A beauty queen

[jubbaking]

I'm curious as to how you guys would tackle this one. The client asked that I put her on a new background and I did that. I figured once I did this I could fix the dress and skin. The darker yellow at the bottom is the actual dress color but obviously the rest of it is very faded and her skin is ultra magenta (that's an actual term...look it up ). I am trying to figure out the best way to go about the fix. I was thinking I originally thought I could just color the dress by hand with a blend mode set to color but it just dosn't work out. I have a few other ideas involving careful use of the clone stamp set to darken but what do you guys recommend?

http://www.photographybyvan.com/nate/restore.jpg
I think once I vignette this it will look quite nice...

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

[Imgonna]

Hi

The first thing that comes to mind, is the composition of the image. It looks like she is floating over the floor by some inches. Given the angle of the original shot, I would opt for a "similar" flooring as in the original. The colouring just needs work -- does the client want a color image or can you desaturate?

Just my $0.02

[jubbaking]

They want color. I will work on the floor, etc. All I need help with is the color fixing.

[solitear]

Hi jubbaking..... This was a VERY quick job but just wanted to show a way that might work.

I selected the entire dress and copied to a layer.

On that layer I selected the dark portion and lightened using levels adjustment.... when it was very close I merged down.

On the dress layer I did a layer style and choose Color Overlay.... didn't mess around with inner glow but a slight one might be nice.....

Beth

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I switched to lab.. and used the lightness channel and a selection of the lower dress to equalize luminance... then back to RGB and a color layer to paint over the lower dress.

Then I made selections of the skin then put on a temp layer... averaged the selections and used a curves adjustment layer to make yellow a little more than magenta and cyan a 1/3 of magenta. Then deleted the temp layer.

Butch

[Syd]

Nice one Butch! Much more natural looking. Doesn't look so sun-bleached anymore. She still looks like she is kind of floating though. Perhaps another, lighter shadow, in front of her at 8o' clock would ground her more. This would be consistent with the lighting behind her.

Syd

[keiser]

Here is my fix. Still feel like she is floating. Tried to bring out the dress a little more and fix skin tone. Still feels a little light to me.

Have to go, four year old is telling me I am turning into a computer chair potato (his version of a couch potato).

[Dave.Cox]

I thougth I would try my hand at this.

I added a color layer to add color back into the dress, and then hue adjusted to match the top to the bottom. Healed, the seam, and added a shadow at the bottom, to make the girl look a little more connected with the floor.

Whups, just noticed the magenta skin. A green photo filter will knock that down nicely.

I thought a different background might be nice. Hope you don't mind.

[zekeode]

Originally Posted by Imgonna

Hi

Given the angle of the original shot, I would opt for a "similar" flooring as in the original.

I agree. Here is my take on this. 2min messing just to show how it would look.

[Kraellin]

jubbaking,

added some shadows and dark at her feet to fix the 'floating'.

added some softening around her figure to reduce the cut-out look.

made a selection of the lighter area (remember, he said the bottom of the dress is the original color). used a hue/sat on the selection to adjust the upper portion to darker and proper color.

smoothed the transition of old and new with some clone and airbrush.

[lurch]

Craig - You've done a magnificent job restoring the gown color and grounding the floating woman, but . . . (forgive me - can't stop myself) no self-respecting beauty queen would wear that color if she had such a pink complexion. Her real skin color has got to be darker with more yellow.

PS: You're not the only respondent who has done this - it just doesn't show so much against the faded yellows.

[Kraellin]

hehe, lurch. and thank you

to be honest, i agree. i'm guessing that the real color of the gown isnt that part on the bottom but more nearly what the top is. but, he said the bottom, so i made it the bottom. and, if you'll also notice the original, the skin color is different there from the after. so, i'd say you're right. good catch!

[jubbaking]

Thanks guys, I think I got it. I ended up sampling the darker yellow of the dress and making a solid color adj. layer set to multiply at about 70% opacity. I then fixed up any loose ends with the clone stamp set to lighten/darken/color. Fixed the skin by adjusting the hue and masking back in what I wanted to have adjusted.

[Kraellin]

good show. glad ya got what was wanted