Requesting Guidance in baby steps.

[pixel pixie]

Hi there,
I admit I've been lurking for about 18 months, but that was only because I joined this site with absolutely no skills in this area hoping to learn as I read. I do attempt the challenges, and am getting better slowly but still feel that I am in the "baby steps" skill range......but I'm improving.

So now I write seeking some guidance. I have restored baby face and lounge one piece at a time (The lounge was tedious). Where do I need to go now? The tone is out, I know that, but when I use levels (better with levels than curves still) It doesn't seem to show the classic reduction in green and blue that all the texts say it should as a result of uneven fading I have run it to b/w, but I'm not totally pleased with that either.

I'm proud of what I have achieved and do not want someone to give me the completed project on a platter, but I'm beginning to struggle.... would someone have the time to point me in the right direction please

Thank you in advance
Brandy

01.jpg

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[0lBaldy]

Brandy, what a great introduction and first post... Welcome to RetouchPRO

Just thought I would comment before looking at what seems to be at first glance some great work...

Quick impression is.... Playing with the Channel Mixer will bring out some needed color

then maybe some coloring on separate layers

these threads may help with coloring:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...e-project.html

http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015

[TommyO]

Originally Posted by pixel pixie

The tone is out...

Brandy,
By the tone being out, I suppose you mean the image contrast looks flat... as it does. It does not appear to have been a color image; maybe hand colored, if anything.

So, levels will not bring back color information. It also is not that great for fixing contrast. My approach would be to do three things. 1) Fix minor imperfections in adjacent areas by either cloning in luminosity mode, or doing some light dodge & burn in a copy converted to LAB, in the lightness channel. 2) Do similar d&b in another copy to adjust the contrast overall, focusing on lightening light areas and darkening midtones and shadows. 3) Hand color after you get the contrast right, not before. Else, the colors will get off.

Not completely sure this is what you are looking for, but hope it helps some.

[Sweetlight]

Gotta admit, the lady knows how to enter a room.....
c

[0lBaldy]

Baby Steps;

This might help you on your way toward color

For the sample posted I also used Imagenomic noise reduction and sharpened the eyes a bit


PS
Forgot to mention that I used your cleaned up center version.. hope you do not mind...

[pixel pixie]

"I used your cleaned up center version.. hope you do not mind... "

Mind, Oh no, I'm thrilled. Isn't she beautiful........You've worked wonders!!!

I'm trying to read up on channel mixers now. But it's shown me what to aim for.

Thank you for your gracious welcome everyone. In time I hope to participate fully, but until then.... if I try to offer advice to anyone.....show me those corrections again and then shoot me!!

Brandy

[Cupcake]

The fastest way to get some of the color right , is to add the cooling filter (blue) in Photoshop. About 38 %

This picture was in B&W; but it was hand colored with oils.
In those days they colored the lips red.

[Kraellin]

hi pixel and welcome to RP.

you've done a nice job, but as you suspected, it can go further. also, this was not a color image originally from everything i can tell about it.

so, given that, you did the right thing taking it to a black and white. the trick now is to make it a very good black and white. (sepia can be put back later, if desired). working in black and white is much simpler than color. basically, you fix the mars, rips, bends, noise and then balance the black and white contrast and brightness. that's over-simplified a bit, but it's basically what is done. so, you already did the work to make it b&w, and i simply took your image and did a bit more tweaking.

first, i did a little usm, set to 1, i think it was. so, very little there.
then, a little 'fade correction', about 57. then, a ilttle clarify, about 4. following that i did a little noise reduction, very little. i just wanted to remove a bit of background noise to save further hand clean up. then, a little hand clean up with the push tool (smudge in photoshop). this all basically brings the image back to life and cleans things up a bit.

on yours, however, i went a bit further. i did a little colorizing to show you what might be done, again, if desired. i only did the face. my technique for colorizing is to make a blank layer above the rest of the work and airbrush in the desired colors. then, turn the layer to color blend and blur the whole thing, normally between about 8 and 40 gaussian. it just depends. i then set the erase tool on extremely light, like at 1 and erase any excess. i then set it higher and erase around the edges where the blur has taken things outside their proper places. and again, each time i do this it tends to be a little bit different, and on yours was no exception. on the first blank layer, i used mostly orangish/yellowish skin tones and then made a second blank layer above the first and used more reddish tones. i set this one to color blend also, but used the legacy mode color blend (paint shop pro). i then do the same blurring and erasing procedures to finish.

had i been doing the whole image, i would have done all the skin areas at the same time, face, arms and so on.

fade correction and clarify are paint shop pro only tools. i dont think photoshop has those, but you can try curves, leves, and shadows/midtones/highlights and come pretty close. the idea is to bring back some contrast and highlights, unless, of course, you're looking for a more faded result.

there was a fair amount of noise in your background. i didnt bother to try to correct it. the only thing i did there was the noise reduction tool in psp. any other work on that i probably would have done by hand with the push tool set to a medium to light setting.

be careful if you use a noise reduction filter. they can mess an image up pretty badly in attempting to correct to much noise damage at one time. they can also add artifacts of their own. so, i used psp's but at a very light setting.

bear in mind, i didnt try to do everything here. i mostly am just providing examples of what can be done. pay particular attention to your face on this one. that is almost always the focus of shots like this and you want that area to be clean and good looking. a lot of other mars can be ignored if the main focus of the image is done correctly.

and lastly, before you do ANY colorizing, do ALL of your restoration work first! it's a question of garbage in, garbage out. if the image is still messed up, then colorizing it will only give you colored messed up image

[Kraellin]

lol. i got so fixated on the face, that i forgot to adjust for the dress on that posted image. lol. it's an easy fix, though, even at this stage; simply mask the area and add some brightness

[mikedimples]

Wow, that was very informative Kraellin. Thanks for taking the time to type that out.

[Kraellin]

you're welcome

i decided to go ahead and finish this, just because i like to practice. fixing the dress shading/coloring was a little more tricky than i had anticipated. i ended up doing the brightness/contrast, but also did some airbrushing and cloning.

i made a new blank layer for the rest of the skin and did it the same as i had done the face, except i could do it all on one layer this time.

on the background, i selected the darker areas and then airbrushed that. killing the selection, i then went around and touched up a bit by hand and followed that by airbrushing the whole and putting that layer on a soft light blend mode.

i also went around and touched up minor areas with push and airbrush.