stains

[Chair]

hi! Im new here and i am starting to learn photo restoration. I need help about this photo. This is my old baby picture. There are stains on the faces and I tried cloning and channel mixer but I am having difficulties. I need advices from you guys. Here is the attachment. Thanks! Im using PS 7.

[Doug Nelson]

There are several ways to approach this. Here is one:

1. Adjust levels on individual color channels (ink stain will be first 'bump' and can be ignored)
2. Use clone tool set to 'lighten' to get rid of worst offenders on individual color channels (actually, forget about the red channel). I used an enormous brush, non-aligned, point of origin the top right.
3. Make a new red channel using channel mixer from the green and blue channels.
4. Now do plain old cloning on their faces (worst should be gone)

On this image I also ran a de-noisifyer (in my case Grain Surgery, but there are many out there). I also painted in the red dots on the ball, since replacing the red channel ruined them and they were the only red thing in the image.

There's still a lot left to do here, mostly clone work, but you get the idea. I'm sure there will be many alternate suggestions, all good.

[Chair]

thanks dougs! I will work on that!

[Jakaleena]

Hi Chair! Welcome to RP! This is a great place to learn - glad you found us!

Here's what I did to it. It's a pretty quick and sloppy job, but I only spent a few minutes on it. You could make it look better with a little more time...

1. Used Curves to define white (ball highlight) and black (ball stripe). I let the background go dark on purpose to eliminate the splotchiness. Leaving it lighter and then painting the background in would also work though, if you have the time.

2. Replaced red channel with L channel from duplicate in LAB mode

3. Made snapshot. Used dust & scratches a R3/T10 and made another snapshot.

4. Activated first snapshot and pointed history brush at D&S snapshot.

5. Painted over large skin areas with history brush set to 50% opacity

6. Selected younger child's face and adjusted levels to lighten

7. Made new color layer and painted skin @ 20% opacity using appropriate color. Used a maroon/cinnamon color @ 5% to add rosiness to cheeks and lips.

[jeaniesa]

Hi Chair,

Welcome to RetouchPRO!! You've found a great site to ask for help.

My technique is somewhat similar to Doug's:

1. I looked at the individual RGB channels (as well as the CMYK and LAB channels.) Seemed like RGB was best to work with, though the red was definitely the worst off. So, I replaced the R channel with the G channel.

2. Ran a levels adjustment using the white and black droppers. Unlike Jak, I chose to leave the background a little lighter and deal with the noise later.

3. Still not happy with the color, I added color balance adjustment layer and adjusted the levels using my "eye" until it looked right to me.

4. Used a curves adjustment layer to lighten the midtones. This also had the effect of lightening/enhancing the noise, so...

5. I saved the image as TIF and ran it through Neat Image to remove the noise. Unfortunately, this made the floor look unnatural, so...

6. I brought the Neat Image version back as a layer on top of the pre-Neat Image version and used a layer mask to mask out the floor at 50% - bringing some of the detail of the floorboards back.

7. Used the clone, smudge and blur tool on the child's face on the right to removed the stain on the forehead. Stopped there, though the rest of the photo still needs some clean-up work, you should be able to get the idea from this.

Hope this helps and please don't be shy about asking for clarification on anything that's not clear.

Jeanie

[Chair]

Thank guys for giving me tips...It's really great! All of you are good! I am doing all your tricks and follow the instructions you have given me. As soon as I finished, I will show it to you. I'd really appreciate your help. Being a member of this forum is worthwhile. I am learning a lot. Thanks again!

[Blacknight]

I always thought I did an adequate job with restoration of old photos myself. I fixed a few of my mothers family and of her that turned out pretty well. I dowloaded this picture to see what I could do. Spent about 10 minutes with it, then looked at what everyone else had done to it. You will notice that I have not attached my work done. My only excuse is that restoration is just something I do on occasion and just for family. My efforts come nowhere near the examples shown here by those who did a "quick" fix. I can only imagine what a real effort would have turned out!

This website is aptly named. I shall continue looking and learning, and perhaps someday in the distant future I will feel brave enough to attach something I have attempted a retouch on. (maybe when Jak's not around!)

[Jakaleena]

Originally posted by Blacknight
perhaps someday in the distant future I will feel brave enough to attach something I have attempted a retouch on. (maybe when Jak's not around!)

Ohhhh, please don't feel that way... Everybody had to start somewhere - I sure did. Dang, my first efforts at retouching were just gawd-awful hideous messes... I wasn't born knowing how to do this, I just practiced a lot and for a very long time. And I found wonderful tutorials and kind, generous people who were willing to help me learn. I still feel like I know virtually nothing and am just repeating the same few tricks over and over again.

The way to improve is to jump right in there. And we're all here to help you with whatever you need. I love being able to help, btw. But you have to be willing to take that leap of faith and put something out there. No one will laff at you, I PROMISE!

(Oh, and if there's something you really need to know how to do, just say so and if I know how to do it I'll try to write a tut for you...)

[jeaniesa]

Blacknight, If it makes you feel any better, I spent a lot more than 10 minutes! I too think "Heck, 10 minutes? I wonder what I can do?" And 100% of the time, an hour+ later I'm still trying to figure it out. BUT - I learn as I do it and if I'm lucky, I come up with something I can post that might help AND I remember what I did for future reference.

We've all gone through a learning curve and made some terrible messes along the way! And I think almost all of us on this site feel like we're still on a big learning curve.

Like Jak, I really like to help when I can - so please ask questions if you have any.

Jeanie

[Blacknight]

I don't have any trouble starting. I just have trouble SHOWING. Something like "here's my version - I did levels and sharpen and hey - I don't have GrainSurgery and Neat Image and mine looks only marginally better than the original and what help is that...". The healing brush in Photoshop 7 didn't even work well (but it IS better than clone stamp) and so I didn't post what I did because most others did much more and so if posting is supposed to actually help and others have done a far better job of helping I figure why waste server space?!! How's that for a run-on sentence?

I don't actually have trouble showing...I have my own website where I show what I do, and I put my stuff out there in challenges and contests and such. I just figure if there are those who are better in a certain area of Photoshop (like photo restoration) than I am then THEIR examples should be the ones seen and I will be among those looking and reading and employing their tips.

I do collages. I blend images of a similar theme into each other and create a picture from them. I do it fairly well. I'd show that because I feel I know how to do that. I like helping as much as anyone, and from what I can tell that is what this site excels in, and I like that and will stay a while because of that. And I will learn. And maybe help. But not in photo restoration. Not until I read lots more of your descriptions on what you did to fix photos that need fixing.

[Chair]

cleanes stains

hi! I' m back! here it is. I hope I did a good job with this. It was not easy for me really. I used level adjustment then dropper to darken the background. Then I used curve to lighten the skin. When it looked fine to me, I cleaned the blue stains and used clone. I used brush tool to the floor. Finally, dust and noise, then smart blur. what do you think? I hope to hear from you, guys!

[Blacknight]

Looks much better than the original one!

I am just a beginner at restoration, and so any improvement over the original is cause for celebration to me!

[Jakaleena]

Good job! Especially since you're just learning.

You really have made it look a lot better. The only thing I can see that I'd possibly work on a little bit more is the smaller child's face. It's not quite the same color as the skin on the arms and neck which makes it look a little bright and ghostly...

You might try making a new color layer, and then picking up some color from the arms and using the paint tool to paint it in very lightly on the face.

All I did to this one was add some color to the children's skin and tone down the red in the background some.

[Chair]

thanks

I am happy you taught me how to fix that photo. You're great! Thank you for the tips
I just wanna know if I will print a photo is it best to save it as jpg or tif to get the best result?
Also, I wanna be good in restoring a photo, i really enjoy it. Is there any courses to help me improve? I took a short course, 4 session in photo restoration but it was not enough, I am thinking of taking a digital darkroom workshop and photography. Wiill it help? I need some advice. Thanks!
.

[chiquitita]

Well I am probably not much help as far as a description goes, because I start playing with something not intending to submit it, and don't keep track of my steps. Here is what I came up with though.