Help with photo, selective color balance?

[JamesR]

Hello. I am new to the world of touching up photos. I can't seem to get this photo to look right. When I correct the color to bring it back to black and white, the bottom half of the photo remains off-color. Especially in the pants, etc. The red channel seems especially bad.

Anyone have some suggestions?

thanks,

-james

[JamesR]

photo didn't attach. In here.

no text.

[Sharon Brunson]

Hi James,

I'm not sure I entirely understood your question. Are you using Photoshop? When I downloaded your picture, I changed from index mode to RGB then using the channel mixer I used the blue channel to change to b&w.

You were right - the damage is in the red area.

Is this what you were asking?

Sharon

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi James
Welcome aboard. Here's an easy method that will get you the same results. Just change the mode to greyscale and back to RGB if you want to add some tint or color it. Or you could just go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate. Another way would be Image > Adjust > Hue/ Saturation and lower the saturation until the color is gone. Any of these methods and Sharon's will make it black and white without being too difficult.
DJ

[JamesR]

Thanks everyone. I had read about going to black and white with that method, and I just don't know why I didn't use it on this picture. What I had done was use a channel Mixer, but not in monochrome mode. I took out some red, etc. but the red was always greater in those areas on the lower portion..

Using the channel mixer to 100% blue channel to convert to b&w, then a few other fixups, dust specks, etc. I came up with the following image..

The orginal image I posted was actually not the original scan, but after I adjusted the channels. (not w/ monochome mode button checked)...

This is actually for a little movie I am doing for the birthday party. A little photo montage to some music.. Some of the pictures I plan on fading from old to new. I think this would be a good canidate for that effect.

Thanks again everyone..

-james

[DJ Dubovsky]

Looks great James. Sounds like you're a vidiographer. You will have to let us know how it goes over. Good luck.
DJ

[JamesR]

Thanks. Video and Photography are just a hobby of mine.. I'm actually a programmer by day..

I have a few other "trouble" photos I may throw up here so I can get some hints.. I could learn alot hanging around here..

-james

[Sharon Brunson]

I like that picture, James. It has a lot of feeling for such composed subjects.

Sharon

[JamesR]

Yes. I agree. It is a very nice picture. It's been sitting in some album somewhere for decades.. It'll make a nice framed picture out where people can enjoy it..

-james

[ItzRandy]

James,

I left it in the colorized version you had posted up and simply added a hue/sat adjusment layer for each suit. I then inverted the layers and used a brush to paint in the color. Then you can bring up the individual layers and play with the colors and saturation as you like. As you can tell, the suits were the only thing I toyed with. Just a quick, down and dirty attempt.

Obviously, I'm no pro!

[DJ Dubovsky]

James
Hey, that's what this site is all about. Sounds like we can learn a few things from you too. Video and Photography fit in well here.

Randy
Great job. Like how they turned out. Have to remeber that technique.
DJ