A real challenge-yellowed tape over half of face

[dipech]

Hi everyone,

This picture is the hardest I've come across yet and I'm rather stuck at the moment. I just can't seem to get the face to resemble the one in the original, it seems. The Yellowed tape has obscured the mouth and nose.

Also, with something like this, is it better to scan it at a higher resolution--i.e. 400 dpi or instead lower such as 266 dpi? With or without an unsharp mask??

Your help will really be appreciated!! I'll post the original here and my best effort so far next.
Diane

[dipech]

My best effort so far

This is as far as I was able to improve it so far. I desaturated the color and used the healing brush in replace mode on the face. But does it look like the little kid in the picture??

Diane

[jeaniesa]

Hi dipech,

Can you please crop the original in so that just the picture is showing? That would allow you to post a larger version of the picture for us to give feedback on.

In general, I would try scanning at a higher resolution (attempting to pull more detail from the original) and do not sharpen during the scanning stage. Typically, sharpening should be the last thing you do.

Jeanie

[dipech]

Cropped version of original

Hi Jeannie,

Here is a cropped version. I don't think it adds much to leave in the rest of the horse's feet; do you?

Thanks very much for taking a look at this,
Diane

[Andrew B.]

I'm not much of a restorer, but you asked if you maintained the face of the child. And I can offer an opinion on that. So I loaded both pictures and looked at them side by side.

I think you have a very good start there. You captured the overall look of the face, and even that sort of perplexed look in the right eye. And the nose is almost perfect.

What I noticed though is the area that extends from the upper outer corners of the eyes. It is too heavy. Looks sort of like makup. But it should not be too much work borrowing that area from the original.

The other thing I would change is the mouth. It might be that the damage is wrecking the mouth on the original, but I have a feeling the mouth was never that dark and solid. Probably more of hints of the shape.

BTW, if you have a website you could post the full size copy there and offer a link. That way people who wanted to try out their suggestions could use what you are using.

[tyeise]

Hello Diane,

I started by dividing the image where the tear had been and moving it over towards the other side just a smidge.

I used the black and white filter to get a bit more definition, and selected the whole tape area and desaturated and lightened a bit till it was close to the rest of the image.

I used the dodge brush to lighten the dark edges of the tape, and the burn brush to lighten the torn area.

Then I went in with the smudge brush and cleaned up a good share of the image, including some of the jpg artifacts that were there. When it came to the young boy, I sort of built it back up using my imagination to some degree, as so much had been hidden under the tape. I kept comparing to the original as much as possible, to try and keep the same feeling.

Hope I haven't messed it up too badly.

Tyeise

[roger_ele]

Hi Diane

Here is what I did;

-moved sections together
-used Apply Image to insert red channel into new layer, masked out to just the taped area (which lightened the masked area with the detail of the red channel), changed blending mode of this layer to luminosity
-control clicked on the mask to load it as a selection
-created new hue / saturation adjustment layer with the selection active to automatically create the mask for just the tape area, reduced saturation until it matched the non tape area (kind of the long way around, but easier for me to see the image under the tape this way)
-flattened
-Used clone tool to repair
-lightened and darkened some spots and used levels
-overall toned with hue/saturation

Hope you like it, Roger

[dipech]

Hi Roger,

Thank you so much for taking the time to work on this! Your version looks really good. You seem to be a pro on using channels. This is my first time working with them. I noticed that the blue channel looks really bad in this picture. Would it help if I deleted it? I've spent the last hour or so trying to retrace your steps and reading about the Apply Image command in The Photoshop Bible by Deke McClelland which I was unfamilar with. Did I make a mistake if I ended up with a gray scale version after I did Apply Image? Did you add a mask before or after you did Apply Image? Do you recall what settings you used in Apply Image? Should mask be checked or unchecked?

Could you give any more specifics on how you got around the damage to the eyes and mouth?

Also, what did you mean about "moving sections together"?

Thanks again,
Diane

[roger_ele]

Diane,

I suggest Photoshop Channel Chops - the bible for understanding the root of how Photoshop works, it is how I learned to think my way through these things ...

Let's take one step at a time ...

"move sections together"

From the look of the original, after the tear the two halves were re-taped further apart, so;
-duplicate the background onto a new layer
-to the new top layer apply a mask
-select the Brush Tool
-turn off the eyeball on the background layer to make it easier to see what you are doing
-with the mask selected on the top layer - paint black on to the image on the left side until everything is empty on the left of the crack - go into the crack just a little, as you paint the photoshop checkerbord pattern should appear symbolizing "transparency - nothing there"
-turn on the background eyeball
-make sure the top layer is selected
-select the move tool
-drag the top layer to where it looks right to you, see how many image landmarks you can find to indicate when you have found the right spot
-when you get it right, flatten

"applied red channel ... "

When I looked at the channels, the red was the prettiest in the tape area, but in other areas it lost detail, so this is what I did

-create a new blank layer
-select the new layer
-Image > Apply Image, in Apply Image dialogue box slect the Red Channel, Click OK
-Turn off background eyebal
-Add mask to top layer, Select mask
-Paint black on the image everywhere except the where the tape is so that the tape is the only thing visible from that layer
-change the blending mode of the top layer to lumiinosity
-turn on the eyeball of the background layer

Try following these steps ... let me know

As far as cloning around the eyes and mouth - the best I can explain off of the top of my head is;

-Think of the clone tool as not a clone tool, but a painting tool that works by cloning. If you want to create a tone in a spot, what adjacent area has that tone that you can use as the source for the clone? Use a delicate, careful touch with low enough opacity to the clone tool that you have to click on an area 2 or 3 times to build up enough tone, vary your souce slightly with each click, use a soft enough brush so that the edge of the brush doesn't appear and don't be afraid to make the brush really small to work the detail. Don't be afraid to undo and start a spot over. Be sure to picture the lighting and shadows so that you can have a goal as to what the spot should look like. When you are repairing damage like this you are actually creating new shapes that are not in the original.

If you have a question on any of this or need help on the remaining steps, let me know

Roger

[dipech]

Originally posted by roger_ele
"
"applied red channel ... "

When I looked at the channels, the red was the prettiest in the tape area, but in other areas it lost detail, so this is what I did

-create a new blank layer
-select the new layer
-Image > Apply Image, in Apply Image dialogue box slect the Red Channel, Click OK
-Turn off background eyebal
-Add mask to top layer, Select mask
-Paint black on the image everywhere except the where the tape is so that the tape is the only thing visible from that layer
-change the blending mode of the top layer to lumiinosity
-turn on the eyeball of the background layer

Try following these steps ... let me know

Roger [/B]

Thank you, Roger!! You have made my day! I was actually able to follow everything, except in this section above. When you say "add mask to top layer, select mask," what kind of mask did you mean?? Were there any other settings as far as the target layer to use in the Apply Image dialogue box??

I will have to search around for the book you mentioned, it's one I haven't ever seen before.

All the best,
Diane

[roger_ele]

Diane

I am glad you are getting this!

Apply Image was just the settings I stated, no other settings. The reason there are no other settings is that we are just filling the empty layer with the red channel so that we can use the brightness (the black & white or luminosity information) of the red channel.

The type of mask I am talking about is a layer mask, 2nd icon from the left at the bottom of the layers window. When I say select mask it is to make sure that the layer mask is active (bold box around mask on layer in layer window) rather than the image on that layer being selected. I don't mean to make it an active selection ... I should have said click on the layer mask to make it active. Sorry, I am bad.

Photoshop can be confusing since the word mask is used in many different places.

Roger

[dipech]

Roger,

Thanks again very much for taking the time to reply. I followed the last steps about applying the red layer a few times and ended up with the dress area still yellow, but a much lighter yellow. Still not sure all my settings in Apply Image were right-- should the source in the top box have been "merged" or the background Layer?? I will have to study the Apply Image tool a bit further... But I plowed on and cleaned up the yellow with the cloning tool etc. Thought I'd post how its looking...

[dipech]

Whoops... posted the wrong one...

Diane

[roger_ele]

Diane,

I am tired, so let me know if this isn't clear, I wanted to give a qiuick response in case you were waiting for my reply ...

Your version looks very good, although the face is a little blurry. I think that is probably because you are using the smudge tool. the smudge tool is really good at creating an average tone among mixed light and dark areas when you stay away from areas of detail, but keep to areas like the cheecks that would normally be smooth. usually you will need to add back some noise or texture, if only subtley to areas that have been smudged.

Apply Image ...

-Source: the photo you are working on
-Layer: Merged (you want all the layers that are visible combined, in this case there is just the one layer with an image on it, the background plus the new blank layer)
-Channel: Red
-Blending: Multiply or Normal (it is reacting to an empty layer, so it doesn't matter - like making a new layer and setting it's blending mode to multiply, if there is nothing on the layer to multiply to the image below it won't change anything)
-Opacity: 100%

This is just a quick and easy way to past a channel into a new layer (or even the combined image of all of the layers into a new layer), I am sure there are other ways to do this, it is the way I am used to.

I ended up with the tape area too yellow also, but lighter. That is why I loaded the tape area as a selection and then created a hue/saturation adjustment layer, with which I lowered the saturation.

Hope this help, I am off to bed, Roger

[dipech]

Hi Roger,

Thanks again for all your help! You are wonderful! I ended up having to start all over from the beginning to redo the face, but this time it went quickly and I am getting these steps down! It is interesting how fast you can do these things once you know what you're doing. I hadn't used the smudge tool earlier, but the blur tool to try to blend in some of the white spots on the face. Guess that caused the effect you noticed. So this time I used mostly the healing brush in both replace and normal mode and the cloning tool and the burn tool on the face.

I also ordered the Photoshop Chops book you mentioned. For anyone else who's interested, it is available on Amazon.com.

So here is my improved face version

All the best,
Diane