tricky baby pic

[coilte]

I have tried everything I can think of to no avail. This is one of my wife's only baby pictures and the damage on it is proving to be very difficult to resolve. Any cloning techniques just don't look right. I have tried replacing the damaged channel. Any suggestions or ideas on how I could fix this photo would be great.

Thanks
Coilte

[Daviskw]

Hi there

Off for a root canal.. but I used the lightness channel in lab.. then added color back in the face.

Just a little too bright but no time to play just now

Butch

[Kraellin]

i had a go at this also. if you dont like clone, try airbrushing on a blank layer with 'use all layers' turned on. then, gausian blur that layer slightly. each time you work a new area or change brush settings or change brushes, use a new blank layer and do the same thing. this is a good way to build up your fixes in stages. use the airbrush brush at a very low opacity, medium high density and medium high hardness.

craig

[WINTERGODDESS]

WOW !!!!!!!!!! Nicely done...I am going to see if I can give it a whirl this evening when I get home from work... Cute Baby !!!

[oltenius]

What a nice child!
I used clone stamp, healing brush, shadow/highlight and a bit noise.
Regards,
Dan
P.S. Butch & craig, Great job here!

[WINTERGODDESS]

I am going to learn from you two...hehehehee....

[coilte]

Well I tried your method Butch and I just can't get the colors right after using the lightness channel to fix this pic. Any tricks on mainting color balance or restoring the color afterwards? I've yet to try the airbrush method but fear the results will be to soft. The image I uploaded was a small piece of a large portrait has a variety of damage throughout but this stain is the worst of the problems.

Thanks for the help so far.

Jim

[Cameraken]

Hi Jim

The picture has texture from the type of paper the print was made on. I used FFT to remove this.
Then I made a mask for the stain from the yellow channel and applied this to a hue/sat adjustment layer in RGB to remove the stain.
Levels adjusted
Layers to paint
Neat Image
Sharpened

Hope this helps

Ken.

[Daviskw]

OK Jim try this

Use the green channel I believe. Copy it to a new document ..change to grayscle then RGB. Return to the original and sample some skin color. Then on the new apply a gradient map using the skin colors from the original.

Copy and paste then new over the old and use a mask to paint in where needed.

Butch

[Kraellin]

thanks, oltenius. i'd thank others as well, but one says 'you two' where there are 3 posts, so not sure i'm included in that

nice job, butch. a bit pale, though.

oltenius, it's a bit rough... lots of brownish shadowy areas.

and ken, that's excellent.

coilte, try a combo of airbrush and clone. go very light opacities on each and use blank layers for each. or, use ken's method with masks and hue/sat. i always have a little trouble with feathering those type masks, but i'm using psp and i think ps does this better.

craig

[mistermonday]

Very cute child. I brought the image into LAB color where I blurred the A and B channles until the stains were gone. Then used a bit of burning to repair the damaged areas in the L channel. Then took the image back into RGB where I used mostly Hue / Saturation adjustment layers to shift and bring back some of the color.
Regards, Murray

[oltenius]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

thanks, oltenius. i'd thank others as well, but one says 'you two' where there are 3 posts, so not sure i'm included in that
oltenius, it's a bit rough... lots of brownish shadowy areas.
craig

craig, Thanks for the comment! but... Deliberate I wanted to keep this photo technique finding an artistically look!
Regards,
Dan

[Flora]

Hi,

Jim,

like Ken I used the FFT Filter to remove the texture, then, I used 'Select > Color Range' to isolate the dark yellow spots and used Hue/Saturation and Levels Adjustment Layers on my selection to get it to match the original colour and brightness.

I used Levels to remove the overall yellow/reddish cast.

Heal Brush and Dust&Scratches to remove the blemishes.

Neat Image to remove the noise.

USM to lightly sharpen.

Great job everybody!!!

**

[philbach]

Hi Coilte. I first corrected the stain by using Replace Color and then using lab corrected the general color. I used a touch of surface blur to remove some of the texture.

[Kraellin]

flora,

when you used the color range, did you do all the areas in one swipe, or did you sample different areas one at a time and treat each separately?

excellent job!

and you too, phil. also excellent.

craig