How to Repair this

[greg-andrew74]

Hi all, sorry for my more than long absence. Now that we've settled in to our new home and have a decent internet connection i can be about more. Anyhow, on to the photo, I have been approached bya close friend who asked if i could repair this photo for her. I said yes, as i know how much it means to her... So far i have been healing and cloning but i know this is not going to turn it into a photo she can cherish. Would anyone else have any advice? I am using CS3.

I have uploaded the image, but will also provide a link to it too, just in case its not good enough
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/p...pro/img002.jpg

[mistermonday]

Here is one approach that is fast and I think will produce better results than a lot of cloning.
Duplicate the bkgnd layer. Apply the G channel to it and change the blend mode to Luminosity. Add a blank layer on top of that and set the blend mode to color. Using a soft brush, alt+Click to sample colors from good areas and paint over the damaged areas. You will only be left with a couple of spots that need the patch tool.
The face will too dark so you will need to lighten it using a curve or shadow highlight or add a merged layer and apply the orig R channel to it with a Black layer mask and use a white brusg to paint in his face.
FYI, both images are very badly jpg compressed (big jpg blocks). Hopefully you have a higher resolution orig to work on.
Regards, Murray

[greg-andrew74]

Thanks very much Murray.. i like the end result of your fix on it too. I will go play with it shortly as its still open.. been cloning and healing all night and if i'm honest it looks rubbish.

How do i apply the G Channel... ? thanks again...

[amica999]

greg, on the dup layer got to IMAGE -> Apply image -> choose green channel

[greg-andrew74]

ahhh .. thanks amica... i will go do that now.. thanks

[detlef]

Would this wortk for you ?

[0lBaldy]

Greg, welcome to RetouchPRO

I know it is not a true "Restore" but I would also offer her a cropped version (that way all you have to do is Paint on a color mode layer the sweater, another color layer for jacket, then put them all together and do some finishing up stuff.. levels/curves, highlight stuff, etc..)

I agree with Murray on the size.. I noticed your scan was @ 600 but the size on the long side was only a little over 1 1/2 inches pretty small to do any meaningful work on to be cherished.. a 8X10 or larger would be of a great benefit and a lot easier for you to offer a quality Restore.

[greg-andrew74]

1. Thanks Detlef... that look very very nice...
2. Thanks Baldy... Your option is very much more appealing. Although i have to add i have learned how to add a channel now and thats excelent stuff.

What is the best way for me to scan it in then? and then work. I am def going for the crop that Baldy offered me.

Thanks to every one thus far.

[igot2pman]

Good job everyone, mainly wanted to adress ways to reduce or eliminate the red ugly parts. Could have eliminated them all but you should get the gest of it. You can also get rid of them by painting and setting to color, like the pants. Like what Olbaldy did but on the spots.

Refer to screen shoot for direction

Hope it helps,
-Keven

[chillin]

You could use the hand as a reference for the face tone.

[manish007]

how much you can pay for this

picture should be upto the mark after correction

[greg-andrew74]

hi everyone.. sorry for not getting mack to you all yesterday.. managed to catch myself "Man FLU" hehe.. so was in bed all day yesterday like a little baby as my wife would say. I will continue working on the picture today and show the result based on what you people have so kindly taught me. Very grateful for the information. Thanks a lot all..

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by igot2pman

mainly wanted to adress ways to reduce or eliminate the red ugly parts.

To "get the red out of the head", I use Pixel Genius' s Photokit Color2.0 plugin > color enhance set > skin tone enhance effect. It creates a layer or two and you can fiddle with the opacities. It's a blindingly quick adjustment with farily realistic results. My 2¢.

[DCobb]

This is my try. This was a quick try and more work is needed to smooth out certain areas.

Solid color adjustment layers set to color
Healing brush
clone tool
patch tool
Layers adjustment to lighten face.

[Kraellin]

started with a histogram adjustment, then a hue/sat, followed by a brightness/contrast. after that it was mostly clone, airbrush and push. when things were mostly cleaned up i did a final treatment on the face. this started with a selection of just the face with another hue/sat directed at just that. i then did some smoothing of the face with the push tool. and that was pretty much it.