Color Adjustments

[Mysterious_Em]

Hey!

I'm new here, but I guess I"ll just jump right in. I'm currently at the beginning of a huge restoration project. My mom basically handed me three boxes of photos that had been damaged by a careless family member. I'm slowly but surely going through and restoring them, when I have time.

The biggest trouble that I've had, so far, is with color corrections. I was wondering if I could get some input on this project? I'm afraid that I've perhaps taken the color corrections too far. I'm not sure if the colors were this... "bright" in the original, though there are family stories about the red hair of the girl in the picture, so for all I know, this is accurate.

Anyhow, any other perspectives would be welcome!

[Kraellin]

looks pretty good to me

and welcome to RP.

[Mysterious_Em]

Thanks, Craig!

I'm glad to hear it looks good from there. I've had some trouble calibrating my monitor, as well, so I can't always trust it will look the same from where I am.

Thanks also for the welcome. I've already learned a lot, just lurking, so far, but I'm looking forward to joining in.

-ME

[TommyO]

Originally Posted by Mysterious_Em

I'm not sure if the colors were this... "bright" in the original...

I would agree with Craig, it looks very good. While the colors may not have been as saturated, your saturation levels are pretty close... maybe just a few percentage points high. Hardly worth worrying about if you like them. The colors are also well isolated, in other words you did not globally correct a color only to have it bleed into another.

Good job !

[mistermonday]

Em, your color looks pretty good. As a comparison I tried a PS plugin developed by Kodak for restoring colors which have shifted in slides and prints. It is one touch and it is usually bang on. It got the skin tone pretty much bang on so perhaps the rest is close as well.

Regards, Murray

[Mysterious_Em]

Thanks TommyO! I do agree that it is maybe a bit too saturated. I'm still learning, and I only really became aware of how to adjust the saturation today. :P I'm going to mess with it and see if I can't get it closer.

mistermonday - really nice tool. I may need to continue working on calibrating my monitor. Either that or it's my eyes. The one you did looks just a little yellow to me. Of course, it could also be my eyes. I don't know. This is a picture of my aunt, and I'm assuming, since she looks so much like her daughter, that she had a similar skin tone at that age.

Could this reflect my moni

[mistermonday]

Em, the correction I made effectively reduced the blue and shifted the image toward yellow while at the same time increasing the green. As I study both images, I feel that yours is too blue, mine is too yellow, and the optimum balance probably lies somewhere in between. Moreover if you just reduce the saturation of your image it looks very realistic.
Regards, Murray

[Senet]

consider that they are old images and as such should definitely not have as much colour in them.

Quick fix you can try which I have used successfully a number of times is to add for yourself a black and white layer adjustment overtop and scale back the opacity. If you do this then you can equally desaturate the image.

Take a look. When you do it this way to older photos you can really give yourself a quick and easy way to control not just the saturation but also the contrast so you don't get too hard edged.

[Senet]

I should add that I put this black and white layer overtop your retouched image. So if you do what you normally would to get to that part you felt it was over saturated this is how I would take it back down evenly.

[chillin]

To adjust the color I used common method like shown here + reduced the red.

[Mysterious_Em]

Wow, Senet! Yours is probably the closest to how I imagined the color "should" be. Of course, newbie that I am, my idea of "should" might be slightly different from a professional opinion. XD

I'm going to remember that trick. Thanks a bunch!

[Kraellin]

I tried a PS plugin developed by Kodak for restoring colors which have shifted in slides and prints.

murray, what plugin would that be and where can i get it?

[Mysterious_Em]

Well, I worked on the photo, keeping in mind some of what y'all said, and I think it's a big improvement! I think it still might be a little bit blue, I dunno.

[mistermonday]

Hi Craig, The plugin (also available as stand alone app) is called Digital ROC by Kodak and is available at kodak.com. If you have ever had to scan 20 year old Kodalor negatives or old Kodachrome / Ektachrome slides, they have certain characteristic color schemes that they fade or shift to. Kodak developed a few good algorithms to correct them. When they work they seem to work very well. Like all tools they work great on some images and not for others. But I find it a useful tool for certain types of work.

Em, Actually I find the final one a bit to red. If you switch your eyedropper tool to LAB mode you will see that the ratio of the A to B Channels (17/10)is higher than what skin color would likely be for that child. I opened the image in Adobe Camera RAW and went to the HSL Panel and just moved the Red slider (at the top) from 0 to +35. This shifted the Red a slight amount toward orange and brought the A and B channels closer together while at the same time lowering the red and raising the yellow a tiny amount. This subtley toned down the red in the face and hair. If you overlay the two images the difference is very subtle. In the end it is probably more a matter of taste because your final result looks very pleasing.

Regards, Murray

[Mysterious_Em]

Okay, I REALLY had to look to see the difference, but I see what you're saying now.

I've been doing this all of 28 days, so I don't really understand how you accomplished that. Can I do the same thing using a color balance adjustment layer?

I don't know how to tell what the ratio of channels should be. I'm just going by eye. :/ Is this process you're talking about something you learn by experience, or something you can read up on?

[mistermonday]

Em, am I correct to assume that you use some version of Photoshop for editing?
For portrait work in particular I always have one or more color samplers in the Info Palette set to displayLAB color values. You do not need to be working in LAB color in order to display the color values in LAB. In fact you can display bith RGB and LAB values at the same time becuase there are 2 sets of numbers displayed as you move the eyedropper tool around.
I find LAB numbers are much more intuitive than RGB. The L channel represents the Lightness (or brightness) of an image. You can take a quick glance at the numbers, even if your monitor is poorly calibrated, and you can tell instantly a lot about your image. The L or Lightness (Brightness) channel gives you a quick indication if your image is properly exposed or not. There is a limited range where the exposure of faces looks great, beyond which they are too dark or too light. A glance at the A and B channels tell you if the area is Red vs Green (A channel) or Blue vs Yellow (B channel). You also learn very quickly that there is a range of values and ratios between the A and B channels for pink vs orange vs brown skin etc. The Lightness (L)and color values (A&B) are independent of each other so you can make very quick reliable adjustments to the color without affecting the Lightness of the image.
Looking at the numbers as a sanity check always works because they never lie.
To set your sampler(s) to LAB mode, select one of the two number displays in the info palette by right clicking on the triangle beside the eyedropper icon and from the context menu, select LAB color.
Regards, Murray

[Mysterious_Em]

Thanks for explaining this Murray! I tried to look it up in the only book I currently own, and the only reference I could find was an explanation that LAB used three channels, Lightness, a, and b. It mostly explains color in terms of RGB. :/

Can you recommend a website or book where I could read up on this more? Saying that there's a limited range is good and all, but since I don't know what that "limited range" is, I'm back to depending on my eyes. XD

[mistermonday]

The recognized bible on LAB color is a book by Dan Margulis and it is called "Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace.
Regards, Murray

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by chillin

To adjust the color I used common method like shown here...

A 133 grey point? Is that simply to increase saturation in his ink jet prints? I've mucked about with the level and tone of my grey point in the past, and simply acquiesced to 128.

For the rest of the thread, as far as auto balancing goes, I use: http://www.pixelgenius.com/color2/index.html

It's usually close on the first guess, and allows significant flexibility to bring those skin tones close to home.

[mistermonday]

Southbay, no, when all R,G,B values are equal then you have no saturation at all. The White, Black, and Gray points are set somewhat arbitrarily. Just as Dave uses 10 and 245 for black and white (instead of 1 and 255), he and many others choose to define the mid gray point as 133 instead of 128. There is not a big difference.
Regards, Murray

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Southbay, no, when all R,G,B values are equal then you have no saturation at all.

True. I was just thinking that setting a higher mid point might force you to pull back on the middle of the curves a bit more.

But, my DUH...if he's set his ends at 10 and 245, the mid is obviously going to be 133.

[Kraellin]

thanks, murray, but for $99 i think i'll stick to psp

[shotcollector]

Hope you like it. I think appropiate lighting for children's skin is global soft,, back a little desaturated.