Unable to Color Picture!

[proudfather]

Sorry I'm a newbie... I tried to color this picture but I was unable to do so...
I converted to Gray to eliminate the Sepia tone, then change it to RGB again, then run Levels on it... and tried to Mask to color section, and although it's a 600dpi scanning, can't give it a realistic effect...
Can someone help me?

Photo

[0lBaldy]

Proudfather, welcome to RetouchPRO!

I would get it the best you can before trying to color. You have lots of grain at 600 resolution & 100% but it will look MUCH better at print size!.. I reduced the resolution down to 180 so that my noise reduction programs would work on it then brought it back up to 300.. On the other hand a lot of folks swear by that grain, as it is original, and the pictures look more authentic with it.

I Used Neat Image.. Then Polaroid Dust and Scratch (both Light and Dark with a hide all mask).. Followed by Imagenomic Noiseware.. If it looks to smooth .. you can always add some of the original back or add some noise

You might try this tutorial to color the B&W:
Coloring B&W Images

[BillFrey]

Hi,

I don't think it's grain. It appears to be scanned with the wrong scanner settings, because the paper texture is created with the 'dots' as well as scratches and other small damage. It's all dots, that wouldn't be the case if it were grain.

Turn off all scanner 'auto' settings and make sure it's set to scan color photo.

Good luck,

[TommyO]

Proudfather,
I agree with Bill that the "grain" is something else. Looks like added noise to me, as if added in Photoshop on purpose. It is very very uniform. (see attached image) Can you help us determine its origin.


Also, we prefer never to convert to gray. We normally just add a channel mixer adjustment layer and click on monochrome. The conversion to gray tosses out all color information; then when converted back to RGB there really is no difference in the channels to exploit for detail and such.