Help With Moms photo

[Don Majoros]

This is a photo of my mom who passed away yesterday.The funeral director asked me if I would like to supply a photo for the services Thursday.I intend to insert it into a background frame, which I have.I extracted mom from a recient photo,but I having trouble with her skin tone.I'm not in the right frame of mind to do this project,but I feel I must.Can someone please help me to improve on this? Thank you all.

[Don Majoros]

Sorry the attatchment did'nt work.I'll try again.

[CJ Swartz]

Don - I'm so very sorry for the loss of your mother!

She has a wonderful face, and lovely smile -- I'll give it a try, and I'm sure that others here that come to this thread will also give you a hand.

[Don Majoros]

Thank you CJ for your kindness.I haven't been very active lately because of some problems.As soon as things get back to whatever normal is,I'll jump in again.

[KenB]

Very sorry about the loss of your mother.
I worked on the photo you uploaded. Smoothed the grain in her face a bit, then just some minor color correction.

Ken

[CJ Swartz]

Don - I softened the grain and took a few years off.

I replaced the inadequate Red channel with a copy of the Lightness channel from a duplicate changed into LAB mode, used Dust/Scratches to soften the grain and reduce wrinkles around her eyes (may be too much, but I'd bet she wouldn't mind). Reduced cyan cast to skin. Darkened/colored to expand her lips, emphasized her teeth a bit, and darkened her pupils/lightened her eye whites.

[Jakaleena]

Don,

I'm so sorry for the loss of your mom. Here's my attempt at it for you.

[Don Majoros]

Thank you all for your big and human hearts.It's so comforting to know there are people who help people still in our small world.I hope I can do the same if ever needed.Please ask.God bless you all.

[Mig]

Sorry to hear about your Mom.

Mig

[winwintoo]

Don, what a beautiful woman your Mother was. You must feel blessed to have been her son.

My prayers are with you.

Margaret

[GOLDCOIN]

Don....I'm so very sorry, find comfort in knowing she is not far. Just take your hand and touch your heart.

[Blacknight]

There are no words in times like these. My sympathies in your loss.

[jeaniesa]

Don, I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your beloved mother. I worked on the image some, but didn't want to overdo it. In case you have a higher resolution file, here's what I did:

1. Ran the photo through Neat Image to reduce the grain in her face some, but not all the way. (I think the setting I used was 35% grain reduction.)

2. Copied the Neat Image version into a layer above the original version. Because I didn't like what Neat Image did to her hair and sweater, I applied a layer mask so that only the Neat Image filter applied to her face was visible.

3. I felt that her skin tones looked a little washed out, so I copied the Neat Image layer (with just her face visible b/c of the layer mask) and set the blending mode to multiply and the opacity to 30%.

4. The skin tones didn't look "warm" enough (like CJ said, too much cyan), so I created a levels adjustment layer and used the gray eyedropper to click in her gray hair hoping to find a place that gave me a nice balance in the skin tones. After much experimentation, I found I liked the following settings best:
R: 0/1.37/255
G: 0/0.87/255
B: 0/0.85/255

The above steps gave me the result you see in the attachment. I hope this helps a little.

Jeanie

[Ed_L]

Don,

I'm very sorry for your loss. Your mother had a very friendly face. You can't help but feel sorrow because of your loss, but try to find some consolation in knowing that you were given the opportunity to share in life's happy moments with her.

Ed

[pjb]

Don I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your mom. Her picture looks like a very kind and loving woman. I know these are very sad days for you. May God bless and help you through them.

[TwinbNJ]

Don -- as with everyone else I am sorry to hear of your loss. In viewing all the images one thing just stays the same, her warm and happy eyes, wonderful smile, and loving expression. She looks like a very special mom --- who has a special son. Our hearts are with you.