Faded Image and Stains

[Bluewing]

Greetings everyone. Newbie here I did manage to find a recent post on a similar topic however after trying what was done I don't seem to achieve the great results what they had done (post was on 7-7-06) I have attached the pic to get your suggestion(s) on what I should do.





Blue

"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room" ~ Bette Reese

[Daviskw]

Hi Blue

This picture sure brings back memories of my Vietnam days, I miss them.

Here is a 20-minute job so I know you can do much better with a little time. Mostly I copied pieces of the green channel into the damaged blue. Then some hue/ sat and levels adjustments.

A little cloning in some hard to change areas and reapplied some color to the skin.

For the sky I evened the luminosity then pained a blue on a color layer.

Butch

[Gary Richardson]

Similar techniques to Butch.

Tried copying adjusting and pasting part of green channel into blue, but results weren't totally satisfactory, and I ended up doing a bit of hand colouring in places.

[Bluewing]

Thanks Butch and Gary !

Gary you mention hand coloring it appears that you were able to remove most of the staining how did you do the hand coloring ?

Thanks

Blue

[Gary Richardson]

First I made an alpha channel copy of the blue channel by dragging the blue channel to the make new channel symbol (square with square inside) at the bottom of the channels palette.

Named it Blue Copy. Did rough selection round pale areas in channel (the stained areas), and adjusted with levels to try and get an even exposure across the channel.

Now did a Select All, then Edit Copy.

Activated Blue Channel, then Edit paste to replace it with the Blue Copy.

Activated RGB Channel.

Now opened layers palette, and created a new layer set to color blend.

Sampled colors from good areas, and painted over stained sections (because we've already adjusted luminance in blue channel, it should come out pretty close).

You may have to create a few color layers to get it as you want it.

Lastly created new layer, normal mode and cloned over any "joins" to hide them.

Hope this helps. Anything not clear just ask and I'll try to explain better.

Good luck with your restoration.

[Flora]

Hi,

great job Butch, Gary!

Blue,

welcome to RP!!

Personally, I found your picture quite challenging... First, I used a Shadow/Highlight Adjustment Layer to lift the shadows a bit (particularly on the soldier's face) ... But when it came to correct the cyan/blue discoloration, I found that none of the 'channels' tweaks I usually go for in these cases satisfied me ... (I see Gary had a similar problem..) ... so ... since there would have been hand colouring involved anyway, I decided to fix it by 'hand colouring' only.

I created a blank Layer on top, set the Blending of this Layer to Color, selected a soft brush (Opacity 40-60%), Alt+Click > sampled good colour from surrounding areas, released the Alt key and started painting over the discoloured spots.

This technique is described in this Tutorial ... in the BLANK/EMPTY LAYERS SET TO.... section ... The example in the Tutorial is a blank Layer set to lighten, but you can change the blank Layer's blending to whatever you need...

After correcting the colours, I used:

Levels and Brightness/Contrast to selectively improve the contrast.
Hue Saturation to even out the sky's colour.
Neat Image (a noise removing software which can be downloade free here) to minimize the noise.
USM to lightly sharpen the image.

Hope this helps...

[Gary Richardson]

Excellent job as usual Flora.

One minor fault (had to note this in my diary as it is such a rare occurance).

Top of soldiers helmet is still slightly discoloured (had to switch on ultra nitpicking mode to notice it, but had to comment (see reason above)).

[Flora]

Thanks Gary!

Originally Posted by Gary Richardson

Top of soldiers helmet is still slightly discoloured

... Actually, I had left that on purpose taking it for camouflage ... .... but I've definitely missed a few other spots ... Attachment 1 is an example...

[mistermonday]

Hand coloring was definitely necessary on this damage. I used a combination of Gradient Maps and a blank layer set to color blend mode.
Regards, Murray

[Gary Richardson]

.... but I've definitely missed a few other spots ...

A heinous admission to make in front of we your admirers and followers. Your elevation to Retouching Godess will have to be postponed I'm afraid, and a session on the RP ducking stool is called for.

(Anyone looking at my submissions over the years, is no doubt calling up Doug at this very minute, and asking for me to take up permanent residence on the said same ducking stool. )

[Cameraken]

Great job Everyone.

So why is this picture so difficult?
It ‘looks’ easy but somehow the colours just won’t come into range.

I split HSL and repaired the layers separately but it still required some colouring.

I may have left mine a little on the light side, er and on the green side.

Ken.

[Bluewing]

Thanks to all of you who worked on a difficult photo (sure glad to see I wasn't the only one that found the picture a bit of a challenge)

Great to have you share your methods so that I can learn from them. I greatly appreciate each and everyone of you spending time on the photo.

I will try to use what you have explained and see what damage I can do!



Blue

Look forward to sharing and learning more from this great site.

[Flora]

You are welcome, Blue!

.... And thanks for your feedback!!

.... Still on my ducking stool, Gary!!

Ken,

I may have left mine a little on the light side, er and on the green side.

.... got your ducking stool? .... ..

[Cameraken]

Hi Flora.

A ducking stool may have been the best place to be today with the heat wave we are having

At least my picture will keep The Gods happy.


Ken.