Shadow on Face.

[nebgranny]

As you can probably tell I did find some more old pictures of my brother from many years ago. He passed away 25 years ago at the early age of 31. I am trying to restore these for his wife daughters and mother.

Can anyone help with the shadow on his face? Other than cloneing is there another way? Thanks for any help! Neb

[nebgranny]

Here it is!!

[Daviskw]

Hi Nebgranny

To me lowtech is best... For shadows on the face I often use quickmask to select the darkest area on a face. You don't need to select all shadow just a dark area.

Then still in quickmask I use gaussian blur to apply a very large feather.

Then I turn it to a selection and open a curves adjustment layer. After ctl clicking in the shadow I use the arrow keys to slowly lighten the shadow to where I like it.

Now all I do is select a soft low opacity brush then paint on the mask where ever I want to lighten shadows. The low opacity lets me build up light a little at a time for control.

Butch

[Kraellin]

hi neb,

yes, there's several ways to do it. you can use the lighten/darken brush. you could use airbrush or, you could use push/smudge. you might also could use masks or selections but the areas are so small that i think the other methods would be easier here.

i went ahead and did this and also corrected for some other things. i added some color to the girl's skin, color balanced the whole pic, ran a black and white points, did some airbrushing on the grass to bring it into the green a tiny bit more and cropped the image to an aspect ratio that shld work for an 8 x 10 print. oh, and i also ran an unsharp mask at radius 2, strength 100, clipping 5. and finally did a digital camera noise removal at a low to medium setting.

craig

[Daviskw]

Nebgranny

Just wondering if that is the same bride and groom...and dress as in the first picture you posted?

If so you could easily copy his coat over and using free transform and or maybe warp and liquify you could bring back some detail.

Good job craig...I'll bet with some more pixels it would come out great.

Butch

[nebgranny]

Yes Butch , it is the same bride and groom. I do not understand what you are suggesting I do for his coat. Thanks Greg so many suggestions I am a bit overwhelmed. Your try looks good..a little deformed though , how can that be fixed?

Neb

[nebgranny]

You know I just took a closer look at the picture I posted and his face by the chin looks funny in the original. It just does not look like him at all and it was taken the same day as the wedding one . Wonder why his chin looks so funny?? Neb

[nebgranny]

I am posting another one similiar to the one you are working on. He chin does not look as bad here do you think?? Been thinking of replacing the whole face , but might be at a different angle for that to work! Neb

[Peter S]

Tried a different approach.
Painting with History set to screen mode and at low opacity with a soft edged brush. After several strokes looked ok so decided to post. Also removed the distracting shadows at the bottom corners, Levels adjusted and here it is.

Question
In the second photo you posted the Groom looks like he may have a moustache, Has he? if so I removed it in the first one (Sorry)

hope his helps

Peter

[Daviskw]

That looks good Peter.

Nebgranny the face can be switched... you just need to flip horz...there is a little more blur on one but still get close.

Butch

[Daviskw]

Nebgranny

I did not take a lot of time but if it is the same coat you could use it in the other picture if you wanted.

Butch

[nebgranny]

Hey Peter..yes he does have a mostasch ..do not worry about that. Looks good !! Neb

[philbach]

Well I first switched to lab and corrected the yellowish cast and then used a curves adjustment layer to lighten up the shadows. I sharpened the photo some.

[Kraellin]

Originally Posted by nebgranny

Yes Butch , it is the same bride and groom. I do not understand what you are suggesting I do for his coat. Thanks Greg so many suggestions I am a bit overwhelmed. Your try looks good..a little deformed though , how can that be fixed?

Neb

a little deformed? umm, what part; his chin? the whole thing? the grass? gotta be more specific.

i just made an assumption, based on your next post, that you meant his face/chin and did a little more work there. but please, use more specific references when saying things like 'a little deformed'. makes me think the whole thng is warped

craig

[Kraellin]

he had a moustache at the time these were taken? the first one sure doesnt look like it, but the 2nd one does. that seems odd. is this guy a quick change artist or something?

craig