How to fix this damaged area

[lichtdrift]

Dear friends,

I'm sorry that my initial posting in this forum is a cry for help.

I've got a series of photos which all contain a small damaged area on my model's forehead, It is the white spot within the skin-hair transition.
Here is a crop of one of the images showing the problem:

PSD file (5MB):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41165632/white_spot.psd

JPG (400k):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41165632/white_spot.jpg

Unfortunatelly I am not competent enough to retouch/reconstruct this area and I'm also not in the position to redo the shooting.

So if you guys have ideas or instructions regarding as how to deal with this problem, I really appreciate any help/suggestion.

Sorry for my poor english. I haven't written much lately.

Best Regards
Peter

[chillin]

First I used curves to darken the spot & then I painted over it on a layer set to color & a brush set to lighten, 10% flow.
sample here

[lichtdrift]

Hey Chillin,

thank you very much for your time and effort. Your image is great.

I'm not sure if I understand your technique.

Did I get you right:
You have "overdarken" the whole area with one curve and then lighten it back to normal with a brush set to lighten? Brush color from surrounding pixels or a "default" skin color?

Or did you apply the curve and the brush pixel-wise to the white pixels only?

When darken the white spots, the area will become grayish, so how did you get the skin tones to the bright pixels when the brush was set to "lighten"

Would it be impertinent to ask for your PSD file?

Again, thank you very much. I really appreciate your help.

Best regards
Peter

[chillin]

Take a sample from a darker area & plug in its rgb values in the output field of a curve targeted at the lighter area. It would help if you do that on a low frequency layer.

[lichtdrift]

Again thank you for trying to help.

Unfortunatelly I can't reproduce your instructions as they are a little bit too short for my PS skills. :-(
Or maybe it's the language barrier, I don't know.

[Flora]

Hi lichtdrift,

welcome to RP!

I might be late for the photos on your first post, but this might help you for future images with similar problems...

I used the 'Frequency Separation' technique ... I got the instructions from this Tutorial and since I use very frequently I wrote a Photoshop action for it. (File Attached)

Add an action to Photoshop:

• extract the nameofaction.atn file from the .zip archive to the Adobe Photoshop (version)\Presets\Actions

• Open Photoshop, go to Window>actions>Load Actions and load the new action ... in this case F-Sat-Frequency-Separation.atn

Run the action on your open image, (you might have to adjust the values of the Gaussian Blur Filter) ... nothing has changed in your image!! But you'll have a new Layer group named Sat-Frequency-Separation on top. In this group you'll see 3 Layers: LOW, Color, HIGH. (Attachment 2)
Final result (Attachment 1)
Here is how I did it:

• Working first on the LOW Layer, click on it to highlight it and (click/remove the eye on the left of the other 2 layers) sample from different darker parts surrounding the white spot. (Attachment 3)

• Using a very soft/fuzzy brush, (mode=darken, Opacity 20-30%) paint over the white spot until you are satisfied with the result.

• Now work on the Color Layer, click on it to highlight it and (click/remove the eye on the left of the other 2 layers) sample from different coloured parts surrounding the white spot

• Using a very soft/fuzzy brush, (mode=Color, Opacity 20-30%) paint over the white spot until you are satisfied with the result.

my corrections > (Attachment 4)

• Now click/activate the eye on the left of the other 2 layers) and enjoy the final result!

Hope this helps ....

[mistermonday]

I did an Asymetric Frequency Separation (R=5.0 px) and then simply circled the white area with the patch tool (Color Layer selected) and dragged the patch to her forehead. Since I have an action for the frequency separation, the whole thing took about 1 minute. A lot faster than dodging and coloring the area.
Regards, Murray

[Flora]

Great job Murray!
Just when I think my thick head has absorbed the concept of Frequency Separation, here you come and 'talk' about 'Asymetric Frequency Separation' .... Do I take it as dessert ... or is it a starter???

Kidding aside ... Is the procedure very different from 'plain' frequency separation? ... How does it work?

Thanks in advance!

[mistermonday]

Originally Posted by Flora

Great job Murray!
Just when I think my thick head has absorbed the concept of Frequency Separation, here you come and 'talk' about 'Asymetric Frequency Separation' .... Do I take it as dessert ... or is it a starter???

Kidding aside ... Is the procedure very different from 'plain' frequency separation? ... How does it work?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Flora, If you understand Freq Separation you know that the HF layer is not all gray. It is mostly gray but all of the edges below a specified radius are the same color as they were before separation but the contrast has been greatly increased. Those same edges on the LF (color) layer have been blurred and when you add them together HF+LF (or HP+GB) = Original Image.
From working with Freq Sep in LAB color I discovered a way to completely separate color and texture. There is 0 color on the HF layer, only texture and 100% of the color on the LF layer. It turns out this can also be done in RGB color space. So, I have attached an action below which was put together by Chain. It does both standard and Asymetric Freq Sep. If you want the standard one, just click on 1st line called Frequency Separation and play it. If you want Asymetric, select the 2nd line called Freq Sep (Luminosity)
In order to familarize yourself with the visual effect, I recommend you try it 1st on a scenic image with lots of detail. On the HF layer you can use the clone stamp tool to literally copy texture from a horses mane and stamp it on a tree trunk. Its pretty powerful but I don't think you will want to replace the standard freq sep completely. The two types of separation produce their own unique side effects and you will discover that one may work well on a certain image combination of color and texture where the reverse will be true on other images.
Oh, one important note: The Asymetric separation has 3 layers which was not necessary. I recommend you (Ctrl+E) merge together the bottom 2 (LF mono and LF Color) into a single color LF layer especially if you plan to color on it or above it with a colorizing layer.
Please let me know if you have any difficulty with it or any questions.
Best Regards, Murray

[Flora]

Thank you very much Murray!

I've downloaded your action and I'm going to try it now, now.

I'll let you know...

Take care.