light damage

cheesie3 · #1 03-22-2006, 07:59 AM

is it possible to bring back some of the original colour, particularly the skin tones, in a sun bleeched image like the one attached? and if so, how?

thanks

cheesie

Ed_L · #2 03-22-2006, 11:15 AM

Welcome to RetouchPRO. This is a very quick example. I sampled a good skintone to make my foreground color the same. Back to the pic in question: made a blank layer, and chose "color" as the blending mode. Then I painted the face with that foreground color. By making a layer mask, you can then paint with black to "erase" any part you might have gone too far on. If you happen to erase too much, just paint on the same place with white. That will restore the skintone color. The same technique can be used for all other parts. It's probably better to make another blank layer for each color. If the color seems too strong, just reduce the opacity until happy. Good luck. If this is too far advanced, ask questions.

Ed

Kraellin · #3 03-22-2006, 11:31 AM

cheesie,

welcome to RetouchPRO.

in some instances you can bring back color and restore. however, your image is too far gone to bring it back in a normal manner. the only option is to re-paint it. Ed_L has shown you one way. there are others. we've got some very good color restorers on here. perhaps another will drop in and show you some tricks.

in the meantime, i'd suggest a search on the forums here or try the tutorial section. there shld be some pretty good stuff there.

craig

philbach · #4 03-22-2006, 12:20 PM

It seemed that just about all of the color was gone. So I desaturated it and then painted the color back in using blending mode of color. I also used the healing brush on some of the streaks.

Gary Richardson · #5 03-22-2006, 01:41 PM

As the others have already said, it looks like a paint job is needed.

Had a quick go to give you some idea. I'm not really much of a colourer, so you must forgive my crude attempt, the true artists here do it much better.

Cameraken · #6 03-22-2006, 02:31 PM

Hi Cheesie
Welcome to RetouchPro

I adjusted levels and increased the reds to eliminate the blue cast, But there was still not enough colour info so I coloured it as well.

Lightened the eyes and sharpened.

Ken

curvemeister · #7 03-22-2006, 02:59 PM

I believe this image has enough color to work with.

This correction used a three step process involving converting to Lab, the curvemeister plugin, and selective color. I used the brush to clean up a mask, some painting in color mode to get rid of yellow spots on the face, and a bit of healing brush.

I've included several numbered intermediate images, and the final image

Ed_L · #8 03-22-2006, 05:36 PM

Welcome aboard, curvemeister. You sure know how to make an entrance, don't you?

I'd like to bet that if cheesie agreed to let you use the image, you could really write a nice tutorial if you were so inclined.

I checked out your site. What are the limitations of the demo?

Ed

curvemeister · #9 03-22-2006, 05:57 PM

LOL - thanks for the kind words, Ed.

I'm delighted to discover this site and hope to participate here actively. My general take is to use curves to extract the color, since I cannot duplicate the rather incredible painting skills of many of the others here.

The demo version of curvemeister does just about everything, and in fact I teach a class using it. It has all the functionality, and watermarks the image. Windows only.

Ed_L · #10 03-22-2006, 06:14 PM

O.K. Thanks. I'm sure there will be downloads for it.

Ed

bart_hickman · #11 03-22-2006, 11:45 PM

Well this is one of those cases where Paintshop Pro has an indispensable feature the equivalent of which I can not find in Photoshop. That feature is called "manual color correction". Now I see why people rave about it so much.

In PSPX, I ran a script that splits the image into HSL (legacy) channels. Then gave the saturation channel my usual curve boost. This basically boosts saturation most in the mid-saturation areas while relatively unaffecting very high or very low saturation areas.

Then used the manual color correction tool to make his skin "caucasian normal light" and clicked his cheek. I checked the "preserve luminance" box. That pretty much concludes the "restoration" part.

I then brought that result back over to Photoshop so I could do the healing brush (I'm addicted to that thing!). I did a color balance layer (very slight)--this was to taste. I tend to like to boost cyans and yellows for skin--maybe I should have gone for a bit less cyan. I also colored his lips a bit red and his teeth a bit whiter. Finished off with one last curve to make it a bit brighter. I left the hazy mess in the background alone--that's a simple matter.

Bart

bart_hickman · #12 03-22-2006, 11:47 PM

Hey that's a nice one! I'm the non-artistic gear-headed sort myself.

Bart

bart_hickman · #13 03-22-2006, 11:51 PM

Ken, good one! Very clean-looking. The face and cheeks look very nice.

Bart

curvemeister · #14 03-23-2006, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bart_hickman

Well this is one of those cases where Paintshop Pro has an indispensable feature the equivalent of which I can not find in Photoshop. That feature is called "manual color correction". Now I see why people rave about it so much.
...
Bart

Hi Bart,

Wow! There is more than one way to accomplish this, and I like your final result a little better than mine.

I'll bet a nickel the shirt was originally red though - maybe Cheesie will chime in

Kraellin · #15 03-23-2006, 11:24 AM

for those using Paint Shop Pro 10, the 'manual color correction' no longer exists as such. it was replaced by 'hue map'. the reference for this is the psp 10 help files.

also, curvemeister, your plugin by the same name isnt really 'finding' lost color. so, my original assessment stands; there's not enough of the original color to do something like a color balance or channel mixer and so on. your curvemeister plugin could be used on any black and white in 8 bit rgb (not grayscale) to add color. all it's doing is manipulating the grays by separating out each channel into a color band and adjusting from there. this isnt quite the same thing as 'restoring original color'.

i'll grant you it's a pretty slick looking program, but i stand by my original assessment. essentially, what your program seems to be doing is 'painting by curves'. so, you're still actually re-painting the image to restore it. i do like the idea of it, however. since the grays are representing colors, albeit in black and white, a program like curvemeister makes a lot of sense. you simply take the grays, divide them up into the rgb values and enhance those values based on what the grays represent. pretty slick! i may have to try that demo out. that could handle some unique problems in other images as well as what you've done here.

also, cheesie, do you happen to know what the original hair and eye colors were?

craig