removing bruises

[srex]

I have a photo where the elderly person's arms are really bruised and in the photo showing up as black. This is a caucasian person. Unfortunetly the way the person is sitting and the amount of bruising the total forearm is really blackish, no good skin to clone from. Any ideas on how to remove black and even out the skin tones.

Thanks

Susan

[4personnen]

The bruises are maybe more likely deep blue than real black, you can check the blue channel, and see if you can replace the parts (usually there barely no blues in he human skin). But an example should help...

[freddie]

If you do a high and low frequency separation (there are many threads here about using this method), you will be able to edit the low frequency layer and simply paint the desired tone that you want. Usually, you'd want to use a soft brush on a low opacity. This way it will blend a lot better with some of the original tones. This will also preserve the texture. Because all of the texture is in the high frequency layer.

Do you mind posting the photo? Perhaps some of the member here will have a go at it... or offer a better suggestion. There's many ways to skin a cat. However, you're more likely to receive suggestions when you post a photo. In many cases its easier to show somebody how something is done, rather than trying to explain it.

[srex]

I only have a low resolution photo and had to crop due to privacy issues.

I don't need detailed explanations.

Susan

[mistermonday]

Srex, as Freddie has pointed out, frequency separate the image and just paint on the low freq layer. You may need to do a little dodging on the resulting image. Sample attached
Regards, Murray

[freddie]

OK, this sample is pretty small, so difficult to work with. However, hopefully it will suffice in being able to show a method to use.

What I did was a hi and lo frequency separation (You can find plenty of threads around here to explain how to do it). I then edited on the lo frequency only. I chose a soft brush, and put the opacity on 6... flow on 100. I then tried to find a good sample of skin... copied the color... and started to paint over the bruised area. If the tone or color changes, then I re-sample the color as necessary. I keep painting over the bad areas until the bruises finally disappear. Afterward, you can also use a little dodge or burn to fix some of the shadows and highlights (I didn't.). This is a quick edit... but hopefully you'll get the idea. I have zero artistic talent. Therefore, I'm sure you'd be able to do much better, taking more time and working with the original image.

[freddie]

Murray beat me to it. Yeah... look at his image. He did a much better job. Cheers.

[srex]

Okay thanks. I tried other methods, this does seem to work the best. Since I'm a painter the shading isn't a big deal.