my first restoration and its green!!!!!!

[Jozie]

Hello everyone,
You guys are amazing, I am so impressed with your talent. (this is my first post as well)
I have just finished my first restoration job ever, and am having a really hard time getting the green tinge off the faces. Am working in photoshop.
They were pretty burned out, with a harsh white light, and it was a real challenge to get the faces to look right. (I think I did a reasonable job for a first timer, but when I printed it out, the color is not right)
If anyone point me in the right direction as to how to adjust the color so that they look rosy and human, I would be eternally grateful.
Am going to attempt to post the original and my version and would be happy to get feedback. ouch!
Thanks so much,
Jozie

[julianmarsalis]

Try hue/saturation adj layer try this tutorial for reds the concepts work for many casts of colors http://www.varis.com/StepByStep/HSCc...lorCorrect.PDF

Also you can play with selective color adj and color balance....

[Jozie]

thanks Julian, will give it a try. really appreciate the help.
Jo

[TommyO]

Sometimes, determining the color of a colorcast can be difficult. You need to use the Color Sampler Tool and place a few on the image. Typically whites, blacks, and grays will give you a good idea. Look at the color information in the Information Palette - look for the color that is too high.

Then use the HS adjustment layer as Julian explained. However, you should get used to masking also. This way you can control the area the HS layer will affect.

Another very quick way to pinpoint the cast is to use Image>Adjustments>Variations. If you load it on your image, you can see that adding a little Cyan will enhance the colors and reduce the red color cast. Then you can use whatever method you choose to do the correction.

[Jozie]

Thanks so much Tommy, just got in from out of town. Will try it, but have no clue about masking really. Am sure there is a tutorial about that somewhere here, will check it out.
Jo

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Jozie

Thanks so much Tommy, just got in from out of town. Will try it, but have no clue about masking really. Am sure there is a tutorial about that somewhere here, will check it out.
Jo

Hi Jozie,

I've had a go at your photo, I hope you don't mind, I haven't done much just colour correct which I am new and practicing at the moment. I've done a levels adjustment layer, used the grey point and click around the photo until I see some original colour, then I've mucked about with adjustment curves, shadow and highlights, brightness and contrast.

To get layer masks, click on the little black and white circle on your layer palette, you'll have a white mask, to get a black mask, click on the little black and white circle whilst you press alt key. then just paint in white or black using your paint brush.

thanks


regards


helen

[Verywierd]

Here's a quick and dirty way to change skin tone. Find another photo with a skin tone that you like and load it up to Photoshop along with your image. Use the eyedropper tool to sample the colour of a suitable section of skin on the second photo. Go back to your own photo, create a new layer, paint over the skin areas on the blank layer, change the layer to hue or colour blending mode (try and see which effect you prefer) and reduce layer opacity until you like the tone that you see. If the change is not intense enough even at 100% just duplicate the layer. It is more controllable if you use a mask, but if you are not comfortable with them, this should work. Just be careful of the edges. This is all I did for the attached sample, other than a small adjustment to brightness. The skin tone is not perfect as I just grabbed the first photo that I could find, but it works as an illustration.

[Jozie]

thanks so much Helen, that was so sweet of you to work on it. I am still struggling through, it looks a whole lot better already.
have a wonderful day,
Jozie

[Flora]

Hi Jozie!

Welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

I think you did quite a good job with your restoration!

I have just finished my first restoration job ever, and am having a really hard time getting the green tinge off the faces. Am working in photoshop.

Image>Adjustment>Variations I one of the first options I use in these case .. but, here, it didn't really satisfy me so I went back to one of the first procedures I learned ... This procedure will brighten up your image and correct the colours a bit.

• Set White Point
• Set Black Point
• Set Grey Point

This is how to do it:

***(If you haven't done this yet, follow this procedure first ...

Open the Levels/Curves Dialog Box:

*Double click on the White eyedropper. A 'Select White Target' color label appears above the color picker.

*Change the B Value in the HSB scale from 100% to 95-96% ... click OK.

*"Double click on the Black eyedropper. A 'Select Shadow Target' color label appears above the color picker.

*Change the B Value in the HSB scale from 0% to 5-6% ... click OK.

Close your Curves/Levels Dialog box and click 'yes' on the 'Save new Target colors as defaults' window. This changed values will now become the Black and White default targets for both, Curves and Levels even if applied to only one of them.

"By setting the White Target Color to 95-96% you will hold slight tonality in your whitest whites and the Black Target Color 5-6% will hold shadow information in the darkest parts of the image.

The generic 95% highlights and 5% shadow values are a safe place to start to avoid printing highlights without tone (paper white) or shadows that are so dark with ink that you can't see any detail in them." )***

• go to the bottom of your Layers' Palette, click on the Create a new fill or Adjustment Layer button and select Threshold from the cascading Menu.

• Working on the Threshold Layer, to find the darkest (black point) in your image, pull the slider completely to the left until your image turn completely white .. now, slowly, pull the slider toward the centre again until you start seeing the first black 'specks' ... Place your mouse over one of the black specks (your cursor will turn into an eyedropper) and SHIFT + click on it ... The colour sampler target (1) will be placed on that spot.

• Now pull your slider completely to the right until your image turns completely black ... and do the same as above to find the lightest (white) point in your image and place the colour sampler target (2).

• Close and delete your Threshold Layer and you'll be left with your image + the black and white target points you have just selected ...time to find the Grey Point...

• For the grey point, if there is no certain grey in your picture , try picking shadowy areas ... it's a matter of trial and error but, usually, you can find an acceptable grey spot in nearly every picture... Attachment 1 shows you where I placed my '3 points'

• Now Create a Level Adjustment Layer. On the right in the Level dialog box, you see three eye droppers ... select the white one and click it on the centre of the white point target in your image .... select the black eyedropper and do the same on the centre of the black point target in your image .... amazing isn't it? Do the same for the grey point using the centre eyedropper and clicking on the spot shown in my attachment ...

Since you will be working with a different size and resolution, your 'points' might be placed in different positions... use yours ... ...

Well it took me forever to write this down ... the whole procedure took not even a minute to complete!!!!!

Attachment 2 the result of the procedure
Attachment 3 After a Hue/saturation Adjustment Layer to remove the greenish cast on the skin.

I think that these very easy steps helped a lot in bringing back some contrast, but particularly, some of the original colour... Now you can do as much or as little as you wish to finish your restoration.

Will try it, but have no clue about masking really. Am sure there is a tutorial about that somewhere here, will check it out.

... Well, since it seems that you have changed the background ... I wouldn't say that you "have no clue about masking" .... but here you can find a video Tutorial on Selection Techniques (Mask are all about selections... ) and here a Tutorial on Masking ...

Hope this helps...

[Jozie]

wow Flora,
Thanks soooooo much for writing that all down. great tutorial, I couldn't open your attachment though, not sure what I am doing wrong. My problem it seems, is that I have so many layers and i was really messy about labeling all of them.
I will go ahead and follow your tutorial and then post the redone one when I am done. Again, thanks so much,
Jozie

[philbach]

Like Flora I worked on levels or curves first.
Next I slightly darkened the brightest parts of the image, the faces so they would accept color
I colorized several parts of the image
I replaced the back wall.

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Jozie

thanks so much Helen, that was so sweet of you to work on it. I am still struggling through, it looks a whole lot better already.
have a wonderful day,
Jozie

Hi Jozie,

Thanks for your nice comments, I enjoyed working on the photo.

regards


helen

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Flora

Hi Jozie!

Welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

I think you did quite a good job with your restoration!

Image>Adjustment>Variations I one of the first options I use in these case .. but, here, it didn't really satisfy me so I went back to one of the first procedures I learned ... This procedure will brighten up your image and correct the colours a bit.

• Set White Point
• Set Black Point
• Set Grey Point

This is how to do it:

***(If you haven't done this yet, follow this procedure first ...

Open the Levels/Curves Dialog Box:

*Double click on the White eyedropper. A 'Select White Target' color label appears above the color picker.

*Change the B Value in the HSB scale from 100% to 95-96% ... click OK.

*"Double click on the Black eyedropper. A 'Select Shadow Target' color label appears above the color picker.

*Change the B Value in the HSB scale from 0% to 5-6% ... click OK.

Close your Curves/Levels Dialog box and click 'yes' on the 'Save new Target colors as defaults' window. This changed values will now become the Black and White default targets for both, Curves and Levels even if applied to only one of them.

"By setting the White Target Color to 95-96% you will hold slight tonality in your whitest whites and the Black Target Color 5-6% will hold shadow information in the darkest parts of the image.

The generic 95% highlights and 5% shadow values are a safe place to start to avoid printing highlights without tone (paper white) or shadows that are so dark with ink that you can't see any detail in them." )***

• go to the bottom of your Layers' Palette, click on the Create a new fill or Adjustment Layer button and select Threshold from the cascading Menu.

• Working on the Threshold Layer, to find the darkest (black point) in your image, pull the slider completely to the left until your image turn completely white .. now, slowly, pull the slider toward the centre again until you start seeing the first black 'specks' ... Place your mouse over one of the black specks (your cursor will turn into an eyedropper) and SHIFT + click on it ... The colour sampler target (1) will be placed on that spot.

• Now pull your slider completely to the right until your image turns completely black ... and do the same as above to find the lightest (white) point in your image and place the colour sampler target (2).

• Close and delete your Threshold Layer and you'll be left with your image + the black and white target points you have just selected ...time to find the Grey Point...

• For the grey point, if there is no certain grey in your picture , try picking shadowy areas ... it's a matter of trial and error but, usually, you can find an acceptable grey spot in nearly every picture... Attachment 1 shows you where I placed my '3 points'

• Now Create a Level Adjustment Layer. On the right in the Level dialog box, you see three eye droppers ... select the white one and click it on the centre of the white point target in your image .... select the black eyedropper and do the same on the centre of the black point target in your image .... amazing isn't it? Do the same for the grey point using the centre eyedropper and clicking on the spot shown in my attachment ...

Since you will be working with a different size and resolution, your 'points' might be placed in different positions... use yours ... ...

Well it took me forever to write this down ... the whole procedure took not even a minute to complete!!!!!

Attachment 2 the result of the procedure
Attachment 3 After a Hue/saturation Adjustment Layer to remove the greenish cast on the skin.

I think that these very easy steps helped a lot in bringing back some contrast, but particularly, some of the original colour... Now you can do as much or as little as you wish to finish your restoration.

... Well, since it seems that you have changed the background ... I wouldn't say that you "have no clue about masking" .... but here you can find a video Tutorial on Selection Techniques (Mask are all about selections... ) and here a Tutorial on Masking ...

Hope this helps...

Hi Flora,

Thanks ever so much for your detailed explanations of correcting color cast, though I've mucked about with the grey point etc, I didn't have a clue where to put the pointer, I just clicked about until I think the original colour has come through, your detailed explanation made me understand more of what I need to do or what I am actually doing.

Many Thanks

regards


helen

[TommyO]

Helen,
I thought I'd mention that it is Ok to play with the gray point... in fact, many images don't really have a real gray in them. So, you can use your best judgement, or your eye.

Just remember though, that you are basically changing the "gamma" of the file when you do... and it is a destructive change. This means two things:
- one, by destructive it is tossing out data that cannot be recovered once merged;
- two, you are mathematically moving data from one end of the histogram spectrum to the other (sort of), which changes the shadow and highlights.

Use your resulting histogram as a guide as to whether you've done too much, or not. If it moves to the right, you're expanding darks and compressing lighter tones (tossing them out). If it moves to the left, you are compressing darks (tossing them out) and expanding lighter tones.

Each time you expand an area, PS must decide how to fill in the expansion - you'll see gaps in the histogram. If you see a lot of wide gaps in your histogram, then you know it's too much.

Each time you compress an area, PS must decide what to toss out - you'll see spikes in the histogram. If you see a lot of tall thick spikes, you'll know it's too much.

Hope this helps. Good luck on the book selection !

Flora,
Wonderful tutorial, as always. I hope you copied it into another document so you don't have to type is again one day.... that was a lot !

Phil,
Very nice colorization !

[Flora]

Thank you all for your kind feedback!!!!

Originally Posted by Jozie

I couldn't open your attachment though

...anyone else had this problem??
Jozie, if this persists, I can always send the attachments per email....

Phil,

very nice colouring...

Helen,

so glad you found this useful!!! (might be my monitor ... but your restoration seems to have a bluish cast...)

Verywierd,

very nice correction!!!

Tommy,

Just remember though, that you are basically changing the "gamma" of the file when you do... and it is a destructive change. This means two things:
- one, by destructive it is tossing out data that cannot be recovered once merged;
- two, you are mathematically moving data from one end of the histogram spectrum to the other (sort of), which changes the shadow and highlights.

Use your resulting histogram as a guide as to whether you've done too much, or not. If it moves to the right, you're expanding darks and compressing lighter tones (tossing them out). If it moves to the left, you are compressing darks (tossing them out) and expanding lighter tones.

Each time you expand an area, PS must decide how to fill in the expansion - you'll see gaps in the histogram. If you see a lot of wide gaps in your histogram, then you know it's too much.

Each time you compress an area, PS must decide what to toss out - you'll see spikes in the histogram. If you see a lot of tall thick spikes, you'll know it's too much.

Great tips as always!!! Thanks ...
Don't know why I stopped saying that, but I used to start all my explanations with "Never work on the original" (talking digital..) ... make a working copy of it, name it differently and experiment on your working copy as much as you like...

[0lBaldy]

This might help find the Gray point

To select gray point:

COPY of original

Shft+Ctrl+N (New Layer)
Edit>Fill (Select 50% Gray in the "Use" Box that pops up)
Change "Mode" from "Normal" TO "Difference"
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Threshold .. click OK
slide adjustment triangle all the way to the left (all white) then back to the right till the first black spots appear... when there is a blob bigger than a dot, Shift Click on it then Click OK in the threshold box
Turn OFF OR Delete the Gray Layer

Gray Point is established!

Double click the Threshold layer Icon to re-activate the layer and bring back up the threshold adjustment box

continue to find the black and white points as Flora explained

[chillin]

I’ve used the blue channel to bring as much details as possible. (high pass)
For the faces definitions I utilized (again) the blue channel. I created a “burn” mask & blend it with soft light.
To achieve a smooth background, I blurred it first & then applied a high pass texture taken from the original.

[ashphotoart]

Originally Posted by chillin

I’ve used the blue channel to bring as much details as possible. (high pass)
For the faces definitions I utilized (again) the blue channel. I created a “burn” mask & blend it with soft light.
To achieve a smooth background, I blurred it first & then applied a high pass texture taken from the original.

Chillin,

"I created a “burn” mask & blend it with soft light."

I need to know how you did it ?

Ash

[chillin]

Originally Posted by ashphotoart

Chillin,

"I created a “burn” mask & blend it with soft light."

I need to know how you did it ?

Ash

Maybe this could help...

[ashphotoart]

Hi Chillin,

Thanks, I've got it. good trick.

Ash

[Jozie]

you guys are wonderful, thank you all for your hard work and advice. I see there are numerous ways to do things, and I also see how destructive I was probably being, just willy nilly experimenting with everything. (as a beginner). Can any one recommend an idiot proof book on photo restoration?
peace,
Jozie

[TommyO]

Jozie,
See this thread...
Book Suggestions