Retouch question, color correction

I scanned a polaroid image for a friend at work. (scanned at 300 dpi)

Her children are all young adults now and she doesn't often get them together for a group photo so I printed it out for her a larger size. I did crop, and do some work on it, but when I print it out on the glossy paper it has a distinct magenta cast to some areas. See especially the left side of the pine tree behind the redhead. Her hair has too much color in some of it too. My friend is amazed at how well it looks coming from a polaroid, but it drives me crazy seeing it "wrong".

Any ideas on how I can correct the color? I did some work on it last night that made it better, but it still isn't right. Is there a technique that will correct it?

I believe this is the original scan, but it may be after I did a little cosmetic work on their faces:



Full size file (over 2 meg) is at this url:

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100559/101741/PamsKidsEaster4691 if you add .jpg to the end

EileenJ said:

I scanned a polaroid image for a friend at work. (scanned at 300 dpi)
Her children are all young adults now and she doesn't often get
them together for a group photo so I printed it out for her a
larger size. I did crop, and do some work on it, but when I print
it out on the glossy paper it has a distinct magenta cast to some
areas. See especially the left side of the pine tree behind the
redhead. Her hair has too much color in some of it too. My
friend is amazed at how well it looks coming from a polaroid, but
it drives me crazy seeing it "wrong".

Any ideas on how I can correct the color? I did some work on it
last night that made it better, but it still isn't right. Is there
a technique that will correct it?
I believe this is the original scan, but it may be after I did a
little cosmetic work on their faces:

Click to expand...

just for fun i tried the technique discussed here
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=6383243



i think it worked pretty well

feivel

I'll try it on the full size image and see how it prints. You know I saw that thread but didn't open it because I didn't know what the title was talking about. That will teach me to look even if I don't know the terminology.

Look in the printer before hitting the print button. Those few lines of print look really nice on my 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of glossy photo paper! LOL

EileenJ said:

I'll try it on the full size image and see how it prints. You know
I saw that thread but didn't open it because I didn't know what the
title was talking about. That will teach me to look even if I
don't know the terminology.

Click to expand...

I tried the technique, and got almost exactly the same thing I got when using the color sliders. (But faster and easier) That gives most of the picture a more pleasing look, but it doesn't get rid of the problem areas.

They still have a heavy dark blob of color (I called it magenta, but it's more like magenta mixed with bronzing) in the tree trunk and the hair of the redhead. There is also a color cast to the lapels of his jacket. and at the top of his head/tree trunk area, and in the darker areas of the foliage.

I'm wondering if I can use that technique on the shadows. Well, I'll try some new methods tonight after work, I was too tired to give it another try last night and don't have time this morning.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

feivel said:

EileenJ said:

I scanned a polaroid image for a friend at work. (scanned at 300 dpi)
Her children are all young adults now and she doesn't often get
them together for a group photo so I printed it out for her a
larger size. I did crop, and do some work on it, but when I print
it out on the glossy paper it has a distinct magenta cast to some
areas. See especially the left side of the pine tree behind the
redhead. Her hair has too much color in some of it too. My
friend is amazed at how well it looks coming from a polaroid, but
it drives me crazy seeing it "wrong".

Any ideas on how I can correct the color? I did some work on it
last night that made it better, but it still isn't right. Is there
a technique that will correct it?
I believe this is the original scan, but it may be after I did a
little cosmetic work on their faces:

Click to expand...

just for fun i tried the technique discussed here
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=6383243



i think it worked pretty well

feivel

Click to expand...

Eileen,
Using the premise that moss is gray, I came up with this:
http://www.vizualgroove.com/digitalimaging/snap1.htm

The top left is mine, right is feivel, and the bottom is the original. I captured the whole PS workplace to show what can be involved to bring an image like this up to something acceptable (at least to me). It took about 8 minutes to do it so even though it looks like a bit of work, about half is automated with actions.

I didn't see any of the color casts that you mentioned. This could be that you don't have a correctly calibrated monitor. You see a lot of this type of thing on this forum where you see one thing and others see something else.

Although telling you how to do something like this is beyond the scope of this forum, the main difference is that I use localized editing as opposed to global editing. The example show various selections that had their own edits applied to them only and not to the image as a whole. This stops the inducement of color casts in others areas while you can focus on the task at hand in a specific area.
Hope this gives you some ideas,
VG

EileenJ said:

I scanned a polaroid image for a friend at work. (scanned at 300 dpi)
Her children are all young adults now and she doesn't often get
them together for a group photo so I printed it out for her a
larger size. I did crop, and do some work on it, but when I print
it out on the glossy paper it has a distinct magenta cast to some
areas. See especially the left side of the pine tree behind the
redhead. Her hair has too much color in some of it too. My
friend is amazed at how well it looks coming from a polaroid, but
it drives me crazy seeing it "wrong".

Any ideas on how I can correct the color? I did some work on it
last night that made it better, but it still isn't right. Is there
a technique that will correct it?
I believe this is the original scan, but it may be after I did a
little cosmetic work on their faces:



Full size file (over 2 meg) is at this url:

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100559/101741/PamsKidsEaster4691 if you add .jpg to the end

Click to expand...

VG, Nicely done.....it looks like you did a bit of sharpening also.

I didn't really see the little color "blotches" that were mentioned either......but the file is so small it might only be noticed in the higher resolution scanned version.

Good job from you as always.

--
bud guinn....FCAS charter member
sony fd91, nikon 5700
http://www.pbase.com/budguinn/root
http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=340
DPReview, PBase supporter

just so it's not misunderstood:
the image i posted was in no way my attempt to fix the photo
it was an experiment trying out Jay Bean's technique

feivel

It was a quick session to show one of many ways of doing something in PS and was meant for a lesson in localized editing as opposed to global editing. I should have been more specific.
Sorry,
VG

feivel said:

just so it's not misunderstood:
the image i posted was in no way my attempt to fix the photo
it was an experiment trying out Jay Bean's technique

feivel

Click to expand...

I used curves with the following spots..girl on left has white shoes, man in middle black pants, and spot of dirt on far right for grays.
You will need to re-scan though, their are specs on the large photo.
Best Harry

The color problem got obvious when I printed it out on the glossy paper. I don't think it's my monitor or printer since I don't have that problem with anything else.

I appreciate all of the ideas, and I've saved them to refer to as I rework the original scan. (I don't have the photo to scan again, so that isn't an option) I may also just reprint it on matt paper, since the first print I made her on heavy duty paper isn't nearly as obvious in the problem area. Come to think of it though, that print was made on the old 4 color printer. Maybe this printer is doing it's job too well! LOL

Thanks again!