Developed photos with pink haze

[bwick]

Hi,

I joined this site today in hopes of learning how to deal with images like the one attached. I had about 20 rolls of film sitting in a drawer for a number of years. One day I decided to have them all developed. Along with the developed pictures, I paid for a CD with all the images on it. Both the developed pictures and the digital images have the same coloring. I assume the coloring is a result of heat or poor developing?

I am trying to teach myself Photoshop and purchased several books on the subject but none address scanned photos or restoration. I did purchase Ctein's book today and am looking forward to its arivial.

If anyone could take the time to tell me the steps I need to take to fix this photo it would be greatly appreciated. I posted a 800x530 image here, and the full size file can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/1768...Image?h=ce8945

Thank you in advance,

Brian

[mistermonday]

Brian, welcome to RetouchPro. Consider yourself extremely lucky that you got any images to come out all. All films has expiry dates prior to exposure. Once they are exposed they need to be processed quickly (days to a few weeks) in order to stop further chemical degenerative reactions from taking place.
If they are all like the sample you posted you may only have a moderate amount of work but that may vary from image to image. There are many ways to approach this type of restoration. Examining the channels in this image you will see that the stain does not appear in the green channel. So the recipe that I would use here is:
- Duplicate the background
- From Photoshop Image menu select Image>Apply Image; for the channel select Green, change the blend mode from Multiply to Normal, opacity 100%. The result will be a black & white layer on top of you background.
- Next change the blend mode of that B&W layer to Luminosity. The result will look pretty much like your original background colorwise but the luminosity will be uniform.
- To complete the fix you noww add a blank layer above the B&W layer and change its blend mode to Color. Now with your paint brush, sample a good color adjacent to the stain and paint over the stain.
- Sample attached was done in 2 mins with a sloppy painting job.
Regards, Murray

[chillin]

I would use curves adjustments taking samples from a good spots & some color balance.

[bwick]

Thank you Mistermonday and chillin for the quick responses. Both of your suggestions look much better than the original.

Chillin - I am an ultra newbie. Can you describe the steps (menu items) you used to get your results? I was able to duplicate Murray's steps but my results wern't as good.

Thank you both.

[chillin]

Originally Posted by bwick

Chillin - I am an ultra newbie. Can you describe the steps (menu items) you used to get your results?

R G B
Curves1= input 122 85 116
output 64 61 68

R G B
Curves2= input 108 60 92
output 43 42 43

Levels1= R(25,1,245) G(21,1,249) B(25,1,242)

Color Balance1= Color Levels -10,-11,+6 (Midtones), (Preserve Lum)

Levels2= R(0,1,230) G(0,1,242) B(0,1,221)

Hue/Saturation1= Magentas Hue=(+10) Sat=(+5) Light=(-25)

Color Balance2= Color Levels -23,-8,-17 (Midtones), (Preserve Lum)

Levels3= R(3,1,255) G(3,1,255) B(6,1,255)

Hue/Saturation2= Blues Hue=(-66) Sat=(0) Light=(-85)

Hue/Saturation3= Reds Hue=(+5) Sat=(-6) Light=(+9)

Color Balance3= Color Levels -3,-4,+8 (Midtones), (Preserve Lum)

[Chain]

bwik: I believe the most important "tool" for you to learn would be how to use a Curves adjustment layer with a mask. This is the first step chillin did if you look in his image.

It will be the most powerful tool in your toolbox and will get you 80-100% of the way really quickly in so many cases when it comes to color correction (adjusting white balance, color tints, white point, black point, brightness, contrast, etc.). The mask allows you to apply this locally to only some areas of an image.

[John Wheeler]

Hi Brian
Murray and Chillin have it covered really well.

As another consideration in your learning curve is to open your files through Adobe ACR. It will accept JPGs and not just Raw files if you set that option in Preferences.

The most recent version of Photoshop include some really great noise reduction tools if you prefer to take out some of the film grain (personal choice). Many options in Adobe ACR and once you have done some up front editing there, you can take it right into Photoshop.

Here is an example with some noise reduction, sharpening, and clarity sliders adjusted. Photoshop has a lot to learn so hang it there. Those are great pictures BTW especially considering how long they have been sitting around without processing. Good luck.

75d9a9b-thru-ACR.jpg

[bwick]

Wow - you guys are quick. I'm printing out this whole thread and taking it home for homework. I appreciate all the detailed instructions chillin. Chain & John i'll try your suggestions out too.

I am realizing now that there is a whole lot to learn. I could have gone the Picassa or Elements route, but I think I will be better off in the long run if I can learn the "real deal". I am looking into taking some community college classes in the subject. They fill up fast, all the classes in my area (Sacramento) are already full for the comming fall semester with a waiting list in every one of them!

I noticed that a lot of posters here use Paint Shop Pro. Is it because it is cheaper or easier to learn? When I was looking for books on the subject 99% of them had to do with Photoshop so thats why I choose it.

Thanks again,

Brian

[Chain]

Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard. I believe it's the best choice.

I have no experience with Paint Shop Pro, but I'm sure you can do some good results with that as well (although many tools will be different). In the end it's not the tools that make the artist...

There's also Gimp, a free cross-platform alternative. It has many of the important features we know from Photoshop, but it does have a much worse user interface (last I checked).