[Flora]

Kathleen, Roger,

Thank you so much for your kind words!

Fact is, there's no specific recipe behind anything I do with pictures....

The Channels are the first thing I check... even more so If the picture I'm working on has a colour problem. If I think that using Apply Image can help eliminate or at least minimize the problem, then I try it ....

What I Know about 'Apply Image', I learnt from Katrin Eismann's book (and she doesn't dig very deeply into this particular topic...), from tips or Tutorials I got from the Internet and, as Kathleen says,"I just learnt it hit and miss ". In other words my knowledge of it is quite basic ....

I'm still experimenting with it and to tell the truth, I still haven't got the hang of 'masking the channels' or 'inverting' while in Apply Image ....

Roger, I'm no scientist either ... and on top of it I don't have a clue about Photography ... ... so, for me, good photographers are among the geniuses who can artistically freeze moments or images in time which give or bring back very strong emotions ....

[kathleen]

"I'm still experimenting with it and to tell the truth, I still haven't got the hang of 'masking the channels' or 'inverting' while in Apply Image ...."

Flora
have mercy! what kind of power house will you be once you "get the hang of" it? truth is, you've just got a great eye. so keep it up, with a smidge of this and a dash of that you look like the master chef to me.

[big_bad_toxman]

*has dipped his toe in the pool for long enough - it's time to jump in!*

Man, there's just way too much fun to be had here! I suspect that the lights will be on util the wee hours of the morning for many a night to come.

I've had a bit of a fiddle with this photo and here's the results. I've tried to keep the "old photo" feel about it, so you'll notice that the background is still a bit grubby. The hardest part of this photo was the sleeve on the dress where the blotch was. I found it tricky to get rid of the stain and yet try to keep the sleeve looking natural.

There's not alot of mystery with how I did it. There was a great tutorial *somewhere* on removing cracks by duplicating the image, shifting it, placing it below the original layer and then using the eraser tool to erase the cracks. That's pretty much all I've done. There was a fair bit of the clone tool used as well to get rid of the worst of the stains. Throw in a bit of fiddling to the contrast and colour balance and that's it.

Cheers
Tony

now hopefully it uploads...

[big_bad_toxman]

oh yeah - one other thing...

I inverted the image to a negative while cleaning up the stains on the clothes - as a negative, they showed up as a vivid purple and were really easy to see.

Cheers
Tony

[Flora]

Hi Tony!

Welcome to RetouchPRO!
...Nice to see you decided to 'jump in' ....

I like what you did with this picture .... I think your 'cleaning up' was very subtle and accurate in the details .... Very nice job!

[big_bad_toxman]

Thanks Flora!

I always find it a little bit hard to let-go and say enough is enough. I was so tempted to completely clone out all of the dirt from the background! I think I need someone standing behind me with a stick to say STOP!!

Cheers
Tony

[e.b.west]

I've been gone for a while and missed your posts.

Flora...I never have an objection to you trying to fix what I can't. I've gone back to the picture several times and knew that something wasn't right with it. You not only saw it but fixed it, thanks very much. I'll try your approach as soon as I can and see if I can get close to your results.

Big Bad... I agree, changes you made are subtle and don't look over done.

Thanks again.

E.B.

[ckc108]

This is my first trial. Look forward to your comment. Cheers

[Mike]

If I may post from a photographers view point:

When shooting a couple like that, it is pretty hard to get a background that has such an even color and density across it like some of the examples shown here. That is one of the things that to me just screams that this has been played with. So whatever it takes, gradient tool, burn or dodge or whatever make the background change as you look across it. The bigger (ie more folks in the photo) then the more change you will need. In a studio lighting a larger backdrop with exact color and density all the way across gets way harder if not impossiable.

Rodger asked "I have wondered with the consistant sun light and print emulsions if photographic dye layers always faded in the same way ..."
The answer is no. Most of fading is a reaction to light (uv) but there are also problems with the chemistry, washing, differences in the manufacture of the paper etc etc. Also do not discount the reaction between the paper and the fumes in the enviroment. Had a customer that put some prints into a drawer that had just been refinished with some kind of wood finish that was still emiting a strong smell. The result was no images left on the paper! (who knows what it did to the people in the house)

Mike