Corner Gone Suggestions Please

[nebgranny]

Here is a photo I am working on. Did I see a tutorial on working with this problem of a big piece missing via the tear? Right now I have added a new layer and have cloned and also used the Spot healing brush on some of the big creases and tears. Want to keep the background as the true as the picture is.

I would also like to bring out the little boys feet better as well as facial features. I know you would like a bigger file but this photo is only a 2x2inch. Very small. Thanks Neb

[Kraellin]

hi neb,

i'd suggest first doubling the size of the image.

as for the corner, there doesnt seem to be much there based on the good areas around it, so it really doesnt matter too much what you do there. clone would be fine. i'd suggest it would be easier to simply crop around the boy and leave go all that extra space.

on the feet and face, if you do enlarge the image this shld make those areas easier to do. try contrasting tools and sharpen with contrast. that shld bring out the features more.

craig

[aceman]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

it would be easier to simply crop around the boy and leave go all that extra space.

Short of finding a similar background grass texture or cloning it in. Cropping would improve the composition of the photo as well as save you some work.

[nebgranny]

Thank you for the help. You know I just learned how to scan it bigger craig. Just a few minutes ago as a matter of fact. So that part is done. Thank you! aceman I am going to crop it a little closer to him as well. Klassy is that a different background all together? What did you use? Or is it clone? Neb

[Kraellin]

Thank you for the help. You know I just learned how to scan it bigger craig. Just a few minutes ago as a matter of fact. So that part is done.

good. that shld help

craig

[philbach]

Double Click the background layer in Photoshop to turn it into layer 0

Use the magic wand tool and click in the upper right hand area where the white is.

Delete the white area to make is empty

Copy that layer to a new layer.

Select Layer 0, the bottom layer. Sample some of the light black from the photo and fill Layer 0 with that color.

[philbach]

Yeah that looks good. I believe the next part of the retouch would be to crop it and increase the contrast via levels or curves

[bart_hickman]

Hi Neb,

Whenever you want to quickly flood a large area with a texture based on some existing texture, check out the pattern maker filter (Photoshop CS2).

Duplicate your image. Make a rectangular selection of some of the existing texture. Then run the pattern maker. It has several settings that are worth experimenting with, but the general idea is it'll flood the entire layer with that texture, except it's randomized so it doesn't look repetitive (you can also change settings to make it repetitive if you want.) You can keep rerunning it to get a different random pattern as no two ever look identical.

Now you can put your original layer on top and make the damaged areas transparent thus revealing the pattern layer, then use the heal brush around the edges as needed to clean things up. A lot less work than trying to clone such a large area.

Bart

[c hurd]

Have you considered copying the upper left hand corner over to the missing side? Feathered selection, new layer, flip horizontal, move over.) And also copy other good or reworked sections over to the middle top. This might be an option if you want to keep the original texture.

When you clone, you can make your retouches on a duplicate layer, and then set the blending mode to darken so that it only covers the actual cracks.

[nebgranny]

Well this is where it is as of right now. I am stuck on the face. I personally do not like the background but they are bushes that were in the front of the house and she would like to keep it as close to original as possible. HELP with face please. Also suggestions on how to sharpen it a little would be wonderful too. Neb

PS: I croped it a little more as it is going to go into the paper for a 50th Birthday surprise..You know like the one's you put in your little local home town paper to have people figure out who it is..and say something like Guess who is now a Nifty Fifty!! We do those kind of things here in Nebraska out of shear boredom..LOL

[Kraellin]

neb,

i gave this one a shot. i started from the original.

cropped first.
cloned in missing parts of corner.
clone and push to get rid of most of other tears/bends.
airbrush to clean some areas up for balance.
added a mild contrast/brightness adjustment layer
more fine work with clone, push and airbrush

and somewhere in here i desatured the image with Fast Fix. normally, i would have done this earlier, but something told me not to this time and i think it worked out better this way.

specifically, on the face, i mostly used the push tool. opacity was set around 24 to 32, depending. very small brush, anywhere from 2 to 12 or so. all done on a blank layer with 'use all layers' turned on.

to sharpen, i used the 7 band sharpen filter from AIM. i then had to clean up some of the sharpening marks with more push.

when i had things mostly how i wanted, i copy merged one last time and duplicated that and added the clarify filter to the whole image.. setting about 4. this adds contrast and thereby some definition.

hope that helps.

craig

[aceman]

Had a go at this tonight. The hardest part for me was the face. But i managed to get away with a few sneaky copy and pastes from undamaged areas. The grass I found on another image, pasted into, and curved and blurred it until it matched the original look.

[c hurd]

If I were you, I'd soft focus the background and add more contrast to the boy. The background is kind of distracting and doesn't really bring the boy into focus. Plus, if the background is a little blurry, the subject will tend to look more sharp in comparison. At least, that's how it appears to me from these low res pics.

[nebgranny]

Thanks to all of your fine efforts. I appreciate it so much. I learn more everytime I try to work on a photo and seek help when stuck. My problem is still a learning curve but getting there little by little. Neb

Sorry it too a bit to respond.

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

in these cases, particularly if the background isn't of vital importance, I would do exactly what Bart did by running the pattern maker... (Filter>Pattern Maker....)

An alternative way to create a Pattern and use it to fill an empty space (the one I used here) is the following:

* Duplicated the Background and worked on the duplicate.

* Used the Healing Brush to remove some of the scratches until I had an acceptable 'patch' of background. (Attachment 1)

* Used the Marquee Tool to select part of the fixed background, and, with the selection still active, I went to Edit>Define Pattern ... Clicking OK to accept the Name suggested on the Define Pattern dialog box ... (you can always give a different name to better remember what the new Pattern is ... ) (Attachment 2)

* Selected a soft/feathered Heal Brush (Mode: Replace; changed the Source from Sampled to Pattern; checked the Sample all Layers box) (Attachment 3)

* After filling the missing parts and removing the scratches around the boy with my 'Pattern' - Heal brush, I loosely selected the boy and pressed Ctrl+J to copy my selection to a new Layer. (Attachment 4)

* Clicked on the eye icon left of the new 'boy Layer' to make it invisible, went back to my Background copy and filled it all with the 'grass' Pattern covering the boy as well ... [at this point I created a new Pattern from a picture of a plain grass field and selectively painted over the Background Copy to remove the repetitive Pattern ang give it a more natural grass 'look'] Made visible and activated the 'Boy Layer' and moved the boy at the centre of the field with the Move Tool. (Attachment 5)

Sorry...reached the 5 Attachments limit ... to be continued on my next post..