Question on restoration work flow..

[TomasD]

Hi,

I have a very heavily colour cast image, that is very faded and has a mass of nasty paper texture in it. This all on top of the physical damage I will need to fix..

My question (I hope is a simple one) is about what to restore first?

My planned approach is:

Texture,
Fade,
Colour,
Damage:

Is this best? are there relative advantages to restoring one element or another?

Any input would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks

[montera]

Hi, TomasD,
I think the best way to learn the thing is by reading a book by Ctein, http://photo-repair.com/DigiRestBook.htm I would start from there.

Peter

[TomasD]

Thanks for the link to what looks a great resource..

I've just ordered

Adobe Photoshop Restoration and Retouching (Voices That Matter)"
Katrin Eismann

I'll wait for that to arrive before spending anymore

[Cameraken]

Hi Tomas

Your workflow sounds correct. Texture should always be removed first (if possible)

But is does depend on the particular image.
If you post a sample you may get more specific help
There is a good workflow here

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...orkflow1.shtml

and a tutorial here

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=255

Hope this helps

Ken.

[TomasD]

Thanks for the great links Ken.. Wow.. I have a tonne to read since I signed up here a few hours ago

I am forced to work on a copy of the original (now lost) I can only assume it was originally a black and white and that it is the scan/reprint that has given it the cast. The main issues for me are 1) The texture - FFT refuses to give me anything but a solid black red channel !?, but Neat Image works its usual wonders on the noise and knocks out alot of the texture. 2) is the band down the middle of the image.. The rest (colour and general cleaning is pretty straight forward.

Heres the image, enlarged a section to give a little better idea of detail..

[TomasD]

heres my attempt.. to me it looks dirty !

anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve it?

[bart_hickman]

Originally Posted by TomasD

Texture,
Fade,
Colour,
Damage:

That sounds like how I'd do it. If the damage is bad enough, I'd probably fix the worst part of the damage prior to fixing the color simply because the damage may obscure the composition enough to prevent making a proper judgement on the color.

Bart

[Kraellin]

in restorations, i dont know that there is any fixed order of doing things. to me, each picture tends to have its own requirements. but, i do, normally, like to 'find the image' first and then start cleaning things up. this often involves contrasting or color balance or maybe just adjusting the luminance. i most always try to bring out the detail before starting to clean up. nothing like getting half way through a piece and suddenly finding that you've cloned out a faded hand or arm or something. so, i tend to always look for what's there first, what's really there and go from there.

and, that last also often means increasing the image size before anything else. filters and curves and levels and all that will do a better job of 'getting between the cracks' if there are more pixels to the image. you can always reduce the size later, if desired. on yours, i doubled the size.