Suggestions to improve this image

[maverick911]

This is my first visit and I am astonished at what can be done. Could you suggest what I could do with this image and if there is a tutorial (dont seem to be able to view the tutorials for now)

[albatrosss]

Levels. Dust and Scratches Filter. High Pass Filter

[DCobb]

This is my try.

-levels adjustment
-dust/scratches
-history brush -darken/lighten
-sharpen eyes

dc

[Bill M]

There are some good books on the subject, but this one is not too dificult. The question is: how far do you wish to go with noise reduction? If you go too far you end up losing too much detail.
1. Ran Shadow/Highlights two consecutive times with this setting:
shadows= 25, 40, 100
highlights=10, 40, 100
adjustments= color 0, midtone contrast +15
2. Ran Neat Image plugin noise reduction
3. Ran unsharp mask three times:
20/60/0, 100/1/0, 80/.6/0
4. Cloned out the remaining junk.
5. Used noise reduction again

[maverick911]

Thank you for these. Excellent stuff! I would maybe like to have a go at colouring the image. I guess that is fairly tedious and time consuming?

[Kraellin]

maverick911, welcome to RP.

you might want to try this link for some colorizing help: http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015

[BillFrey]

I gave it a try using layers in color blend mode.

[maverick911]

Fantastic.....thank you both. Bill, can I ask how you reduced the grain, you havent lost any detail?

[unimatrix001]

enhanced the blacks and whites.
highpass filter 1.8 set to vivid light
duplicate layer
noiseware default settings to reduce noise
added layer mask to mask out the man

[BillFrey]

Thanks, maverick911 Glad you like it.

I've struggled with noise/grain removal and have tried every technique that I've come across. Being a bit of a perfectionist, lately I've come to the conclusion that the best method is to remove the noise/grain by hand in the most important areas of the photo.

I used two levels layers, one to darken, one to lighten, both with black masks. I then painted white on the mask where I wanted to remove the grain on the face and shirt.

I ended with a tiny touch of overall noise reduction via 3party software.

It's a long and tedious process that I just started to use but the results are better than I've had with any other method I tried.

Good luck at RetouchPro, I'm sure you'll find a wealth of information to take you on the road to retouching insanity

[printmeister]

A quick colourization

[Kraellin]

very nice, printmeister!

[printmeister]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

very nice, printmeister!

Thanks Craig, I was just looking at it on an uncalibrated monitor at work and it looked awful. I hope everyone is calibrated..!

[Kraellin]

yeah, does help to have em calibrated, even if only by software or visual comparisions to charts.

[maverick911]

Well I have followed a tutorial but the results are very poor. Can anyone suggest an in depth step by step tutorial? Thanks

[Kraellin]

here's what i did:

duplicate background.

correct lighting with contrast/brightness adjustment layer.

copy merged layers and paste to new layer.

on this layer i made an 'edit selection' and masked out the eyes, nostrils, lips, ears and sweater. i changed this into a selection and inverted it.

on the inverted selection i ran the 'light' setting of polaroid's dust and scratch remover.

i inverted the selection back andi did another 'edit selection' on this and included the jacket as part of the mask. changed this all back to a selection and inverted again. on this i ran the polaroid D&S again, but on the 'dark' mode.

i then duplicated that layer and ran 'clarify' at a setting of 2.

duplicated this and ran a usm at 2/100/5.

added a new blank layer and did just a tiny bit of clone to touch up a few areas.

copy merge and save as new layer and done!

this was a fairly simple restore. and if you notice, there is no ONE tutorial that anyone used. they all were slightly different. some used noise reduction while others used polaroid's D&S. i used a usm filter while someone else used a high pass. so, there are similarities, but none exactly the same. it's a matter of knowing your tools and what they do and then practicing with them... a LOT

you did a fair job, but you need more practice. looks like the clone got away from you a bit. that's one of the hard ones to learn well, but it's also one that needs to be mastered for this kind of work. and this piece doesnt really need a lot of clone or smudge. so, if you're going to continue just keep studying the tools and practice, practice, practice!

[Kraellin]

and just one note on the jacket, i looked at it pretty closely and felt that black speckling/thread thing going on there was part of the jacket. i've seen those before, but, if you felt it isnt part of the jacket, in my steps you'd simply leave out that extra mask i added on the jacket when doing the 'dark' part of the dust and scratch.

[maverick911]

Thank you very much Craig. I will give it a try.