Photo Restoration - - Removing Texture - Page 2

LadySedim · #16 02-28-2007, 11:01 AM

Well crud! My browser died on me and I lost my whole post on what I did...and I cannot even begin to reconstruct it now, but there were quite a few levels and hue/saturation adjustments. I apologize, but anyway here's my take on the pic. With so much yellow and over-exposure, reverting to black and white seemed to give the best results.

femmgrangwav · #17 02-28-2007, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swampy

Depends on how big you want to output it. If you are going to print a 5 x 7, 300 ppi should be fine.

thanks..the image is a the size of a passport photo. Can I still enlarge it at 300 ppi?

femmgrangwav · #18 02-28-2007, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadySedim

Well crud! My browser died on me and I lost my whole post on what I did...and I cannot even begin to reconstruct it now, but there were quite a few levels and hue/saturation adjustments. I apologize, but anyway here's my take on the pic. With so much yellow and over-exposure, reverting to black and white seemed to give the best results.

Ohhh thank you!! This looks great! Can you pretty pretty please post the steps you used?

LadySedim · #19 02-28-2007, 03:24 PM

The problem is, I did quite a number of steps, and I lost them when my browser crashed on me, cuz I wrote them in the box as I did them. So what I can tell you here can really only be the general steps I took. PLEASE NOTE....This is probably missing aa few steps and critical details...I am sorry about that.

I know I duplicated the image, and on the duplicate layer I did a "levels" adjustment layer, first in the RGB and then in the Yellow sub-channel, to make his skin more of a natural brown color. After that I did an image>adjustments>variations. It was set on mid-tones, to "fine" setting, and 1 click each more blue, more red, and darker. After that I used the hue/saturation dialog to take him back to a true black-n-white. After this I did a quick de-saturate on the background layer, and adjusted the top layer to something like 70% fill. Merged those 2 layers to create 1, then used the "burn" tool on a soft round brush and about 70% strength (I think) to clean up the background. I did use a smaller brush on "blur" tool (60% strength, I think..I maade several passes) to blend in the mottling on his skin. Then I cropped the old frame out entirely, and used custom shape to make a new clean frame in pure white.

femmgrangwav · #20 02-28-2007, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadySedim

The problem is, I did quite a number of steps, and I lost them when my browser crashed on me, cuz I wrote them in the box as I did them. So what I can tell you here can really only be the general steps I took. PLEASE NOTE....This is probably missing aa few steps and critical details...I am sorry about that.

I know I duplicated the image, and on the duplicate layer I did a "levels" adjustment layer, first in the RGB and then in the Yellow sub-channel, to make his skin more of a natural brown color. After that I did an image>adjustments>variations. It was set on mid-tones, to "fine" setting, and 1 click each more blue, more red, and darker. After that I used the hue/saturation dialog to take him back to a true black-n-white. After this I did a quick de-saturate on the background layer, and adjusted the top layer to something like 70% fill. Merged those 2 layers to create 1, then used the "burn" tool on a soft round brush and about 70% strength (I think) to clean up the background. I did use a smaller brush on "blur" tool (60% strength, I think..I maade several passes) to blend in the mottling on his skin. Then I cropped the old frame out entirely, and used custom shape to make a new clean frame in pure white.

Thanks I got to step #1 and adjusted the RGB channel but where is the Yellow sub-channel?

femmgrangwav · #21 02-28-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillFrey

Hi femmgrangwav,

I tried Polaroid Dust and Scratch Removal on your picture (a free plugin).
It did a nice job of removing the white dots.
It's not the total answer for this restoration, but it will give you a good start.

I tried it. I think I need to look at the instructions. It automatically uploaded as a PhotoShop Plug-in. So I went to Filter>polaroid. Is there a way I can preview the image? All I see in the preview box is a white area. And when I go to adjust anything on the Polaroid plug-in a pop-up comes up saying Progress and just sits there. As if it freezes. I hit cancel and it does nothing. But when I click exit closes out. ooooo vey!!

ETA...

I finally got it. I did do a GREAT job by getting the cracks out. Now he looks like he has leathery skin. How do I work that out? I'll post the pic.

Here's what I got when I adjusted the levels and used the Polaroid plug-in:
http://ss1.pickle.com/media/femmgran...39_big.jpg?170

BillFrey · #22 02-28-2007, 07:43 PM

Hi femmgrangwav,

I didn't save your file, but I'll do it again and save the steps. If I recall correctly I ran the filter two times on low settings, once for the 'light' and once for the 'dark' spots.

I'll edit this post and show the results in a few.

Edit: Your version is a good starting point for restoration. I used it to continue with noise removal and layers of selective lightening and darkening. The highlight/shadow adjustment in CS2 recovered a good deal of the shirt.

LadySedim · #23 02-28-2007, 08:55 PM

I'm sorry, it might have been the blue channel, or maybe red. I was trying to correct him to a more natural skin-tone, and also tone down those yellow highlights...so I corrected for that...if it helps at all, the skin-tone I ended up with was a warm chocolate brown with a slight but distinct red cast. But I know for sure it wasn't the green channel, so don't mess with that one if you are trying to follow what I did. I only converted him to black-n-white image after I had the most natural skin-tone acheivable. To judge skin tone, I kept his skin in the same value-range, and applied my own knowledge of skin coloration in darker races. Hope this helps

BillFrey · #24 03-02-2007, 02:34 PM

I gave colorizing a try.

Swampy · #25 03-02-2007, 03:56 PM

Bill

Good job. Very sellable. :-)

femmgrangwav · #26 03-02-2007, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillFrey

I gave colorizing a try.

WOW!!! This is lovely! Did you use the replace option tool in photoshop? I wasn't even thinking about adding color!

BillFrey · #27 03-02-2007, 05:45 PM

Thanks, Swampy

Hi femmgrangwav,

Glad you like it

I painted color on layers set to 'color' blend. I don't think it's the most favored way of coloring, but it's what I'm most comfortable with.

Bill

LadySedim · #28 03-02-2007, 06:33 PM

Wow! that looks amazing, Bill! Can you please describe how you do the layers-color-blending...thing? It looks like something I would really love to try

LadySedim · #29 03-02-2007, 06:41 PM

OK< I know it's not technically related, but I'm saying it anyway ;-) I really love watching how people work off one another in these forums, taking something almost lost and ending up with something amazing. It's really a pleasure and a creative inspiration to watch :-)

BillFrey · #30 03-02-2007, 08:28 PM

Thank you, LadySedim

I agree, I'm often impressed with the restoring/retouching being done here. I'm often surprised at how much can be salvaged from badly damaged photos.

Here's a small example of how I colorize... often changing colors to hopefully get a natural look.

Regards,
Bill