restoring old photo color spots problem

[drummergrl]

Hello this is my first post. I tried to put it in a different forum but this site is getting the best of me, I could not find a place in the techniques area to chose post new thread.
Anyway my question is I have several old photographs that have spot on them. They are colored, usually one color where the ink is coming off or bleeding through. I don't know how to fix this. I thought of just taking that color out of the picture some and that does help but then the overall pictures does not look good.
Thanks Martina

[mistermonday]

Drummergrl, welcome to Retouch Pro. Your image does not expand when we click on the thumbnail. That may be due to you posting i into the Salon Forum. You would be better off posting it in the Image Help or Retouching Forum on this site. The thumbnail is so small that we can not really see the problem areas of your image.
Regards, Murray

[0lBaldy]

drummergrl, Welcome to RetouchPRO! Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.

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[Kraellin]

i've moved this to the restoration forum where it shld get proper attention.

[TommyO]

Martina,
Your question is not entirely clear. So, you may want to rephrase it.

Anyway, there are several ideas to think about.
1. Before attempting cloning, try to fix all the global color problems in the image first using levels or curves. This brings the "good" areas back to "very good", so that when you do use them a source in cloning, the fixed area looks exceptional.
2. Learn to use masks. Masks allow you to limit the area in which a color adjustment takes place. The masks are very easy to edit, they are basically gray-scale representations of the image. Darker areas block underlying edits, lighter areas allow the underlying edits to shine through.
3. You can always search RetouchPro for the best recommendations for books on restoration. Just click the "Search" menu at the top of the web page. Enter in something like "books restoration". Probably the most recommended series is from Katrin Eismann. You can also Google her name and find her books.

[drummergrl]

Thank you for your help I am going to post the picture again. I think it is still hard to see what I am talking about but the red "spots" are across the top, above the hair and across the face just above the eye brows. If nothing else if I new what this is called I could look up more info about it.
I am using photoshop elements 7, I am not sure if it has masking capabilities. If so I have no idea how to access it or use it.
I have a few more questions but I will put it in a new post.
Thanks
Martina

[Southbay]

Hi drummergrl,

I dug out my old copy of Elements 4, and quickly did a couple of selections and just played around with some hue/sat shifts. You'll certainly have the tools you need to do a much better job, in version 7.

[0lBaldy]

Have no idea about Elements I used PS7
levels
replaced the blue channel
a little cloning
sharpened some

[Juergen D]

I thought this might be an option. This is the green channel only. Some Curves, Contrast and USM...

Juergen

[drummergrl]

Southbay, thank you that is kind of about what my finished product has looked like. Not bad but I was hoping for better. Maybe with my program that is the best I will get.
OlBaldy, That looks incredible, it looks like it would have taken a lot of time!! What did you replace the blue channel with? One of my biggest struggles was fixing the spots on the girls face, trying to keep the details and color.
Juergren D I also like what you did because the spots are gone but so is the color. It does look nice though and maybe a good option if I want a clean looking picture regardless of wether it has color or not.
I am still learning!!
Thank you all for your time and giving me ideas.
Martina

[mistermonday]

Drummergrl, if you examine your image you see that the Blue channel is badly damaged, Red channel has moderate dammage but Green is pretty good and pretty even. My approach with this image was to first use a Curve adjustment to bring the color back in line to what I thought it should be, focusing on the important parts like skin and hair color. After it was what appears to me to be in range (may not be what her true colors were), then I duplicated the layer and did Image>Apply Image and applied the Green channel from your original image and then changed the luminosity of that layer to Luminance. Now with a soft brush, you alt click to sample good colors and paint over all the spots. No cloning or patching. I rushed thru and did this in less than 5 mins to illustrate a direction. To do a good job you would need to take more time to paint over the spot on the hair and places n the face. Anyway there are many techniques, this being just one which is very fast depending on the image.
Regards,
Murray

[chillin]

Try to use this:

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Ellemir, welcome to Retouch Pro. For this image I would do the following (assuming you have Photoshop):
- Image > Mode > Lab Color
- In the Channel Palette, select the B channel
- Image > Apply Image and from the dialog window choose the "a" Channel, set the blending mode to Exclusion and the opacity = 100%

And now your done. You have blacked out the face and so I can not see the skin tones so you may need to add a Hue Sat adj or Selective Color adj layer to tweak the color.

Regards, Murray

Still some work left to be done, but it is a good method.
Thanks again Murray

[mistermonday]

Hi Chillin, I went the LAB route first and you get some good skin tone, eyes and hair color as well (shown below), but now you still need to even the luminosity and brush over the spots. I found it about the same time either way.
Regards, Murray

[chillin]

Yes, you're right, it required some additional work.
The skin tones: I put back the undistorted parts of the b channel. It helped.

[unimatrix001]

I was looking through this thread and everyone did a good job on this photo. I gave it a try, the spots in the blue channel were difficult to get rid of. I finally used the green channel and hand colored the photo, not sure the hair is the correct color as i did the face and hair together. I also replaced the background with a marble texture. I figured out why the hair color was off I had an extra color balance layer in there updated photo is attached.

[drummergrl]

Thanks unimatrix001,
I think changing the background was a good idea.
Thanks everyone I have been very inspired and learned a little also.
Martina

[MiningArt]

Used the green channel for a repaint.

[Kraellin]

these are always fun to do. i mostly used the color balance adjustment layer, color mixer and hue sat adjustment layers.

[Cupcake]

Worked on the blue channel in the noise filter in CS3.
Softened the picture, and then brought back the eyes noise and lips with a mask.
Re did the eyes (color).

[0lBaldy]

Tried a different approach

Replaced the Blue channel with the Green channel, adjusted with curves and levels
Copied Red channel.. put on layers pallet.. used Polaroid dust and scratch filter to remove light spots.. copied and pasted back into Red channel
Adjusted colors in layer pallet using levels and curves
Copied eyes and teeth on a separate layer.. sharpened
Copied all on a new layer copied that layer .. noise reduction, masked
Final clean up