Photo Restoration - - Color Correction

Gerald McClaren · #1 11-05-2006, 09:56 AM

This photo is the original. I would like to know how to color correct this photo. Their skin tone seem to be a little different. I'm using photoshop cs2.

Gerald McClaren

Swampy · #2 11-05-2006, 10:04 AM

If you are using Photoshop...

Duplicate
Run a Shadow highlight on the duplicate, mask out then paint back in the adjusted skin tones on the areas that have been corrected.

Gerald McClaren · #3 11-05-2006, 10:32 AM

I undestood duplicating the photo and run a shadow highlight, but I got stuck on the "MASK OUT THEN PAINT BACK IN THE ADJUSTED SKIN TONES ON THE AREAS THAT HAVE BEEN CORRECTED". Can you please explain those words a little simpler for me. Thanks.

Gerald MClaren

Liasson · #4 11-05-2006, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerald McClaren

This photo is the original. I would like to know how to color correct this photo. Their skin tone seem to be a little different. I'm using photoshop cs2.

Gerald McClaren

When I looked at this picture, the only thing that didn't look right on it was that the pink dress was too pink and the gold dress was too orange.

I use Photoshop and I gave it a "5 minute fix"... I went into adjustments and in selective colors, I adjusted the pink and yellow. it came out really good. I think the skin coloring is great on the original so I didn't mess with anything but the dresses.

hotpixels · #5 11-06-2006, 01:31 AM

When colouring a black and white photo you need to use several shades on the skin to get it to look right. It helps to have a palette of skin tones to draw from and then mix them as you go, as though you were using an airbrush.

I've used several different layers to get skin looking right, including Color, Color Burn, Soft Light, and Normal. You probably won't need all four, but I'd use at least three.

manta1900 · #6 11-06-2006, 09:05 AM

Maby something like that?

Swampy · #7 11-06-2006, 10:13 AM

Sorry I'm so long in getting back to you. I've had some connectivity problems in my area of Florida and logging online has been spotty.

When I said mask out and paint back I meant for you to run the Shadown/Highlight adjustment on a copy of the original. Running this adjustment affects the entire image and you only need the correction in specific areas. To do this, you apply a mask (filled with black) then use a soft low opacity white brush to paint back in only the areas that you want the S/H adjustment applied to. You can load the mask and use it again for another adjustment such as Hue/Saturation.

See the sample with layer palette below.

Liasson · #8 11-06-2006, 02:17 PM

I had to go back to this one and work on the skin tone more.

Gerald McClaren · #9 11-06-2006, 07:51 PM

Swampy, Liasson and the rest of the people I thank all of you for your help, Swampy, the illustration was very good and Liasson the color correction looks very good. Can you explain to me how did you color corrected this photo.

Gerald McClaren

Liasson · #10 11-06-2006, 09:52 PM

Sure Gerald.

I use PhotoshopCS

I tried the the normal auto levels, auto, color, auto contrast, messed with channels, hue and saturation and when I fixed one thing, it messed up another part of the picture. So, I decided to lasso each of the dresses and faces, I then copied and pasted them back. This gave me 5 layers...2 dresses, 2 faces and a copy of the original. Then I replaced the bright color of the dress on the original copy to match the rest of the dress. I made the pink dress layer a solid color and changed the opacity until the detail of the dress came through. On the orange dress, I just changed the hue and saturation until it look good me me. I darkened the faces and changed the opacity until the blend looked good on both.

All this while watching the evening news.... more like "listened to"..the evening news.

unimatrix001 · #11 11-07-2006, 08:57 PM

on this photo i duplicated the orginal set it to multiply added a mask and painted in the womans face on the right masking out the rest of the photo. lowered the opacity to 70 percent. used the eyedropper and selected the color for the womans face on the right and painted the woman on the left using a soft brush set to color mode. used a hue saturation level to lower the saturation of the pink dress. this is what i came up with.

Gerald McClaren · #12 11-18-2006, 12:47 AM

Excellent job unimatrix001. Thanks for the info.

Gerald McClaren

Vikki · #13 11-18-2006, 06:09 AM

The "original" you posted looks like it was colorized.
You will not be able to correct the coloring without actually recoloring.

soleah · #14 11-18-2006, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikki

The "original" you posted looks like it was colorized.
You will not be able to correct the coloring with actually recoloring.

How can you tell? If that's the case, could we just desat and color it?

Vikki · #15 11-18-2006, 11:33 AM

How can I tell? The colors are flat and one dimensional, there is a very limited palette of colors, there is some spill-over of colors along edges, teeth and eyes are the same color as skin, color is over saturated in areas, etc.

The only reason I mention this is because it's impossible to make this look correct, color wise, by using conventional color correcting techniques. What's needed is a better coloring job, not color correction.

Desaturating and recoloring probably won't produce good results, as the method used to colorize this has probably changed the tones in the image. The best bet is to get the original.
Here's an animation to show the differences