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  • nvslater
    Member
    • Oct 2003
    • 40

    Help

    This is a very old picture of my wife's family. I need to try to make it as close as possible to a mordern day photo. So far I haven't done so good. i hope you will be able to to show me an example of this picture, done up good. And ofcourse I would really like to know how you did it. By the way, the wife expects a 8+10 picture.
    I will be standing by, with high expectations.
    Thanks,
    Vernon
    Attached Files
  • Doug Nelson
    Janitor
    Patron
    • Aug 2001
    • 7226

    #2
    Why don't you post what you've done so far, and we'll try to help you where you need it.
    Learn by teaching
    Take responsibility for learning

    Comment

    • nvslater
      Member
      • Oct 2003
      • 40

      #3
      I will post my result. What I was hoping for was some experiments on the original. I didn't get many on my first post.

      Comment

      • jeaniesa
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2001
        • 1826

        #4
        Vernon,

        It's important to realize that an old photo like this is nearly impossible to turn into "a mordern day photo." There just isn't enough detail remaining to make it as sharp as a modern photo. For example, the white of the mother's blouse and baby's clothing blends into the sky and you'll have to guess on the separation. (You've mentioned this in previous photos, so I know you're aware of this.) It is possible to "paint" in shading, but it will always be an approximation.

        I worked on this photo to bring it back to a decent (though not perfect) B&W. If I had more talent painting (like your wife seems to), I might try to paint in some shading on the mother's blouse and child's clothing - keeping it in B&W. Then I would start colorizing. The goal is to get a good base image in B&W, the apply the color.

        To achieve what I've done so far:

        1. Looked at the individual channels. The blue channel appeared to have significant damage, so I knew getting rid of that would help immensely. Thus, I chose to use a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and (checking the monochrome box) used 40% red and 60% green to get a fairly decent B&W.

        2. The noise was still quite visible, so I flattened the image and saved it as TIFF - then ran it through Neat Image to get rid of some of the noise. Then opened the resulting file back in Photoshop.

        3. The photo was still looking quite faded and I wanted to bring out as much of the highlight details as possible, so I copied the layer and set the blending mode to Multiply, opacity 35%.

        4. The photo was looking a little flat, so I applied a levels adjustment to boost the contrast.

        5. The previous step also made the remaining damage stand out more. So, I created a new layer on top, then Shift-Ctl-Alt-E to merge all of the layers into the new layer. Then used the clone tool and healing brush to fix the damage, i.e. the cracks and also the mother's face.

        6. The mother's cheek still looked unnaturally dark and the girl's hair looked a little washed out, so I created a new layer and changed the blending mode to Overlay. Then used a soft brush at 3-4% opacity to paint black where I wanted to darken the photo and white where I wanted to lighten the photo. Some spots I went over multiple times. This has the effect of burning and dodging, respectively.

        7. Things were looking pretty good, but the faces still looked flat compared to the rest of the photo. So, I made a very loose selection around the faces and copied them to a new layer, then set the blending mode to Soft Light. Then used a layer mask to "erase" those areas that I didn't want affected. This helped to give more "depth" to the facial features.

        8. The areas of "white" sky were looking quite blotchy, so I made a loose selection of the sky and applied a Curves adjustment layer to lighten and reduce the contrast a bit so that the blotchiness was reduced.

        9. Used the eyedropper to pick up the color tint of the original photo, created a new layer and filled it with that color. Changed the blending mode to Soft Light to give it a slight hint of sepia tone. I have learned that starting to colorize (esp. people) from a slight sepia tint is easier than starting from a straight B&W.

        I'm sorry, but I'm really over-worked right now and don't have time to continue the colorization process. But both Vikki and I provided links over here that will give you a good basis in colorizing technique.

        Again, the important thing is to start with as decent a B&W image as you can get before starting to colorize.

        HTH,
        Jeanie
        Attached Files

        Comment

        • nvslater
          Member
          • Oct 2003
          • 40

          #5
          Hello Jeanie,
          That looks like a step in the right direction. I have replaced the backround, with something with more color. The current backround wan't useful to my goal, no useful information. Thanks to you, I am developing my goal. The goal is to make a 8+10 or 10+8 which looks like it was taken yesterday and including useful information,which, would be people and clothes, etc.
          Time is also important. Can you tell me how long it took for you to get to this point?
          What does HTH mean?
          Peace,
          Vernon

          Comment

          • Vikki
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2001
            • 883

            #6
            Vernon,
            You would probably get more help if you posted images that show your attemps/progress so far. It's nice for the people that offer help to see the results. I don't think it's written down anywhere, but that's the usual process here.
            Vikki

            Comment

            • jeaniesa
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2001
              • 1826

              #7
              Time is also important. Can you tell me how long it took for you to get to this point?

              Not sure exactly, but definitely less than one hour.

              What does HTH mean?

              HTH = Hope that helps.

              Jeanie

              Comment

              • nvslater
                Member
                • Oct 2003
                • 40

                #8
                Here is my finished picture.
                Attached Files

                Comment

                • Flora
                  Senior Member
                  • Mar 2002
                  • 2325

                  #9
                  Hi Vernon,

                  I just gave your picture a try .... Probably not what you expected since I absolutely agree with Jeanie whe she says:
                  Originally posted by jeaniesa

                  ...It's important to realize that an old photo like this is nearly impossible to turn into "a mordern day photo." There just isn't enough detail remaining to make it as sharp as a modern photo.
                  ...but here is what I did:

                  1) Substituted the Blue Channel with the Green one and used the Curves on it to adjust the colour.

                  2) To give more consistency to the details, I created a 'luminosity mask'(Ctrl+Alt+~), slightly feathered it, copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J) and set the Blending to Multiply.

                  3) I duplicated the Luminosity Layer twice setting the Blending to Soft Light and adjusting the Opacity of the uppermost Layer to about 60%.

                  4) I used the 'Heal by Pattern' technique (Katrin Eisman's book -Second Edition) on the sky.

                  5) Used Channel mixer to turn the image into greyscale.

                  6) Run the image through 'Neat Image' to reduce the noise.

                  After that it was different new Layers, Blending set to: Lighten, Darken, Soft Light, Overlay on which, with a 'fuzzy' brush (Opacity 10-30%), I painted Black, White or any 'colour' sampled from a surrounding area.

                  Finally, I used the Custom Filter to sharpen the image a bit.

                  I didn't do any colorization but I slightly tinted the image using Gradient, Selective Color and Color Balance Adjustment Layers.
                  Attached Files

                  Comment

                  • Imhotep
                    Junior Member
                    • Aug 2003
                    • 19

                    #10
                    Just to get a response to the work that was done
                    Attached Files

                    Comment

                    • nvslater
                      Member
                      • Oct 2003
                      • 40

                      #11
                      HI Flora,
                      I will try to color your results. Let you know in a couple days.
                      Peace,
                      Vernon

                      Comment

                      • nvslater
                        Member
                        • Oct 2003
                        • 40

                        #12
                        Hello
                        I hope this picture will help show what I have been doing for the past 2 years. Since I couldn't show the layers I have, I merged a few, the rest would complete the picture. Next I will work with each layer, then merge and send to my wife. She will finish the color. Ill send another image soon.

                        Comment

                        • nvslater
                          Member
                          • Oct 2003
                          • 40

                          #13
                          Hello
                          I hope this picture will help show what I have been doing for the past 2 years. Since I couldn't show the layers I have, I merged a few, the rest would complete the picture. Next I will work with each layer, then merge and send to my wife. She will finish the color. Ill send another image soon.

                          Comment

                          • nvslater
                            Member
                            • Oct 2003
                            • 40

                            #14
                            Ill try again

                            Comment

                            • Flora
                              Senior Member
                              • Mar 2002
                              • 2325

                              #15
                              Imhotep,

                              I think you did a very good job on this very difficult picture where the most important details were extremely faded (faces) or completely missing (clothing) .... well done!


                              Vernon,

                              ....Looking forward to seeing your final result .....

                              Comment

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