How do I match a faded photo?

[jimbo35]

Hi
The attached picture of my grandfather was torn pretty badly at some stage over the years. I have spent some time repairing these tears and have cut out his profile with a view to replacing it onto a 'clean' retouched background layer.
The problem I would really appreciate somebody's advice on is how I can overcome the problem of the top half of the photo being a completely different shade from the bottom - this is most obvious across his face.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[philbach]

There are several ways to do this. What I did here was to convert to grayscale. (take a look at the various color channels and perhaps use channel mixer.) I then selected the lower half (the Darker half) and copied that to another layer. I used the screen blending mode which made the lower half too bright. I then decreased the opacity until the luminosity matched. I flattened the image and used the healing brush some.

Other techniques to consider is to use the match color command. Use the color sampler tool on the dark and light parts and use a curves adjustment layer to lighten the dark part. The photo still needs a lot of work to smooth out the outline of granddad and perhaps using a levels command to increase contrast some.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Jimbo,

Welcome to RP.

Had a very quick play with your image to resolve your problem. There are a few other things that need resolving, but I haven't attempted them.

To equalise the tone, I did a loose selection round the top of his face, then copied and pasted to a new layer. Adjusted contrast using levels to get a match. Then applied layer mask, and painted away any overlap.

Lastly flattened image, then cloned along the join to hide any irregularities.

Hope this helps.

[Sean2]

Hi,

tried something a little different

Sean

[jimbo35]

Thanks for taking time to look at it for me guys.
Have got some good ideas I can try there.
Glad I found this gem of a forum.

[Vikki]

I suggest using a layer mask.
Duplicate your image layer. Add a layer mask.
Over that, add an "levels' adjustment layer. Make adjustments to lighten the dark area on the face.
Click on your layer mask, and fill it with black. Now using white paint, paint out the dark areas.
Flatten those layers, and clean up any telltale lines with the healing brush.

Also, I can't help myself from commenting on your choice to replace the background. I would advise against that ...the image has a tendency to look cut out and pasted.

Also, save yourself some grief trying to match color tones, and desaurate the image before you start working on it. You can always add a tone later.