Re-colouring a photo

[Arty]

Gents, (& ladies of course :o )
I have some 30 year old photos of my brother's wedding that have 'gone brown'. No idea why. Something to do with film stocks I guess. There's some colour left, but it's very muted. Can they be rescued? I have PS 7 & Element 2.

[Mernya]

If not out right rescued, enhanced or boosted to look good.

I fixed a picture of my dad's helicopter in Vietnam. When I balanced the yellow out, I realized that the sky was half blue and half reddish smoke. Sometimes there are surprises!

[Arty]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I can make a big improvement to them, but was just wondering if there were any particular tips.

[Rick Baker]

In Photoshop, use the color balance or variations tool to remove brown or maybe "auto levels" or "auto colors" would automatically correct that. Then punch some saturation in there with the hue/saturation tool. Post one of the pictures .

[nitsch]

I would try scanning the photo in at high res, then in PS7 go to the levels adjustment and use the dropper tool to set a white point (or a midtone should work too) and the colours should be adjusted more or less back to how they should be (ie. remove the brown colour cast). The colours may be quite muted so you will probably want to increase the saturation. Without seeing the actual picture its hard to say but this should be a good starting point.

If you could post a copy of the picture it could be fun to have a go at restoring it and then letting you know what steps were taken to achieve the end result.

[nitsch]

Rick you can obviously type quicker than me! ;-)

[Rick Baker]

Rick you can obviously type quicker than me! ;-)

;)

[Arty]

Thanks for the tips - exactly what I was looking for. As soon as I work out how to post a pic here.....
It'd be interesting to see what results you guys achieve, and then see if I can match it.

[Arty]

OK, I've had no luck at all with this, so I've uploaded an example for people to test their mettle with - hopefully it'll appear here soon. :o

[Arty]

Try again

[gkas]

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[Arty]

I'm guessing the image may have been too large, I'll try again with a smaller version.

[Arty]

OK, what am I doing wrong? I've scaled the image to 750 pixels & it's a .jpg
Using the forum 'manage attachments' tool to upload.

[nitsch]

OK, what am I doing wrong? I've scaled the image to 750 pixels & it's a .jpg
Using the forum 'manage attachments' tool to upload.

Hi Arty, the file size has to be under 100k to upload as an attachment on the forum. If you can host it elsewhere and link to it then you can get away with having a larger image. If you still can't upload it PM me and I'll host it for you.

[Arty]

Thanks for the info Nick.

[Arty]

This one's 53k - so hopefully......

[CyberPet]

I suggest you open Levels or Curves and pick the grey pipette and klick on the pavement outside the doorway. That should give you a pretty neutral grey to bring out some colors in the image. You can also work a bit with shadow/highlights to bring out more detail in their faces (and in his tux) while you can add some detail n her white dress.

Hope this helps!

[Mernya]

Here was a quickie I did
5 layers: (bottom up)
1. Base image
2. Base image with sharpening applied - faded 50% in luminosity mode
3. Hue/Saturation adjustment (-7, -18, 0)
4. Color Balance : Shadows -51, 0, 15 ; mids -60, +30, +26, highlights -4, +2, +4
5. Curves (37, 26), (65,65), (190,185)

Base layer had a shadows/highlights of 5% on shadows and 35% on highlights.

It isn't perfect, but might give you a heads up.

[Mernya]

Oh, as a follow up.
The pavement was horrible for doing a neutralize for me. All the auto filters didn't help either.

the compression blocks in the dress are obviously not there unless compressed to be less than 100k :)

I'd consider layer masking and making specific changes to correct specific elements.

[JMAS]

My attempt. I was unnable to save the detail in the dress.

[Rick Baker]

Here's a quick attempt

http://www.rickbakerimages.com/wedding.jpg

[Rick Baker]

My attempt. I was unnable to save the detail in the dress.

I think you may have overused Neat Image or some noise reduction program?

[JMAS]

I think you may have overused Neat Image or some noise reduction program?

Yes, Rick I used Neatimage over what would be advisable.

[Rick Baker]

Yes, Rick I used Neatimage over what would be advisable.

Looked like it... otherwise it looks like you corrected the colors right

[Rick Baker]

instead of applying noise filter to the whole image, you could duplicate the layer and run Neat Image on a fairly high level(but not too high) on the duplicate layer and then erase the duplicate layer where you want to have detail.

[Rick Baker]

Maybe a little better version:


http://www.rickbakerimages.com/wedding2.jpg

[JMAS]

I like the colors better on your first attempt.

Thanks for the tips!

[Arty]

Thanks for making those efforts. I managed similar results myself - but as you can see, it's a toughie! I wondering if maybe a bit of extra work on the flowers would bring it to life?
I've got a whole album like this to work on if successful!