Putting color back into sun faded photo (1908s)

[oldfashiontwist]

Hello All,

I am fairly new to using photoshop for restoration purposes, but have been doing design work with it for a couple years. Anyways I have a photo of my girlfriends family from the 1980s and have done a little color correction but need some help... The colors don't look very natural. The photos are attached. THNK YOU!

[0lBaldy]

A really quick version:

multiplied a couple times
Used FFT filter to remove paper pattern
levels
curves
Straightened image
cropped to fit
picked up colors from original and painted on color layers and did color adjustment on those layers
ran neat image for noise removal a couple times

[oldfashiontwist]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

A really quick version:

multiplied a couple times
Used FFT filter to remove paper pattern
levels
curves
Straightened image
cropped to fit
picked up colors from original and painted on color layers and did color adjustment on those layers
ran neat image for noise removal a couple times

fft filter?

[0lBaldy]

Using the FFT filter to remove photographic paper texture (click here)

(There is a download link at the bottom of the tutorial)

[oldfashiontwist]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

Using the FFT filter to remove photographic paper texture (click here)

(There is a download link at the bottom of the tutorial)

Cool, Thanks.

Well it appears the link doesn't work =/

[0lBaldy]

Sorry 'Bout that!!
try this
This action does it all.. Play the action.. paint the stars.. press the run arrow again fini..

[oldfashiontwist]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

Sorry 'Bout that!!
try this
This action does it all.. Play the action.. paint the stars.. press the run arrow again fini..

i actually searched for fft and came across the site...

so i ran the action, hit play. but it says " the command <i>filter</i> is not currently available" with the dialog boxes, continue or stop...

[0lBaldy]

the action uses the filter.
Did you download the filter and install it into the plugin folder for photoshop?

The FFT filter used in this action (RGB version of FFT/IFFT) has to be downloaded and installed first.

[Gary Richardson]

Had a quick go with your picture. I didn't remove texture as with a picture as gone as this you'd tend to lose detail and there isn't too much of that in the blown out areas.

With something as faded as this it's always best to have a light touch or things will tend to look a little artificial.

First I tried to get what little colour there was out of the picture by duplicating it and setting the blend mode to Multiply, then reduced opacity of that layer to about 40%.

New hue/saturation adjustment layer, and upped the saturation by about 15%.

Levels adjustment layer and adjusted to correct colour.

Merged layers.

Few colour layers for various characters and objects, then sampling colours from picture, I painted in a little colour to build it up a touch.

Little bit of dodge and burn to finish.

Not great I know, but colouring was never my forte, so it's about as good as I could get it.

Did a cropped version as well.

[oldfashiontwist]

Originally Posted by Gary Richardson

Had a quick go with your picture. I didn't remove texture as with a picture as gone as this you'd tend to lose detail and there isn't too much of that in the blown out areas.

With something as faded as this it's always best to have a light touch or things will tend to look a little artificial.

First I tried to get what little colour there was out of the picture by duplicating it and setting the blend mode to Multiply, then reduced opacity of that layer to about 40%.

New hue/saturation adjustment layer, and upped the saturation by about 15%.

Levels adjustment layer and adjusted to correct colour.

Merged layers.

Few colour layers for various characters and objects, then sampling colours from picture, I painted in a little colour to build it up a touch.

Little bit of dodge and burn to finish.

Not great I know, but colouring was never my forte, so it's about as good as I could get it.

Did a cropped version as well.

Thank you Gary, the color looks great! I might try using the FFT but i do believe you are right about losing detail. I'll probably end up printing one of both.

Thank you all.

-Wayne

[0lBaldy]

If you do not want to use the FFT then you might want to try this tutorial "Remove Photopaper Texture From Old Photos" by Flora.

It also shows how to create satisfactory 'Luminosity' and 'Shadow' Masks, to add dimension to the photo

[Gary Richardson]

You're welcome Wayne.

As OlBaldy says, Flora's tutorial is well worth a read.

Don't expect you'll necessarily get the kind of results she does, Flora is a phenomenon that we all aspire to emulate.

[rpsparks]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

the action uses the filter.
Did you download the filter and install it into the plugin folder for photoshop?

The FFT filter used in this action (RGB version of FFT/IFFT) has to be downloaded and installed first.

Does this not work for Mac?

[0lBaldy]

OOPS!!
The Alex Chirokov FFT filter is a Windows Only program and will not run on a Mac.

[Kraellin]

this was a somewhat interesting picture to work on. normally, i work in paint shop pro, but decided i'd try out some CS2 features; nothing fancy, just color balance and hue/sat adjustment layers. color balance by itself wouldnt do it. there wasnt enough saturation of color left. by adding the hue/sat i could then get the color balance to work better.

that's all i did in photoshop. next i went to image analyzer and used their FFT filter. normally, i use the RGB FFT filter, but this seemed like a good day to break out from my norm and try some other stuff i also made another adjustment to the color balance with IA's color balance.

i took all this back to psp and began working some detail. i added a little clarify to the image to bring things out more and some shadows/midtones/hightlights for the same reason. after that it was a bit of clone and airbrush to reduce specs and such. i then added another blank layer and did a little color work. this layer was set to 'color' blend mode and i simply used a very light airbrush to brush in some color here and there. and last of all i ran a medium digital camera noise removal, just enough to reduce some of the dinge of the image but not to really blur it.

one could probably do a stronger FFT than i did, either in IA or with the rgb fft.

[chillin]

The FFT filter doesn't work to well with this picture. It creates highlights for the couch too. I ran it without the couch.
I used also "neatimage".

[jesterjeni]

after a closer look at your picture it looks like you colored it yourself. there is some bleed over on the little girls hand and the shadow (for lack of a better explanation) on the older females face. I think taking a little bit darker approach would enhance the picture more. I ran it through noise ware after sharpining it and this is what i saw.