Newbie needs help with stained face

[srtoys]

I have read all the posts I could find on restoring photos with stains, but can't seem to get a handle on some of the techniques.
I am trying to restore the attached photo using Paint Shop 10.
As many of you have said having to try to restore a problem that involves the face is probably the hardest.
If any of you impressive folks could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

Steps I tried.
Splitting into color channels - stain seems to appear in them all.

Clone and color replacement - both useless.

Any ideas?

Desperate Newbie

[ParkerF1]

Originally Posted by srtoys

Any ideas?

Get a Trial of Photoshop CS2 and PM me. You can fix it right up with less elbow grease than you already used.

[ParkerF1]

Quick synopsis:

- cloned as much as possible
- copied & pasted opposite parts to restore unaffected detail in corners of eyes etc.
- painted in different blend modes to colorize and balance
- blurred or healed difficult spots

10 min of work and definitely not a final result... but it's doable. always.

Rob

[Gary Richardson]

Quick clone job.

Rough out with semi-soft brush at 100%, blend in with soft brush at about 20%.

Had to guess what nose looked like.

[Cameraken]

Hi Srtoys.

Welcome to RetouchPro.

This picture has become pixelated in the stained area around his face. I used blank layers set to
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=206
To repair the face and other staining.

levels to set black and white points.
Selective colour to adjust the colours
Layer to colour the face and remove some of the casts
Neat Image. (selective)
Sharpened (High pass)
I also straightened it up.

Ken.

[Daviskw]

I used much the same techniques as above but I did use a little skin from another picture

Butch

[bart_hickman]

You don't need to post a larger image, but I wanted to say the noise from the stain is aliased in this small image, so the task is somewhat complicated by that. If you use the method I describe it'll only turn out better with a larger image.

My first step is to mathematically remove most of the stain. I use what I like to call the color transformation method (another one of my tutorial to-do's). I've described it in the past in these posts:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...highlight=blue
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=17498657

The second post was for Photoshop. PSPX doesn't have color samplers, but you don't need them--just move the eye dropper around and enter the data directly into the curve.

The trick is painting the curve mask to good effect, but you don't have to get it perfect--you just want to get it good enough so that subsequent destructive methods (smudge and clone) can be used gently without hurting important detail. Use a soft, low opacity (<25%) brush. The first attachment shows how it looks after this first step.

Now that the face is mostly cleaned up, it's safe to use progressively more aggresive steps. I did the next steps pretty quick just because I don't want to spend a lot of time on such a small sample.

The next step is correcting the color (layer Fine Tune Color)--just create a blank color blend layer (use color legacy blend mode) and paint some good skin color into the stained area.

Create another blank layer (Smudge) and do some light smudging to get rid of some of the graininess.

Create another blank layer (Clone) for cloning out the background (I didn't use cloning on the face because it invariably changes the person's appearance.) In retrospect, it looks like I might have erased some of his hair--oops--I was in a hurry.

Finished up with a tiny bit of degrunging (search for tutorial by byRo). A larger original would have enabled more effective degrunging.

The second attachment shows the final result. The last attachment shows the layer stackup (I used PSPX to match up with you.)

Bart

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

srtoys,

welcome to RP!

...Had to try this ....

At first, like most people did, I copied the 'good' cheek, flipped it and pasted it ... but wasn't really satisfied with the result... so ... I tried something else:

* Loosely selected around the discoloration and feathered the selection.
Created a new blank layer, set it to Soft Light, and with a fuzzy white brush (opacity>10-20%), I painted over the stain to lighten it up a bit.

* With the selection still active I created a Levels Adjustment Layer where I tweaked midtones and shadows to decrease the black. (Very pale, nearly all details faded) Attachment 2

* After reselecting (Ctrl+Click on the Levels Adjustment Layer's Mask) I created a Selective Colors AL where I tweaked: Reds, Whites and Neutrals to basically correct the colours a bit.

* Blank Layer set to Color where with a fuzzy colour brush (opacity 40-60%) I painted colours sampled from surrounding areas. Attachment 3

* 2 more blank layers set to Normal where I used the heal Brush and the Blur Tool, and Soft Light where, with a fuzzy white brush (opacity>10-20%), I enhanced lighter spots to bring back a 3D feeling to the right cheek (my right) and forehead. Result up to this point + My workflow so far > Attachment 4

Ken has already provided the link to the 'Blank Layers set to...' Tutorial... (Thank you!!!)

[Kraellin]

this one gave me fits to begin with. it wasnt till i realized that the main problem wasnt a color problem but rather a luminance problem, that i began to get some decent results.

the reason i say it's a luminance problem is that when you study the stain on the face you'll notice the r g b values are all very close to each other, putting this more into the gray tones rather than the color tones.

with that in mind, i selected out the stained facial area and made a new image of it. not a layer, but a whole image. i then resized it to 4 times the normal size. i then ran the 32 band gray plugin on it to lighten up the stains.

then i did a small amount of push (smudge) on it and resized it back to the original size and pasted it onto a new blank layer in the right position and set this layer's blend mode to luminance. i added a group layer to this and inserted a curves adjustment layer to balance the colors better. so, now we're back to color adjustment.

from there it was a matter of blank layers and push, clone and airbrushing with one additional color balance adjustment layer throw in for good measure. i used several blank layers here, one for airbrushing, one for push, and one for both. i tend to make these blank layers as sort of mini-saves. i get to a place where one tool has done pretty well and i 'save' that work by making a new blank layer and start fresh with new work.

when i had the color tones for the face pretty well and the hair blended into the face and so on, the last tweak was with the lighten/darken brush to add a bit of highlights back to the face. all that airbrushing and push tends to make too much of a monotone at times.

and somewhere near the end i also simply cloned out the stain that wasnt part of the boy. that part was easy.

all in all, a tricky image. how i discovered the luminance problem was that the hue/sat/light adjustment layer (i had tried but didnt use ultimately) was having very little effect on changing things except when i used the lightness slider. that was the clue.

craig

[srtoys]

I sure was impressed by all the talented people here.
All willing to help out a poor newbie.
The help is greatly appreciated.

What a bunch of great tips.

This is my daugthers favorite picture of her son, I'm sure she will be thrilled that with some work it can be saved.

I work with computers everyday but my skills are more techy than artistic.

Now it's time for me to give it a whirl.

I now have Photoshop CS2 installed in addition to Paint shop pro 10.
Although I haven't had the patience to work with Photoshop much, it seems the better choice here.

I have a high resolution scan to work from.

Wish me luck.

[Gary Richardson]

Good luck. Keep us posted as to how things go.

[ParkerF1]

photoshop is really the best all-around tool. i've tried them all and will continue to do so, but nothing beats it. get used to navigating yourself around, and pic up some books from Scott Kelby (after that point there are numerous others you should try). Try every tutorial you're interested in, more than once if you have the time. Also get used to messaging people on these forums, bc as I've found, some people are more prone to opening up to you individually about their "secrets" than posting the details in an open thread... this is alot less prevalent here, more so on some photography sites etc... I think you lucked out coming here. RetouchPro members are very proactive and share what's in their heads

oh and the sooner you get used to Photoshop Actions - creating your own, etc - the better.

[srtoys]

I appreciate all the help so far, but I'm getting frustrated.

I have tried many of your techniques, but have yet to get any usefull results.

I know you have all been doing this for quite a while, but you would think
someone like myself who works on computers for a living should be able to
get results out of a program.

Yes, I know practice makes perfect, and I should just be more patient.

Anyway, I have had the most luck with Bart's mathematical process, I was close and then with a click of the mouse I was back to the drawing board.

I also tried Flora's technique but got stuck on how to lighten the stain without destroying the underlying detail.

I know you all would consider it cheating, but what do you all think about using a photo with a similar expression and replacing the face?

I guess I would also be interested in suggestions on where I should go to start learning how to truely use Photoshop.

Like most people I just hoped for the magic button.

Thanks

Steve

[srtoys]

Here is a start of what I have in mind.

Steve

[Flora]

Hi Steve,

In my opinion, one of the biggest advantage but, at the same time, most confusing disadvantage of Photoshop is the nearly infinite number of ways, methods and technique you can use to get the 'same' result ....

Bart is an absolute genius with numbers .... I am right at the opposite end ... meaning I work by simply 'eyeballing' ....

I know you all would consider it cheating, but what do you all think about using a photo with a similar expression and replacing the face?

.. We all do it in these difficult cases ... that is... if we are lucky enough to have access to another picture of the same subject ... and, if not, I have sometimes borrowed from a different subject with similar features ...
That said, I've never changed a 'whole face' ... but, since in the second picture you used, your grandson's expression is really very, very similar to the original you could try it and see your daughter's reactions ....

Personally, I would replace only parts in the stained area, trying to keep/salvage the 'hand with apple piece in mouth' because, in my opinion, it is just these 'small' details that make a 'mom's heart ... melt'