Edith Helen Humphreys

[roadrunner465]

Can someone help me restore the following picture of my Grandmother.
It is the only one we have and it would be nice to see her in color.
I appreciate your time and effort.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Roadrunner,

Colouring is not my strength, so I'll leave that to those talented in that area.

I've just cleaned up the image a little. (Haven't cleaned everything, as I wanted to keep feel of the image).

Duplicated image and applied Polaroid D&S filter to it. Applied cover all mask, then painted on mask with soft white brush to take out the marks I wanted.

New layer, and cloned out other blemishes.

New layer set to soft light, fill with 50% grey, then using soft black brush 10%, darkened areas round face and eye.

Apply Neat Image to reduce noise, then finally cloned out a few minor marks.

[rrustic]

I put some color on it (really quick) so you can see what it may look like.
Later today I will clean it up and re-color.
What do you think?

Rich

[Cameraken]

Hi Roadrunner.

I cleaned up the marks by painting onto blank layers.
Added noise
Coloured
Sharpened.

A light colouring seemed more appropriate to this photo.

Ken

[Steve Conway]

That's a really nice restoration/coloring application!

I love that era in time and you have done this fine lady proud.

Roadrunner should be very happy with this one.

Steve

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Hi Roadrunner.

I cleaned up the marks by painting onto blank layers.
Added noise
Coloured
Sharpened.

A light colouring seemed more appropriate to this photo.

Ken

[MargaretM]

Very nicely done Cameraken - a light natural look.
MargaretM

[roadrunner465]

I wanted to thank those people who worked on my Grandmother.
The picture is fantastic. I am so thankful to you.
If you have time can you work me through this step by step, so that I can have a go myself.
I have just started studying the tool box in paint shop so I have a long way to go
applied Polaroid D&S filter to it. Please expain this and how I can download if possible, again thanks for your kindness
Joy

[mistermonday]

Ken, wonderful job! Color & tone fit just right.
Regards, Murray

[Cameraken]

Wow. Thank You All for the kind comments.
Glad you liked it.

Joy.
Welcome to RetouchPro.
If you would like to learn how to colour photos then there are tutorials here

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=43

and here.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=32

If you need further help then post your results back in this thread and someone will help you.

You have some nice pictures to work with.

Hope this helps.

Ken.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Joy,

Polaroid D&S filter is a plug in for Photoshop, or a Stand alone programme (both come with the download), and is pretty straightforward to use.

Download Link Windows 98/2000/ME/XP

Download link Mac

As you're using PSP you'll have to use the standalone programme (don't think there's a plug in for PSP).

[roadrunner465]

Thank you for all your work and for the tutorials.
I will try slowly and hopefully achieve the excellence found in Retouch Pro
Again thanks for your time and effort.

[Gary Richardson]

As per Roadrunners request, I'm posting a more detailed description of what I did.

Firstly I made a copy of the background, by dragging the BG to the new layer symbol at the bottom of the layers palette.

Now I selected the Polaroid D&S filter from my Filter menu (I'm using the plug in for Photoshop, not quite sure how you'd do this using the "stand alone" version), and made the following settings Light Dust (unchecked), Tile size (1st mark in from left), Defect level (5th mark in from left), Mask size (1st mark in from left), Feathering (centre mark) then applied it.

This gave an unacceptable image, as it blurred detail I wanted. To keep the blur only to the areas where I wanted to get rid of the dark dust marks, I did the following.

Made the layer where I'd used D&S active, then Alt+clicked the layer mask symbol at the bottom of the layer palette (square with circle inside it). This applies a coverall mask (all black) which hides all the blurring, so it appears you've done nothing to the image.

Now using a soft white brush (set to 100%), I painted on the mask (click on the black mask to make sure its selected) to reveal the filter efffect, and thereby hide the dust marks, only in the areas I painted white.

Next I created a new layer, and cloned out any marks or blemishes not done by the filter.

Created another new layer by clicking on the arrow on the tab of the layers palette, and clicking new layer. From the drop down palette I set mode to soft light, and checked "fill with 50% grey".

Now using a soft black brush set to about 10% opacity, I painted on the area of her jaw line to darken it.

I now flattened the image, and applied Neat Image to it. (can't remember exact settings, I do this by eye).

Hope this clarifies things a little.

[Kraellin]

gary,

the plugin version of polaroid d&s works just fine with psp 9 and 10. not sure about earlier versions. there is an image size limitation for some reason. something around 800 pixels on any given side, but it does work. you dont get the built in masking with the plugin, but you dont need it since you can pre-mask your work within psp itself. i use it all the time.

craig

[Gary Richardson]

Glad to hear the plug in works with PSP Craig, thanks for the correction. I much prefer Polaroid D&S to Photoshop's native D&S filter, and like you, use it all the time.

[roadrunner465]

Gary
thanks for the info that you sent. I can understand much better now.
I am an educator and a visual learner. I need to see things written down, I follow the directions and learn by trial and error, so your help is appreciated.
To use the Polaroid D&S filter, do I have to open it separately from Photo shop as it is a separate program. I have downloaded it, printed the instructions, but so far I have not had time to use it.
Again, I appreciate all that you have done.
Joy