Restoring partially faded colours and lightleaks in photographs

[reigo]

Hi all,

I'm trying to restore a colour photograph dating from 1988. The colour shift is sort of "typical" to photographs from eighties. The colour has not faded evenly, but in two major spots. On about 40% of the surface, the coloring is fine, but on 60% there is intense reddening as you can see from the attached part of the photograph.
I'm using Photoshop CC to restore the photograph. I'm quite n00b at photohopping so I'm asking your advice here.
I have scanned the photograph in 1200ppi (more than needed), and created mask from RED channel with blurry edges, the mask resembles the colour-faded spots on photograph. I have tried to adjust the colouring in masked area to match the picture, but with no luck. I should probably mask green and blue channel too and adjust them all ?
I'd appreciate, if somebody could give a few suggestions or point to some example how-to guide. And please don't judge too roughly, i'm beginner at photoshop.

[Aladdin]

I suggest you leave the colour channels alone and use white balance to correct the colour. The simplest way would be to put a curves adjustment layer on top. Then in the curves panel click on the white eye dropper and click it in an area of the photo that you know should be white. Then do the same with the black eye dropper on a black point in the image.  Then the trickiest one the mid grey eye dropper. You need to find a point to click on that is neutral grey and click on it with the grey dropper. You should see the picture magically reappear in its colour corrected glory. You will then need to use the gradient tool to mask away the areas you do not want effected by the adjustment.
If you click on my website icon (the "home" icon under my aladdin logo on here. Then go to the gallery page and you will see a couple of examples of the results of the technique.
Hope this helps.

PS You can re click with the droppers ( specially the grey one) to get better results from a slightly different spot on the image.

[sarah]

Hi Reigo,

Welcome to RootsChat

I duplicated the layer, remove the red tone from the top layer, then used levels to balance and match the bottom layer left hand side. Finished off by creating a layer mask using a black/white gradient so the both layers were visible and matched.

Here is a quick go, could carry on tweaking but gives a good idea on what it could look like. There are many ways of getting the same results with photoshop, this is just my thoughts.

Regards

Sarah

[reigo]

Thank you for warm welcome sarah! And thanks for the tips Aladdin.
I played aroud a little bit, twisted some knobs and pushed sliders.
The result is attached below, also the original.
I'm not very pleased with the result, as i couldn't get all the reddening removed. But the photo is not easiest to fix either.
Have to work a little more on that...

[Aladdin]

I have done a version for you. Just took 5 curves layers two of which were for D&B, and a hue/sat layer. Took about 15 minutes in all I guess after a bit of tinkering with the masks.

[reigo]

I have done a version for you. Just took 5 curves layers two of which were for D&B, and a hue/sat layer. Took about 15 minutes in all I guess after a bit of tinkering with the masks.

This looks good! The colour of people is just right.
Could you be more specific about the process? I need to get better result on this photo.
What D&B means and how did you make masks?
Thanks again in advance!

[Aladdin]

Hello reigo
I see you are using PS CC so you have at your disposal a vast professional editing software which will require a lot of learning to master it.
I would suggest you get hold of a couple of books for beginners I found Scott Kelby good when I first started and Deke McClelland is a brilliant explainer. Also watch some tutorials on youtube I suggest starting with understanding layers and masks and adjustment layers.
Heres a good curves tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWn4BYiEEeo
I could explain the process I used but I think it will sound too complicated and probably confuse you more. Much better to watch as many tutorials as you can and a good book will get you going. Your photo is quite tricky to do due to the bands of discolouration and you will need to understand how colour works in photoshop to get it right. The version I did is not finished it could do with more tweaking to remove the remaining colour shifts.
Oh, and D&B means dodge and burn, thats another technique you most definitely need to master
If all this sounds too much don't be put off, its great fun and very rewarding.
Cheers Al

[pechio]

I used curves by the numbers, HSL (Hue, Saturation & Lightness), CB (color balance) & levels.

[cazza59]

I used the KISS principle… 


1. Removed the red using an adjustment layer mask on the affected areas

2. Evened out the tone of the photo using dodge and burn (rushed job)

3. Touched up coloured areas freehand (which can be modified to suit)

4. Tweaked contrast.

Caz

PS I didn't take much time over this and it could be a lot neater.