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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Photograph Resources, Tips, Tutorials => Topic started by: Florin on Saturday 20 February 10 17:32 GMT (UK)
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Hello.
Everything here is about The Photoshop CS(3) use.
Here are some tips I put some time ago in another forum:
"About colouring, there are a lot of ways to do it. At my beginnings, I used the selections: make a selection with lasso, for instance, and colour it using changes of the hue and saturation or have a new layer after and colour (paint) it. Every part of the face, of the body, different pieces of the cloth you should do the bothering selection and so on. I didn`t liked that, was too slow and the borders always were too sharp, not very precise and we talk about waist a lot, lot of time. Also, modifying a selection if later something wasn`t so perfect was more loosing time. So, dismissed.
I thought: the ideal way must be to do it in a short time, using a few and easy adjustable tool, in a fluid mode and have the possibility to edit or change the colour, or retouch the borders quickly without loosing time.
¿What could be the best but using the layer masks and the fusion mode of the layers?
So, I started with this technique and I really never changed it in the last 7-8 years. I don`t mean that`s the best, the only one one should use, no, I mean that`s the best for me, for the way I`m working. Maybe other people like the other way and that`s great, everyone must do what he seems that`s ok with him.
So, my routine is this:
1. Scan the image at 800 - 1000dpi at it`s native scale, 100%. If it`s an old one, I mean the colours are bad, scan in the grey scale (1/3 of the RGB Mbytes).
2.Crop to the size, 6"x8", 8"x10" etc.
3.Restore
4.Colour: Every image`s colour is a different layer. So, above the background I make a new layer and paint it with the colour of the skin areas (face, hands etc the same). Brush has the 60-65% of opacity. Then I change the layer fusion mode from Normal to Colour.. If necessary, put a little down the transparency. Now, the magic touch: make a layer mask and eliminate (paint brush B, black colour) everything which is out of the rank. If I screw something, turn to the white colour and replace the pixels. Using the soft or the hard brush`s borders you should have the result as you like. Then, a new layer and do the same, adding a little soft "rose" colour on the cheeks. If you like, can add it on the hands (or body if it`s a striptease retouch, hahaha) as you like. Cloths must have the same treatment, every part of the cloth has it`s own layer and colour, generally "soft light" layer mode, hair too.
I upload today 3 samples in the .psd native file, with all the layer`s mask, they are originally and just look the layers and the fusion mode of each. Also you could have the colour samples I used for each:
Website no longer working
The links were uploaded with a premium account so I hope they`ll be available for a long time. My software is in Spanish but I`m sure it`s not a problem for you".
My best regards,
Florin