Removing lots of red stains on photo

[Gerald McClaren]

I would like to know how can I remove these stains. I had used the channel method but I still had a lot of stains.


Gerald McClaren

[DCobb]

This was just a very quick try with still a lot of work to be done. The whole picture was done, but I am posting with combined images for comparison. I found the stains to be magenta. The CMYK color space has a magenta slider which might be helpful. Also, replaced the background drapes. I am attaching a copy of a background drape in the event you do not have one. I sized it to match your posted picture.

dc

[Gerald McClaren]

DCobb, what method did you use to remove the reddish spots or stains? Thanks for the drapes.

Gerald McClaren

[Enkay]

Sounds like a job for the healing tool.

[Flora]

I managed to get rid of the spots by blurring behind recognition a and b after having changed to Lab mode...

The colours were strongly bleeding into each other .... but with the help of a layer mask the problem was solved ...

[Enkay]

Originally Posted by Flora

I managed to get rid of the spots by blurring behind recognition a and b after having changed to Lab mode...

The colours were strongly bleeding into each other .... but with the help of a layer mask the problem was solved ...

I really like what you did. Do you think you could provide some more detail about the whole process?

I would like to know how you fixed the overall tones and got such good contrast out of every cloth... Also how much blurring did you do because not matter how much blurring I did on the a & b channels I couldnt get the spots completely off the way you did with the method you described!

EDIT: I used the healing tool to remove the stains. Removing some saturation in the magentas seems to have helped differenciate between the grey of the suit, the black of the bowtie and the dark blue part of her shirt. Still not getting the same rich colors you have!

EDIT2: lowering the saturation and lightness of the reds with a mask seems to work well to remove the stains on the clothing.

[klassylady25]

Lab mode is something I'd like to learn more about.

[Kraellin]

nice job, flora. i've not seen you use Lab before. interesting technique. would have never thought of blurring a and b to substitute for clone/heal.

[mistermonday]

Gerald, here is another approach you can try.
For the moment, ignore the stains. Duplicate the background layer and apply a curves or level adjustment to bring the overall color back in line (more green, less red, so that the man's skin is brown instead of magenta).
Now take a look at the original background and you will notice that the Blue channel is a disaster, the red is pretty bad, but the green channel has pretty even luminosity and the stains do not show much.
OK, so now go back to the top layer whose color you corrected somewhat and go Image>Apply Image. Select the Green channel of the background layer and change the blend mode to Normal, then click ok. The layer will be grayscale. Change the blend mode of that layer to Luminosity.
Next add a blank layer on top of the image and change its blend mode to Color. Now select the Brush tool and using the Alt+the eye dropper sample an adjacent area of good color and paint over the stains. The can paint over the damaged areas fairly quickly.
For the curtains, I ran Noiseware on it using a mask to protect the rest of the image , and used the healing brush to remove the white spots
Regards, Murray

[Gerald McClaren]

Flora and Mistermonday excellent job on removing all those stains. Flora, can you please elaborate in more detail how you had remove those stains. Your method would be priceless to us. Mistermonday, I'll try your method and see how it will come out.

Gerald McClaren

[DCobb]

In response to the interest in the LAB color space, Dan Margulis has written the book Photoshop LAB Color and discusses blurring A & B and sharpening the L channel at length in Chapter 5. My face should be very red as I have worked thru all of the exercises in the book. However, just don't use the stuff enough to remember. I went back and tried it and applied a Gaussian blur of 11.1 to the "a" channel and close to 20 for the "b". Still had a few spots of red which means I did not blur enough. I also tried the sharpening on the "L". Using a curves adjustment on the a and b also helps refine the needed adjustment, especially for skin tones. Overall the results came out quite well.

dc

[Flora]

Thank you all for your kindness!!!

Great job everybody!!!

Originally Posted by Enkay

... Also how much blurring did you do because not matter how much blurring I did on the a & b channels I couldnt get the spots completely off the way you did with the method you described!

...Knowing that I was going to 'mess' with the channels, I didn't bother to correct the strong magenta colour cast as first step, but started by trying to get rid of the spots instead...

As Craig pointed out, I don't usually work in Lab ....actually, I rarely 'move' from RGB since I'm convinced that you always lose a bit by switching between colour modes ... but, if nothing else satisfies me ... then ...

For removing the spots in this picture I found that the Lab mode worked best for me ...

• Attachment 1 > the 3 Lab channels.
  
• Attachment 2 > the 'blurring' values I used for a and b
  
• Attachment 3 > comparison between ORIGINAL and Blurred Lab version ...
  
• As I said in my previous post the colours had 'bled' so,I copied and pasted the Lab version on top of my RGB background, created a Black Layer mask for this new layer and removed the red spots changing the Opacity of my brush when necessary ... (lower Opacity for removing the spots from skin..)
  
• Merged visible.
  
• Now, to remove the magenta cast, I created a Level Adjustment layer and used the 'Set Gray Point' on the spot shown in Attachment 4

Originally Posted by Enkay

...I would like to know how you fixed the overall tones and got such good contrast out of every cloth...

I used mostly Levels Adjustment layers... my trick?? (if you can call it that...) if necessary, I tweak everything ... meaning Output Levels as well

I tend to work with midtones contrast a lot to balance unevenly lighted parts of an image by selecting them individually.

If necessary, I add a couple of 'my' blank layers set to ...(tutorial here ...Just scroll down the page to the BLANK/EMPTY LAYERS SET TO.... part) ... or, even better, neutral colour filled layers which give you even more control and flexibility as Chris Tarantino explains very clearly and kindly in his Blog

No matter what kind of adjustment layer I'm using, I always 'play' with its Blending and Opacity until I'm satisfied with the result.

Attachment 5 > A snapshot of my workflow ...

Hope this helps...

[Enkay]

Thanks alot for that answer Flora! I'm a bit overloaded in work and school stuff tonight but I'll study all that tomorrow for sure.

I have one last question... How did you choose the grey point? Did you pick what seemed to give the best result?

Using the 50% grey layer and treshold method gave another grey point that still left very much of the magenta overcast. I'm wondering if you're using another method or just going with trial and error.

[Cameraken]

Hi Gerald.

I used a method similar to Murray.
Starting with the green channel. I ran shadow/highlight (PS7 equivalent to reduce contrast) and used this as the luminosity (Same as your FFT thread)
The biggest problems are the jpeg artefacts which should not be a problem in your copy.
There are signs that Bernards' jacket may be blue… Not sure.

Hi Flora.
Great job and Great to see you back.

Ken.

[Gerald McClaren]

Mistermonday, how are you? I had noticed that when I had used the brush to paint over the red stains there are a some dark sport where the stains were.


Gerald McClaren

[Gerald McClaren]

Flora, how are you doing? I would like to know how did you copy and paste the Lab version over the RGB background or original.

Gerald McClaren

[Mining Art]

Hello; I worked with your picture for awhile. I tried a recolor without doing a complete blotch removal. Had trouble removing the background, so just toned it down a little. Tried the dress pink also, but the yellow looked so nice I went with it.

[Flora]

Hi,

hope you all had a Happy Christmas and wish you all a wonderful 2008!!!

Enkay,

Originally Posted by Enkay

I have one last question... How did you choose the grey point? Did you pick what seemed to give the best result?

Using the 50% grey layer and treshold method gave another grey point that still left very much of the magenta overcast. I'm wondering if you're using another method or just going with trial and error.

... looking at the picture, I assumed that the tie was black and, therefore, considered gray that midtone point on the tie ... I might be wrong of course ... because as Ken pointed out,

There are signs that Bernards' jacket may be blue… Not sure.

... but, once I set that particular gray point, the colours of the whole image became more natural and 'credible' so, I stuck by it... I'm not good with numbers .. so I simply trust my eyes...

Ken,

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Hi Flora.
Great job and Great to see you back.

Thanks Ken!!
Great Job!!

Gerald,

Originally Posted by Gerald McClaren

Flora, how are you doing?

... Everything just fine ... thank you!! (hope for you too!!!)...

Originally Posted by Gerald McClaren

I would like to know how did you copy and paste the Lab version over the RGB background or original.

• After opening the image in Photoshop, I clicked on the 'Create new Document from current State' button (depending on the Photoshop version you could have a different 'definition' for it) ... Attachment 1
  
  
• Changed the newly created document to LAB mode and applied the Blur to its a and b channels.
  
  
• Aligned RGB and corrected LAB images on my Photoshop workspace.
  
  
• Making sure that my LAB version was highlighted, I dragged the corrected LAB Background to the RGB Image .... Attachment 2

Mining Art,

Nice job! .... Not sure about the very vivid colours though ....

.

[Enkay]

Thank you very much flora!