1950's Photo

[kbeatrice]

Hi everyone. This is my first restoration of a color photo from the 1950's. It is fairly faded from being in a collage frame. Just looking for some feedback on what I've done so far to make sure I'm on the right track.

Thanks!
Karen

[Duv]

Hi Karen!

I definetly think you're on the right track. I just don't think you've gone far enough. There's 2 issues going on in your pic. First is there is still a significant color cast. The other is that you need to pump up the contrast.
Let's not get too heavy right now. Just go to Image: Adjustments: Levels: open up your reds and move your left and right sliders to meet the edges of your histogram. Do the same for the Green and Blue channel. There's lots more you can do but this should significantly improve your image. Try it and let me know.

Cheers
Dave

[W. Rose]

Hi Dave,
Still here following your threads, nice job. Going to see what i can do with this photo by following what you told me before. I understand when you said there is more that can be done and not getting to heavy right now.
Wayne

[W. Rose]

Hi Karen,
Tried your photo and here is what i did.
1. Duplicated Background Layer
2. Used eye dropper (sampler) for the light and dark areas
3. Uses curves on indivual channels to match all numbers
4. Used curves again to give it a little pop
5. Hue/Saturation for color correction
6. Unsharp Mask to finish
Hope this helps, Dave showed me how to do this so he will be able to help you more than what i have done.
Dave, it looks like i have blown the pillow out a bit.
Total Time, about 10 minutes
Wayne

[W. Rose]

Forgot to attach the photo, sorry
Here it is

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Wayne, your latest image is a tad on the small side, could you post a larger image so we can see your latest effort a little better.

[W. Rose]

Sorry about the size, hope this is better. Need to work on this file size thing.
Wayne

[Duv]

Hi Wayne

In analyzing your pic, there still is a strong colorcast. The brightest part of the image is the collar. I get a reading of 235/236/214. The first 2 are fine but you have to increase the blue from 214 to 236. The darkest part of the suit is below the elbow. I get a reading from your pic of 33/34/18. Remember you have to bring high numbers down to the lowest number for shadows so you have to change 33/34 to 18. Highlights are the opposite. Move the lower figures to the highest value.

When I removed the colorcast myself, the mans face was too ruddy, so I would select his face and adjust it thru Selective Colors:Reds:Magenta. There's certainly other ways of working it.

Cheers
Dave

[kbeatrice]

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the input. Originally I did clip all the histograms in Levels but it still didn't look right so I tried clipping less but that didn't help a lot either.

On my new version (color corrected only) I clipped all the histograms and then based on what you told Wayne I added some curves moving the highlights and shadows as you mentioned.

Let me know if this is more on target - I don't want to restore the damage again until the color is right!

Thanks,
Karen

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Wayne, like your latest image, as Dave says, there is a slight colour cast, but in my opinion it looks better for it. There is a warmer feel to the image, whereas total colour correction gave it a somewhat cold look.

[Duv]

Karen

Really well done!! Your numbers are bang on. In fact it's better than mine in that there seems to be more shadow detail. To Gary's point, Wayne second try is better. The important thing though is knowing how to properly remove colorcast then changing to suit your personal preference or resolve other picture issues. Again, Karen, great job!

Cheers
Dave

[W. Rose]

Hi Karen,
Thanks Dave & Gary.
Dave, my numbers were right on before i used the hue/saturation on one of the final steps to brighten up the sweather and background flowers. This changed the numbers somewhat, but as Gary pointed out this was more of the look i wanted, (just noticed that you also said to tweak it afterwards in your last thread). Is this a time to stop or continue with the photo, never know when to say enough.
Thanks again Dave and Gary, and Karen, your last photo looks very good to me.
W. Rose (Wayne) I see there is another Wayne here.

[kbeatrice]

Thanks for all the help I think I finally get the curves thing.

I'm off to fix the damage now....

Karen

BTW Wayne, I do like the picture a little warmer also ... the wallpaper looks very cold.