Image Help - - Newbie to restoration needs help with red flares

bobsquarepants · #1 07-24-2004, 08:38 PM

Hi all...what a great site this is! I have a photo here that must have been end of the roll or the camera had light leaks, I am not sure what the proper term of this problem is. Can someone point me in the right direction of a good tutorial on how to correct this image.

Thanks!

Darcy

Gary Richardson · #2 07-25-2004, 02:20 AM

Hi Bob, have had a play with your image, it's a beauty. Not only does it have the obvious red flares, but also areas of totally different contrast and tone. I post my attempt, which is far from satisfactory, but the best I can do without spending hours on it.

Duv · #3 07-25-2004, 09:55 AM

Hi Darcy

Gary did what I think is a pretty good job. I hope he posts his methodology. I'm sure it will help you in your efforts.
One excellent resource is Katrin Eismann's book "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching". It has extensive sections dealing with this type of problem.

Cheers
Dave

bobsquarepants · #4 07-25-2004, 11:15 AM

Thanks for having a go at my pic, Gary did a great job in cleaning up the flare. I would like to know what the basic process was that you took, and thanks for pointing me to book Duv, I will see if I get a copy on Amazon.

Gary Richardson · #5 07-25-2004, 11:59 AM

Hi Bob, it's a bit difficult to say exactly what I did, as I mucked about with it quite a bit, and remembering exactly what is not possible. However, I will give you the processes as far as I can remember them.

1. Copied Background (I always do this to preserve original for reference and to return to if I muck up too badly).

2. Selected top 1/3rd of image using marquee tool and feathered selection.
Adjusted tone and contrast using levels (adjusted R,G and B channels seperately)

3. Could'nt get a good result colour correcting strong red flare at bottom, so painted in colour taken from good grass area. (new layer set to colour blend)

4. Created other colour layers and painted in colour to clothing, skin and brickwork. ( blurred where appropriate with gaussian blur, adjusted opacity of layers for best effect).

5. When basic colouring looked something like I flattened image.

6. Created new layer set to soft light blend and 50% grey. Painted in darkness using soft black paintbrush set to 5%, lightness using soft white paintbrush set to 5%.

These are most of the main stages, there was other fine tweaking, but it was mostly judged by eye. I have to say at this stage that I'm not really satisfied with the grass area, and when I've got time I intend to try and improve it.

There are undoubtedly better ways to do this, this just happened to be the way I attempted it.

Hope this helps you with your own attempt.

ps. Also cropped image top and bottom, this was the easiest way to get rid of the strong flare at the top.

Duv · #6 07-25-2004, 11:39 PM

Hi Darcy

As Gary alluded to, there are many different ways of getting to where you want to go in PS.
I focused a bit on the grass. If you know about channels, the blue looks pretty good. The red sucks bad. Try rought selecting ( 4-5 pixel) the red flare area. select the red channel. Go to curves and severly warp it to maike the selection black. Click on blue channel. Copy and Paste Into red channel. It should look pretty good. Go back to the RGB channel. The right part of the grass should still have pretty good original info. Go to Filters: Pattern Maker and make a pattern of good grass. Save as Good Grass and cancel. Change your Clone Tool to Stamp and with a moderate paint brush set to Color, paint over lighter less defined areas of grass. Then go to Filters: Other: High Pass: Set to 10. Click OK. Go to Edit: Fade: Change to Overlay and adjust slider to get desired results. This may be a tad confusing. Questions, just ask.

Cheers
Dave

saby · #7 07-26-2004, 04:55 AM

Hi Darcy

u just need the bush tool only set it to mode: color, get color from the grass and paint whit it try to make it more realistic to chanege brush op. 16% at mode: luminosity and same sample have fun!
saby

bobsquarepants · #8 07-26-2004, 05:48 AM

Thanks for your help everyone...I have got a good starting point, and hopefully if i get some time this week I can try all of this out and hopefully post my results!

D.

Flora · #9 07-27-2004, 08:03 PM

Hi Darcy,

Welcome to RP!

I had a go to your picture as well... I used two Hue&Saturation Adjustment Layers to correct and slightly desaturate the 'Reds' and the 'Magentas' .... after that I did pretty much what everybody else did:

Created Emtpy Layers (Blending=Color), sampled 'good' colour from surrounding areas and, using a soft brush, painted the discoloured areas with it.

Created Emtpy Layers (Blending=Overlay, Multiply) and, with a soft black brush I painted over the faded parts to enhance them.

Slightly sharpened the picture using USM.

Duv · #10 07-27-2004, 08:52 PM

Flora

When I grow up, I wanna be jus like you!

Cheers
Dave

ps. Except in a guy sort of way.

JustChecking · #11 07-28-2004, 02:50 PM

Flora, that's awesome! I could just copy/paste here what Duv said ;-)

btw, hi, i don't think we have met yet :-)

Flora · #12 07-28-2004, 05:07 PM

Dave, JustChecking,

....thank you so much for your great comments!

Dave,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duv

ps. Except in a guy sort of way....

JustChecking,

Hi! ... Now we have met .... glad you joined RP!

JustChecking · #13 07-29-2004, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flora

JustChecking,

Hi! ... Now we have met .... glad you joined RP!

i'm also glad.. it's a great place full of great people... like you

bobsquarepants · #14 07-29-2004, 03:47 PM

Well finally got some time to try everyone's suggestions and here is a copy of the final product. I am really happy with the results, compared to the original.

Thanks again everyone for your help!!!!

Darcy

Flora · #15 07-29-2004, 03:52 PM

Hi Darcy,

..What a great result!!!

Just one small thing...the top of grandpa's shirt is still a bit more magenta than the rest of it ....