I think an action to set up the layers is a great idea. So if you would be kind enough to share it then I would be most grateful.

I found another method of colouring. Klattu posted a really good picture here
http://photoshoptechniques.com/forum...956#post101956

I tried this method several times but I found this even more hit and miss, Which is a shame because in theory this should work really well.


Happy New Year. Have a great 2006 - Un nuovo anno molto felice



Ken

[Legacy~Art]

Flora well done again, that is superb!!!