Print too dark-1947 wedding photo

[vadkins]

The attached photo of my parent's wedding prints too dark. It looks better on the screen, but even the screen could use some lightening-especially the skin tones.

I scanned this picture and have done lots of work on it. I ran Neat Image (to get rid of LOTS of noise) and Focus Magic on it. In Photoshop CS I spent a significant amount of time repairing and working with the dust & scratches filter. I got rid of the remaining noise using Curves.

I'd sure appreciate hearing from folks who have ideas to help lighten the skin tones.

Thanks so much,

Vi

[roger_ele]

vadkins,

skin tones look perfect to me ... maybe your problem is in the printing/monitor calibration/photoshop color settings areas. believe me if that is the case, you won't be alone - it is very common. or maybe you are looking at how dark the dark areas are in your photo - if that is the case try the shadow-highlight tool to open up the shadows.

hope this helps,
roger

[Duv]

Hi Vadkins

On my monitor the picture has way too much contrast. The whites on the dress are blown out and the mans jacket is totally black with no detail. I think you should rework it so the brightest highlite reads about 245 and the shadows around 15. As far as the skin tones their appears to be a very heavy concentration of cyan. Also, it my opinion the skin tones are too light, almost pasty. Keep in mind, I think my monitor is pretty accurate but not spot on. Hope this helps.

Cheers
Dave

[Flora]

Hi Vi,

Welcome to RP!

...I think my monitor is calibrated in a similar way as Dave's ....

The contrast is much too strong .... I still managed to tone down and bring out some details in your Mom's beautiful dress ...

The skin tones were just fine as Roger pointed out, I only selectively toned them down a bit, trying to achieve an increased 3D illusion on your parents' faces ...

As for the shadows, as Dave said, they are solid black ... no detail whatsoever ....

[Janet Petty]

Flora, your work is continually some of the best I see around; and your insight into exactly what is needed to fix things up is always right on target. You really know your stuff!

[vadkins]

Thank you so much for the ideas/feedback. It sounds like the problem isn't just my monitor then but rather the image.

I should get to try the ideas over this weekend. I'm still slow at this stuff. I'll try going back to the original and earlier versions to check specifically as to how much detail are in the black of my Dad's uniform.

The dress is beautiful. My mom made it herself-without a sewing machine probably.

This image is worth getting right so it's worth spending the time.

Vi

[Flora]

Janet,

Thank you so much for your kind words!!!

Vi,

It surely is a beautiful picture of a beautiful couple and worth every minute you spent restoring it!!!

You did an impressive job

As for the shadows, if you could post the original scan, as long as there are any, we could help you trying to bring out details in your father's uniform ....

[vadkins]

Attached is the original scan. I invite any suggestions please of what step to take next. On my previous posted image I ran Neat Image first to get rid of the noise, then Focus Magic, then the Dust & Scratches filter, repaired the scratches with the patch/clone tools, then color corrected with Levels. Used curves to reduce remaining noise. I'm thinking that Curves may be where I lost so much of the detail.

Thanks again for all the help!

Vi

[Flora]

Hi Vi,

the compression artefacts, mostly in the darker parts of the picture, weren't easy to get rid of ...

Here is what I did:

• Duplicated the Background Layer.
• Used the Curves to correct tone, contrast and balance lights and shadows.
• Used Channel Mixer to turn the image grey.
• Merged Visible. (a Tip on how to merge visible without losing the underlying correction Layers can be found here).
• Created a Shadow Mask:
  *Ctrl+Alt+~ (Luminosity Mask selected)
  *Ctrl+Shift+I (inverted selection = Shadows Mask selected)
  *Ctrl+J (copied it on its own Layer)
• Run Neat Image (soft setting) on the Shadows Mask to decrease noise in the shadows.
• Merged Visible.
• Run Neat Image (soft setting) on the whole image to further decrease noise.
• Run Brightness&Contrast to lightly increase contrast.
• I created new empty Layers (Blendings: Soft Light, Overlay) and used soft Black and/or White Brushes (adjusting the Opacity), to correct and emphasize separate parts of the picture individually.
• Merged Visible.
• Created a Luminosity Mask:
  *Ctrl+Alt+~ (Luminosity Mask selected)
  *Ctrl+J (copied it on its own Layer)
  set its Blending to Multiply to tone down and bring out details in your Mom's dress.
• Merged Visible.
• Used USM to sharpen the image.
• Used Hue&Saturation to lightly colorize the image.

[vadkins]

I am floored at the fabulous job you did with this image Flora! I'll try applying your directions myself. If you don't mind I'd like to upload the image after each step so you can tell me what you think. My Photoshop skills are good compared to the average person around, but you've done things I don't think I've heard of.

This is the first time I've posted here or anywhere else re an image I've worked on. So glad I did this. I'm sure from what I've learned here my photos will be so much better than they would have been.

Vi

[vadkins]

Flora, would you mind please posting specifically what you did with:
"Used the Curves to correct tone, contrast and balance lights and shadows."?

I looked up your tutorial that illustrates using curves, but I'm not sure how that would apply to this image?

Thanks again.

Vi

[Flora]

Hi Vi,

thank you so much for your kind words!!!

So glad I could help and I'll be very happy to see your progress in this restoration! (A really stunning couple!!! )

I used 2 Curves Layers at the very beginning of the restoration of your picture (see attachment) which very slightly differ from each other since I used the Curves Eyedropper on the different points I wanted to correct.... The Curves diagram I used on my tutorial is a general guideline which can be adapted for each picture individually....

As you can see from the first attachment, I worked on the Curves Layer Masks to reveal the effect of the Curves only where I wanted it.

P.S. I have corrected my previous post which contained a mistake:

• Created a Shadow Mask:
  *.....
  *Ctrl+Shift+I and not Ctrl+Alt+I (inverted selection = Shadows Mask selected)
  *.......

[vadkins]

Flora, excellent information. Would you mind explaining precisely where you applied the eye droppers when you applied the 2 Curves adjustment layers please? I took Photoshop at the college this year and we were shown how we could set the black eye dropper to "black that still had small amount of detail" and the same for the white eye dropper. We were not shown how to apply the midtone eye dropper because that was beyond the scope of the class and would be really hard to apply.

So, any specifics you can tell me regarding application of the eye droppers would be just great. I know this is fundamental to photo restoration and that I really need to figure this out.

Vi

[Flora]

Hi Vi,

thanks for your feedback!

There isn't actually much about the application of eyedropper or color sampler ... I usually use them for information about either colour or shadows/highlights or, like in the Levels or Curves Dialogs, to set White/Black/Grey points.

Sometimes, like for your picture, when there are faded out or too dark areas, but, generally, the rest of the picture is OK, I use one or more Curves Adjustment Layers to balance this....

Once the Curves Dialog Box is open, without touching anything on it, jus go with your cursor (which automatically turns into an eyedropper) over the picture you are restoring.... once you get over an area you'd like to correct, just Ctrl+Left Click on it and you'll see a small black square magically appear on your Curves diagram ....

Just move this "small black square" until the part you wanted to correct looks OK .... Don't worry if the rest of the picture gets either too dark or too light .... You can correct that by using the Layer Mask which by default accompanies any Adjustment Layer .... You can also play with Layer Opacity and/or Blending until you are satisfied with the result....

Hope this helps....

[vadkins]

I have been eager to continue working on this image, but I reside on the east coast of Florida so have spent the last 3 days preparing to leave our home in case Hurrican Frances comes ashore in the area where we live.

Now I am safely secured on the west coast of Florida, betting that the west coast of our state is under less risk from this storm than the east coast.

I will be posting soon the results of applying Flora's techniques to this wedding image.

Vi

[Flora]

Hi Vi,

I will keep my fingers crossed for you all!!!!

... Looking forward to your next post .....

[vadkins]

The hurricane has passed-even on the west coast of Florida where I've evacuated to. Now sitting in the house without power, but there's still enough life in the laptop battery to upload my lastest work on this wedding image. Please let me know what you think, Flora. I notice that your curves adjustment layer mask has gray tones in the layer mask. Mine only has black. Do you know why that is?

I also am fascinated to learn about Cntl+left clicking with eye dropper in curves. I had no idea! I often wonder how many of these super cool power techniques I know nothing about.

Eagerly waiting for any feedback before going on to the next step.

Vi

[Duv]

Something I was playing with is a simple Z curve to slightly reduce the highlites and raise the shadow values. In addition, I changed to CMYk, selected the faces and hand, changed to channels, selected Magenta plus Shift-clicked Yellow and ran a Curves Adjustment to increase. Then selected Cyan and ran a Curves to reduce. Ended up with roughly 45 to 50% Magenta and Yellow with yellow slightly stronger and Cyan around 13%.
At least on my monitor it seems to look pretty good.

Cheers
Dave

[W. Rose]

Dave,
It looks good on my monitor also. Good Work.

Wayne

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

Vi,

.... sorry for not reacting earlier but, I don't know why, I don't get regular e-mail notifications for Threads I subscribed to or posted at ....
....anyway... great starting point!!!!

Looking forward to seeing the final result!!!

Dave,

Great work .... the shadows still look very dark on my monitor, though .... (...I hate this thing about different monitor calibration .... you never know if what you've worked on is going to look good for others as well!!!)

[Duv]

Hi Flora

You are absolutely right. I tried to get more detail in the shadows but on closer inspection there seemed to be quite a bit of blotchiness so I kept the deep shadows. My main purpose in posting was for the skin colors. I'd love to see a colored version of yours with the shadow detail and my skin tones. It might look pretty good.

Cheers
Dave

[vadkins]

Dave, I like your results. I'll try my best completing Flora's procedures to see what how I do. Now I'm keeping a close eye on Hurricane Ivan! My house on the Florida east coast suffered essentially no damage-thank goodness! But we're told that the house will have no electricity for 8 more days.

Never seen or heard of such a fierce hurricane season!

Vi

[Duv]

Hi Vi!

I know all about strong winds. It was only 3 years ago that a gust of wind blew my toupee right off my head. How embarrassing!!

Cheers
Dave

[Flora]

Hi,

Dave,

Originally Posted by Duv

I'd love to see a colored version of yours with the shadow detail and my skin tones. It might look pretty good.

... colorizing and I don't work comfortably together! .... Why don't you try to colorize the picture using my restoration? Just let me know if you'd rather work on the bigger size and I'll post it ....

Vi,

.... I always had to organize my life around a lot of 'things': husband, children, movings, work etc. ... but, thank God, I never had to do it around hurricanes ... Still keeping my fingers crossed!!!!

[Vikki]

This is a really nice photograph, with excellent potential. I had to play around with the coloring on this (only partially completed).

[Duv]

Hi Flora

I'm with you there! I colorize like a little kid with a new box of crayons...Oh well.

Vi

I hope you didn't take my comment as insensitive. I live in a pretty benign area except for the big earthquake they say will hit in the next 200 years. Living in a hurricane zone must test people in a very special way. This next one looks like the nastiest one of all. Best of luck to you and your family.

Dave

[vadkins]

Dave, no offense taken. Have to laugh about what's happening here to keep spirits up. Situation has sort of a surreal nature to it.

Vi

[Flora]

Hi,

Vikki,

Wow and double wow!!! You are incredible! .... It really looks fantastic!

[Vikki]

Thanks so much Flora!
I really enjoy coloring, and have recently gotten interested in mastering the traditional method. I did a few practice photos, and I must say, it's a lot messier and more costly than the digital method. However, the results can really be beautiful and it's really a different look.
I had an opportunity today to watch a traditional hand colorist. She was kind enough to show me how to apply the oils, blend, and some other little tips.
She also gave me 4 portrait photos to practice on.
If I have the time, maybe I'll do the same photo, digitally and traditionally. Just to see the difference.

I guess this is a little off topic, but I have a tendancy to do that when I get interested in something.....
Thanks again though, for your nice comment.

[vadkins]

This is my best attempt at retouching my parent's wedding photo. What a difference. I did my best at following Flora's directions. I didn't do this step: Creating the new empty layers (blendings: soft light, overlay) and used soft Black and/or White Brushes...

I have virtually no art background so I didn't know how to do this step.

I invite any feedback/criticisms.

FYI-We have resettled back in our home in aftermath of hurricane Frances. We were without power for 10 days. Got it back yesterday, so we are celebrating the return of air conditioning!

Vi