Where to start??

[g0t0]

I am trying to fix this photo, but I have no clue as to where to start. Or even how to start it. I pretty new to most editing. I have Paintshop Pro 9 and Photoshop 7, but VERY limited on using either's full potential. Any and all help is much appreciated.

[Cassidy]

Query....other than improving the focus of the pic, what else are you wanting to do with it? I personally like the colour cast.

[mdavis]

First job is to analyze the photo. It appears to be a wedding shot (dress). Are you familiar with the picture or doing it for someone else? That would help.

You have a lot of grain and some lack of sharpness, so most of what you can do is try to balance color. MOST wedding gowns are white, so I'd begin by making that assumption. Use the highlight dropper in Levels or Curves to "pin" the brightest white you can find (woman's shoulder?). That should remove most of the yellow (tungsten light) color cast.

Can you assume the groom's tux is black? Try that with the dark dropper on the darkest spot you can find.

Finally, take a look at overall color balance (since there are no neutral gray areas that can be depended upon) and see how it looks.

Be very careful with sharpening not to accentuate grain.

[Ken Fournelle]

Goto,

Here is a simple quick fix. In PS7 go to the top of your screen to Image,then down to Adjustments and in that window down to Match Color
In the Match color window check Nuetralize. I would then again go to Image>Adjustments>Levels, and in Levels take the furthest, little arrow at the bottom of the window and click and slide it left to the edge of the Histogram.

Here is my workflow I have PSCS2:

1. Duplicated the background Layer
2. Image>Adjustments>Match color, checked the Nuetralize window
3. Curves Adjustment Layer
4. Merge Visible----Shift+Option+Control+E
5. Shadow/Highlights---Image>Adj.>Shadow/Highlights, (Not in PS7)
6. Reduced Noise----Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise, (Not in PS7)
7. Selective Color Adj. Layer---Image>Adj.>Selective Color
Reds C-39, M-18
Yellows Y-100
Whites Y-100

8. Flattened and Sharpened.

K

[maureeno]

Originally Posted by Ken Fournelle

Goto,

Here is a simple quick fix. In PS7 go to the top of your screen to Image,then down to Adjustments and in that window down to Match Color
In the Match color window check Nuetralize. I would then again go to Image>Adjustments>Levels, and in Levels take the furthest, little arrow at the bottom of the window and click and slide it left to the edge of the Histogram.

Here is my workflow I have PSCS2:

1. Duplicated the background Layer
2. Image>Adjustments>Match color, checked the Nuetralize window
3. Curves Adjustment Layer
4. Merge Visible----Shift+Option+Control+E
5. Shadow/Highlights---Image>Adj.>Shadow/Highlights, (Not in PS7)
6. Reduced Noise----Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise, (Not in PS7)
7. Selective Color Adj. Layer---Image>Adj.>Selective Color
Reds C-39, M-18
Yellows Y-100
Whites Y-100

8. Flattened and Sharpened.

K

That's brilliant, Ken!!

Maureen

[Cameraken]

Hi GoTo. Welcome to RP.

The Blue channel is Bad, and equalising it does not help.
The camera has focussed on the background rather than the subject.

Levels as MDavis but found a grey point on the stand in the background.
Reduced the saturation (except the flowers)
Neat image
Lightened the eyes
Darkened and blurred the background.

It’s a shame the boys mouth is obscured.

Ken. Match colour is only available in CS and CS2 not PS7.

Ken

[chas6000]

lots of color balance and some histogram adjust, noise removal and 'reverse' usm

chas

[Cassidy]

As everyone seems so keen to fix the colour cast, mine consists of blurring the blotchy skin on the original and then performing a curves adjustment taking the suit as black, the lightest part of the dress as white and the wall behind as the grey. It doesn't entirely remove the colour cast but I don't think I want to fully remove it. A highpass layer in overlay mode to sharpen up a bit and then a bit more manual blurring on selected areas.

[realaqu]

hi
I d like to use play with channels first then adjust the colors

Realaqu

[Duv]

If you assume the dress is white, make sure you take into account the shearness. If anything, it should be balanced to the yellow rather than blue. As with Ken, I used the stand for my midpoint. With the corrections in RGB I found magenta overload in lips and ear and corrected in LAB. Sharpening and Neat Image seems to hurt more than help so I just blurred a and b and left the rest as is.

Cheers

Dave

[Nanls]

I played with it a bit. First channels and then color. It looks better, I guess

[Kraellin]

i borrowed ken fournelle's version and worked on it. forgive me, ken, but no sense doing what's already been done well.

to ken's i did a color balance using the new features in psp's 10 color balance.
i then applied a median filter at 3 to lower the noise a bit.
i added a curves adjustment layer to brighten a bit and to add a tiny bit of contrast.
and for the final sharpening, i didnt use a sharpen filter, but rather the 'remove digital camera noise reduction' filter. this gave some distinct definition to the eyes. this is a very nice tool in both psp 9 and 10.

Craig

[g0t0]

Thanks a lot for all the help!!! Believe me, I couldn't fix this anywhere near what you've all posted.
To mdavis, this is from my wedding. this came with about one hundred more of these type of pictures. She used a 3.2mp camera with bad lighting shots.

To Ken Fournelle, Thanks for all the effort in your retouching! as well as the step by step help. I've always been a hands on person, so showing me how to do it your way allows me to really see exactly what each step does. I will look into getting CS2.

Agan,Thanks all for the help. I will be trying everybody's suggestions (as I figure out the photo lingo around here). Any other suggestions is well appreciated!

[edgework]

Used LAB curves to kill the color cast, selective desaturation in RGB, selective color to balance reds, yellows and blacks.

[Duv]

Cass, I missed your last post. Looks like a real winner to me! Although I'm no expert on skintones for different ethnic groups, your's looks really natural. My skintones in comparison look too yellow. By not overly forcing issues you've come up with something that looks very "natural" to my eyes.

Cheers

Dave