Could anyone PP-rescue this ghastly pic for me?? - I can't re-take it.

[Kevin Omura]

sherman_levine wrote:



Mike,

My wife did this with a program called Digital ROC (restoration of color) using its defautl settings. If you have a good image of the actual wall and drapes color, and/or a suitable "white" spot I suspect she could get a more accurate correction.

Sherm

Hey cool Gangnam Style sheers and walls! It did try and get the skin tones to a more realistic level on a couple of the front row ladies though.

 

[sherman_levine]

Kevin Omura wrote:

sherman_levine wrote:



Mike,

My wife did this with a program called Digital ROC (restoration of color) using its defautl settings. If you have a good image of the actual wall and drapes color, and/or a suitable "white" spot I suspect she could get a more accurate correction.

Sherm

Hey cool Gangnam Style sheers and walls! It did try and get the skin tones to a more realistic level on a couple of the front row ladies though.

The program seems to be tuned to optimize the skin tones. Figured that it would be easy enough to mask and desaturate the background afterwards of the skin and clothes were ok... or perhaps the walls really were bright yellow. Back in the 70's, I painted my kitchen in day-glo green and orange


Sherm

 

[manthasfamily]

This was kind of fun to work with. Trying to interpret what the original color of the lamp and drapes are was a challenge. I think posting to the retuching forum would be the place to see more results.


Original



My try. A bit washed out. I really like the b&w version by Richard (radamczak) the best.






--
Karen

If it pleases you then to hell what everyone else thinks!

 

[Darrell Spreen]

I assumed the sheer curtains should come out white and the walls should be off-white. Also, the man on the left was wearing blue jeans. So I did multiple hue, white-point, and saturation adjustments until those seemed close. I then noticed that the pattern on the blouse of the woman in the front turned out to be and attractive violet color, so I quit.

Obviously, lots of people like a challenge like this.

--
Darrell

 

[manthasfamily]

I thought the same thing about the sheers Darrell, but sometimes the sheers are a cream color. I guess that's the woman in me. Cream color to go with the drapes. LOL Then again what color are those drapes? {{shrugs}}

 

[Gary R.]

I was looking through the posts hoping someone had already suggested this. There can be a similar issue with getting natural color and skin tone under some street lamps, and usually the best solution, assuming you don't want an artsy effect, is simply b/w (or sepia if you prefer). There are a number of different conversion methods available to give you everything from a contrasty "dynamic b/w" style to a nice smooth and pleasant b/w, and as radamczak's photo shows, there is enough color information between the 3 color channels when combined so you don't have all the blown out off-color or too dark areas seen in the color attempts.

It takes 3 color channels to provide a nice balanced color in a photo like this, and if you have Photoshop, have a look at the red and blue channels. Red is blown out, and blue is too dark, so there is no way to get the lost information back, except possibly to simulate it somehow from information in the green channel, which would be time-consuming and may never be really right. I did run a strong blue cooling filter on it, and it looked better, but it wasn't close enough that I'd be at all happy with it.

I remember a video where Ansel Adams was asked why he shot b/w, and his reply was something to the effect that because he manipulates his photos so extensively (in the darkroom) the colors would be affected so adversely that it just wouldn't be worth it to try to use color...in fact it would hinder his efforts to get what he wants from the photo. In this case, the colors have already been 'manipulated' with the colored light and/or camera to where essential information is not there.

I often mix in b/w shots in slideshows and quite often people really notice and comment on them, so it doen't have to mean you're 'giving up', just act like it's what you intended to do 8^). If you have Photoshop, have a look at the green channel; there's enough information in that one channel alone to make a nice b/w, and that channel is seldom noisy. Or convet to LAB color and use the lightness channel to make the b/w, or I'm sure you and many others have favorite ways to convert.

Think of all the work you'll save, and they'll probably like it even better than all the other group shots from the past that were all in color...this one will stand out.

 

[Darrell Spreen]

manthasfamily wrote:

I thought the same thing about the sheers Darrell, but sometimes the sheers are a cream color. I guess that's the woman in me. Cream color to go with the drapes. LOL Then again what color are those drapes? {{shrugs}}

What was interesting is that, at one point, the color of the sheers was just a bit whiter than the color of the walls (best seen by clicking on my "original size"), so I thought that was significant and that is where I stopped.

I spent about 20 minutes on this but, after that time, I thought I knew all these people!!

 

[Erik Ohlson]

Wow.

I came to this rather late, but not to worry, I couldn't beat what's been done already :-|

The B&W results seem to be the way to go, as has been suggested.

Not to disparage any other efforts, I'd have to vote for Roger Circle's version.

Where is Ray Guselli when we need him ??

I thought a simple "Adjust color for skin tones" might do it = WRONG!

It might be fun for you to submit this one to the "Retouching" forum!


-Erik



--
'He who hesitates is not only lost - he's miles from the next Exit.'
www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]

 

[in_focus]

Well done, Richard.. to my liking this is the solution! ..

All the best,

 

[One_Oldman_4U]

 

[Mikedigi]

. . . nothing like a disaaaaaster, darling, to bring us closer together.

I might make more enemies than friends if I comment individually on your efforts.

May I just say that you have found the same trouble as I did - if I try to get all the red out, I get soupy, greenish/yellowish, even ghoulish, colours. Serves me right for not spotting the 40-Watt, red-tinted bulbs in the first place, before shooting.

I am the most impressed by the B&W and Sepia . . . surprise, surprise!

I'll have a go at that, but right now my wife is suggesting that I do something useful . . .

Many thanks for your input, all of you, and Dog bless this photo and all who sail in her.

Mike

 

[Kevin Omura]

Think you did a splendid job, you have to look at a photo when you weren't there and start to try and figure out what are the logical colours in the shot and work out from there.

 

[Vandyu]

Looks to me like you've gotten some pretty interesting results, Mike. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't spot the red lights. Sometimes when there is a group of family members staring at you with that "Please just press the shutter" look, you do just as they request. I've seen some great rescue attempts on here. Nothing like Panny Forum Friends when you need 'em

 

[boops boops]

Uh huh, late to the party as usual. :-( Since we've had just about everything else I thought I'd pitch in too:


:-D




Vic

 

[rayman 2]

Mikedigi wrote:

. . . nothing like a disaaaaaster, darling, to bring us closer together.

I might make more enemies than friends if I comment individually on your efforts.

May I just say that you have found the same trouble as I did - if I try to get all the red out, I get soupy, greenish/yellowish, even ghoulish, colours. Serves me right for not spotting the 40-Watt, red-tinted bulbs in the first place, before shooting.

I am the most impressed by the B&W and Sepia . . . surprise, surprise!

I'll have a go at that, but right now my wife is suggesting that I do something useful . . .

Many thanks for your input, all of you, and Dog bless this photo and all who sail in her.

Mike

Mike the lesson you should have learned from this is if you shoot indoors without flash.. shoot

raw...... ! period..!!!

That can be tweeked easily !

Peter

 

[manthasfamily]

Darrell Spreen wrote:

manthasfamily wrote:

I thought the same thing about the sheers Darrell, but sometimes the sheers are a cream color. I guess that's the woman in me. Cream color to go with the drapes. LOL Then again what color are those drapes? {{shrugs}}

What was interesting is that, at one point, the color of the sheers was just a bit whiter than the color of the walls (best seen by clicking on my "original size"), so I thought that was significant and that is where I stopped.

I spent about 20 minutes on this but, after that time, I thought I knew all these people!!

 

[Mikedigi]

Vandyu wrote:

Looks to me like you've gotten some pretty interesting results, Mike. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't spot the red lights. Sometimes when there is a group of family members staring at you with that "Please just press the shutter" look, you do just as they request. I've seen some great rescue attempts on here. Nothing like Panny Forum Friends when you need 'em

Thanks, and I was not expecting more than a couple of replies, and the fact that everyone has had trouble with this photo is kind of reassuring!

I did about 12 attempts myself and also came to no final conclusion.

Thanks again to everyone.

Mike

 

[Mikedigi]

boops boops wrote:

Uh huh, late to the party as usual. :-( Since we've had just about everything else I thought I'd pitch in too . . . .

Different, Vic, and interesting . . . and of course like the B&W and sepia, very easy! I like it.

Mike

 

[jonbev]

What an interesting exercise, some good attempts but out of them all I would pick the cropped one from Benoz, congrats mate.

 

[Mikedigi]

Thanks, some interesting thoughts there!

Mike