Is This Snapshop Salvagable?

[Charlene5]

This time it isn't my family, it's his. At some time someone took a whole bunch of old pictures and had them photographed. This is a photograph of a snapshot. It's not an important picture or a particularly good one, but it's making me crazy that I can't "fix" it to add to the archive.

I tried masking all the figures individually and twiddling with levels and curves. That worked OK for the ones in the middle who aren't too much of a mess. The really dark and really light didn't fare too well. I started over and tried layers and blending and that was worse.

Should I just skip it or is there something I can do that will make it not such a mess?

Thanks!

MJ

[Alison]

Hi MJ,

I started out with the shadow/highlight tool, then duplicated the layer and set the blending mode to multiply. I then used a gradient mask (black to transparent) to keep the darker top and hide the darker bottom. You'll notice that I haven't cleaned up all the grunge that appeared So the guy, back left, still looked as though he didn't belong in the photo I selected his head ..... you can do his whole body as well .... used layer via copy and set the blending mode to multiply, I then took the opacity down to about 40% You can see the result compared to the rest of his visible body. I also used the brightness/contrast filter but only to try and tweak the contrast a little.

I didn't try curves after I had got this far.

[solitear]

Hi MJ,

Don't know that I had any better luck but just wanted to try.... the thing that seemed to help was starting off with a 'better than flash fill' method to lighten up the dark area in the front. Don't know if you're familiar with it...

(When I say 'original' below, I mean a copy of your original)

Image > Duplicate

On the duplicate image: Image > Mode > Grayscale > Gaussian Blur > Ok

On the original: Select > Load Selection (check 'Invert') - you'll see marching ants

Edit > Fill > 50% Gray and Blend mode to Color Dodge at 100%


After all this, I did exactly as you by making selective curves adjustments with different blend modes.

I did sharpen using a soft light layer and running high pass.... then I added space to the canvas with color and noise to match the photo....

Fun to work on this!!

Beth

[solitear]

Alison, great job... especially on the fellow in the back..... I keep forgetting about using gradient maps for stuff like this..... dang.... it looks good

Beth

[albatrosss]

Changed mode to BW. Levels to brighten, then made selections on various individuals and used curves. Then Dodge and Burn, Unsharp and High pass. Used some smudge to lighten some areas.

Needs to be cleaned up a great deal but thought that I would submit it anyway.

[Charlene5]

Thank you!! I'm always amazed at how quickly the help and suggestions come forward.

Alison - Why did you start with shadow/highlight? I'm not being critical I'm picking your brain. What was it about this gruesome snapshot that sent you there first? I, too, forget about gradient masks. They can be quite useful IF I think of giving it a try. One of my least favorite things is correcting the levels in a photo and seeing all the grunge and damage that magically appears

Solitear I wasn't familiar with you better than flash fill but I've written it down in my grubby little notebook. Thank you for explaining it to me. I don't feel quite so stooopid knowing that I was sort of on the right track with the individual curves and levels.

Albatross you succeeded with curves where all I could think of was taking a ballpene hammer to Photoshop Thank you for having a go at it - I'm impressed with what you did!!

I'll try it again with the new stuff I've learned. Thanks again, y'all are marvelous!

MJ

[Alison]

Hi MJ,

Alison - Why did you start with shadow/highlight? I'm not being critical I'm picking your brain. What was it about this gruesome snapshot that sent you there first?

Mostly to see if there was information in the darker parts of the image which I could lighten. It happened to bring up all the grunge, but I expect that is the price we have to pay

I took that root in this instance because the guy at the back left of the image was nearly a ghostly figure and I didn't want to lighten the highlights otherwise I think he would have disappeared from the image altogether. Had I just duplicated the layer and used the multiply blending mode with the original image as it was I doubt that I would have got any of the information back (in the darker parts).

[Alison]

Originally Posted by solitear

Alison, great job... especially on the fellow in the back..... I keep forgetting about using gradient maps for stuff like this..... dang.... it looks good

Beth

Thanks Solitear, though it is still a little contrasty for my liking. When I get some spare time I'll go back and fix the man at the back and get some darker tones back in the appropriate places.

Lovely job by you as well. I'm going to have a go at your technique

[solitear]

Thought I'd post this link to Action Central...... it's Katrin Eismann's Fill Flash method made into an action by Dave Jaseck. You may already have this..... I've used it too and it's great..... I'm just in the habit of using the 'Better Than Fill Flash' method since I learned it first.....

Be sure to scroll way down to the bottom to get the action....
http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

Beth

[Alison]

Originally Posted by solitear

Thought I'd post this link to Action Central...... it's Katrin Eismann's Fill Flash method made into an action by Dave Jaseck. You may already have this..... I've used it too and it's great..... I'm just in the habit of using the 'Better Than Fill Flash' method since I learned it first.....

Be sure to scroll way down to the bottom to get the action....
http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

Beth

Hi Beth,

Thanks I have Katrin's book ..... must remember to read it again

I don't have anything against actions, have a couple from action central myself. I would rather learn how to do these things in PS myself, just in case I ever lost the action and couldn't get on the internet (for whatever reason) to replace it ..... and I know I could burn them to disc, but I must be the only person on the planet who can actually lose discs LMAO

[solitear]

Originally Posted by Alison

Hi Beth,

Thanks I have Katrin's book ..... must remember to read it again

I don't have anything against actions, have a couple from action central myself. I would rather learn how to do these things in Photoshop myself, just in case I ever lost the action and couldn't get on the internet (for whatever reason) to replace it ..... and I know I could burn them to disc, but I must be the only person on the planet who can actually lose discs LMAO

Me too...... I surfed the net looking for the tut on 'Better than Fill Flash' just in case I'd forgotten a step or some additional tweek but it was nowhere to be found...... so now I'm like you with your 'actions' dilemma

I might try Ctrl+Alt+~ then Ctrl+Shift+I and Ctrl+J to select the darks & put them on their own layer....... then set that layer's blend mode to Color Dodge or even do a levels adjustment on it (I just spelled that all out for anyone not familiar with this..... I learn SO much "accidentally" when reading these threads so am trying to return the favor ....... or just maybe documenting it for me in case I forget this, too.... hehehehe)

Beth