A real challange fixing streaks

[lilwashuu]

Hi I have a pic with my girlfriend but the day that we took it it was raining a lot so it looks like there was water on the lens or inside the lens or something. And I know it wasnt the place that we took the photos to develop because its just the photos of that day that are messed up all other photos are find and its all the photos of that day. The photos have some dark streaks on them over my girlfriends face as well as in other places in the photos like if water was running down the lens, now the streaks dont cover here face completely the just make some areas a lot darker than others but u can still see her face. I wanna know how I can fix this. Ohh and here is the picture

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/bc/ult...c=ph%26.view=t

[jeaniesa]

Hi lilwashuu,

First off welcome to RetouchPro!!

I tried opening your image, but got an error that it was inaccessible. I tried logging in (since I have a yahoo ID), but then it told me the picture could not be found. Is there any chance you can save the image in JPG format less than 100KB in size and upload it here?

Jeanie

[lilwashuu]

Sorry forgot to do that, here u go. Thanks for reminding me.

[lilwashuu]

Here we go im sure this link will work. Try this one this is a page I made really quick for this. If you look closely u can see the dark parts on her face.

http://www.geocities.com/ultimateakira/Nubia.html

[lilwashuu]

Hi thanks for helping me out really thanks umm but i cant open the attachment. Is there someother way u can show me the picture?

[jeaniesa]

lilwashuu,

When you say that you can't open the attachment, what kind of error do you get? You should be able just to click on the link and have the picture open in a browser window. Does that not happen for you? If not, what internet browser are you using?

I worked a little on your photo (sorry it too me so long). It was a little involved and I'm not sure what image editing program you're using (Photoshop?). My comments below may seem redundant in places, but it was a lot of trial and error - a little change here and a little change there. It went somthing like this (using Photoshop 7):

1. Copy the background layer, change the blending mode to screen and apply a layer mask so that only the dark part of the face is lightened.

2. Copy the screen layer to create another screen layer and further adjust the layer mask to blend everything nicely.

3. Create a new layer, change the blending mode to overlay, then paint with a soft brush at opacity less than 10% with white to "dodge" (i.e. lighten) the dark area to the left of her mouth.

4. Create a new layer and Alt-Ctl-Shift-E to merge everything to the new layer.

5. Select color from the face and paint over the darker (and bluish) areas of the face.

6. Use a combination of the clone tool, healing brush and brush tool (set at low opacity) to clean up the damage on the upper part of the face.

7. Create another new layer set to overlay mode and paint with a soft white brush at very low opacity to further dodge the dark areas of the face.

8. Create a new layer and Alt-Ctl-Shift-E to merge all to the new layer.

9. Make a very loose selection around the right side of her face, copy to a new layer (Ctl-J), flip horizontally and rotate to fit over the left side. Use a layer mask to mask out the mouth. Set the opacity to about 50%.

10. Use a Curves adjustment layer grouped with the previous layer to slightly darken the left side of the face to help it blend in more.

11. Create a new layer and Alt-Ctl-Shift-E to merge all to the new layer. Then use the healing tool to further clean up the damage on the left side of the face.

12. Loosely select the right side of the face (again), flip horizontally and rotate into place on the left side. Set the blending mode to Luminosity and the opacity to 75%.

13. Select the whole face and add a curves adjustment layer to lighten the face.

14. Reduce the resulting redness in the nose and upper lip by adding a hue/saturation adjustment layer, then painting on a new layer in color blending mode with a color selected from the face.

15. Add yet another layer in overlay mode and paint with white with a very low opacity brush on the left side of the lips to lighten them.

16. Remove noticeable facial blemishes (esp. those that were duplicated when I copied the right side of the face to the left.)

Phew! The picture still needs a bit of work - including more work on the faces. I did not attempt to repair any damage other than the face. The left side of her hair has no detail in it - you may want to copy some hair from the right to give it some highlights.

Please ask questions if any of this isn't clear.

HTH, Jeanie

[Flora]

Hi lilwashuu,

I also had a go at your picture...
Using Photoshop 7, I did the following:

1) Loosely selected the girl and CTRL+J copied the selection onto its own Layer.

2) With the selection still active on the new Layer, I filled it with white and changed the blending to Overlay. Added a Layer mask to hide the parts I didn't want to lighten.

After this, it was Airbrushing and Layer upon Layer (settings Overlay, Soft Light, Color) to remove the remaining shadows and correct Tone, Contrast and Colour.

Finally, I copied part of her hair (from my right side), pasted it on the other side to correct the flat black area in her hair on my left side.

[lilwashuu]

Thanks guys I liked the pics you guys sent me. I was wondering if you guys do this for a living? Because now I know were I can go for help for my pics.Thanks guys.

[jeaniesa]

Glad to help lilwashuu!

Well, I can't say that I "make a living" doing photo restoration/retouching, but I do have some paying clients.

Jeanie