Get rid of blue in old photo

[Zanotti]

How could I clean this ups?


http://zanotti.smugmug.com/photos/272045721_9H88e-XL.jpg (http://zanotti.smugmug.com/gallery/1953056_N23Z4#272045721)



Here's my attempt:


http://zanotti.smugmug.com/photos/272048550_bXLbS-L.jpg (http://zanotti.smugmug.com/gallery/1953056_N23Z4#272048550)

Any other ideas?

Z

[LUCKYSHOT]

Not bad, But look at the cloning you did in the trees, it is the same pattern over and over again. You need to change the reference point you are using.
Also the area to the left (by his head) of the man holding the flag. You would have been better off leaving the shrubs than putting in the white spot (glaring). I at best am nothing more than a extreme novice at Elements 6 , but keep playng around only practice helps. What program are you using?
Chris
www.longislandimage.com (http://www.longislandimage.com)

[hgernhardtjr]

There's a very easy way if you are editing in PhotoShop. Simply go into Channels, turn all but the blue off. There's your picture in perfect repair (except for the fold and any dust and scratches). You do not have to do anything with the tree or with anything covered by the blue stain ... it's all but gone! Then it is just a very minor matter to clone out the scratches and folds and dust. I played around with it and it took under 10 minutes.

[eL eSs Vee]

Not my picture, but . . .
This is what I love about DGrin. I took this photo as a challenge, and was trying everything in Photoshop to get rid of the stain. Then I found your post and, you're right, EASY! You learn something everyday, here! :bow

There's a very easy way if you are editing in PhotoShop. Simply go into Channels, turn all but the blue off. There's your picture in perfect repair (except for the fold and any dust and scratches). You do not have to do anything with the tree or with anything covered by the blue stain ... it's all but gone! Then it is just a very minor matter to clone out the scratches and folds and dust. I played around with it and it took under 10 minutes.

[Zanotti]

Henry:

I did try and turn off the blue channel, but the blob remains. I have CS3 and PS6, sometimes I think PS6 is easier!

Another attempt:

http://zanotti.smugmug.com/photos/272078750_Ju7me-L.jpg (http://zanotti.smugmug.com/gallery/1953056_N23Z4#272078750)

[jjbong]

Any other ideas?
Z
Getting the blue out is not a problem. You basically want to create a black and white image out of this, and there are many ways to do that (and lots of threads here on that process). I'm not keen on the suggestion of killing the blue channel, but the big problem lies elsewhere.

It isn't just that the splotch is blue, it's that it's a splotch and affects a lot more than just color. It's hard to eliminate it entirely without a lot of manual work (clones and such). But maybe you just want it to blend in as much as possible (after all, there are other defects in the photo due to its age, so trying to make it look like a perfect shot taken yesterday isn't the goal, I don't think).

Here's my attempt:

http://jjbong.smugmug.com/photos/272073369_Eg8Ft-L.jpg

After I got rid of the blue, I wanted to match the splotch as much as I could to the rest of the photo. Since the splotch was blue, the natural place to start was the B channel in LAB (where blue is dark and yellow is light). I used a couple of steep curves on the B channel to create a mask for the splotch (I had to invert it, to make the splotch light), and blurred it slightly. Then I just used a curve in the L channel with that mask to match it as well as I could to the rest of the shot. At this point, I could have used a master RGB curve. The key was the mask.

I think this looks more natural, as it preserves the texture within the splotch. Sure there's a splotch remaining, but it's effect is minimal, and the Photoshopping is I hope not too obvious.

Since you had improved the contrast and sharpness of the original, I did the same, probably not as well. Maybe 10 minutes total, with a false start.

[Zanotti]

There's a very easy way if you are editing in PhotoShop. Simply go into Channels, turn all but the blue off. There's your picture in perfect repair (except for the fold and any dust and scratches). You do not have to do anything with the tree or with anything covered by the blue stain ... it's all but gone! Then it is just a very minor matter to clone out the scratches and folds and dust. I played around with it and it took under 10 minutes.

OK, I figured out how to do this, but when I save, it goes away. How do I save like I see with the blue channels only?

[i_worship_the_King]

wow... you've got a tough nut to crack! I toyed with it for a few minutes... The best results I got was painting over the blue part using a color from the road, then changing the blending mode to overlay with about 60% opacity. Then I messed with blur to get rid of the edges. Nothing worked much better than what you already have (in terms of color. These methods preserve the underlying texture also).

However... changing to B&W may have made the results even better (I was killing myself trying to keep it in this kind of sepia tone.)

:dunno

Hope it works out.

[hgernhardtjr]

One way to save is to simply make a copy of the blue channel by dragging it to the duplicate icon on the layers pallette, selecting all in the new blue channel, copying, going back to layers and pasting the new layer in. Now you will have a new layer (the blue component without the blue stain) which you can save or do anything to as you normally would. This fix attached took roughly 10 minutes ... with some more time it could be almost perfect. And I left it sepia-old for ya, and even put a deckled edge on it!

[jjbong]

One way to save is to simply make a copy of the blue channel by dragging it to the duplicate icon on the layers pallette, selecting all in the new blue channel, copying, going back to layers and pasting the new layer in. Now you will have a new layer (the blue component without the blue stain) which you can save or do anything to as you normally would. This fix attached took roughly 10 minutes ... with some more time it could be almost perfect. And I left it sepia-old for ya, and even put a deckled edge on it!
I like yours better than mine, and took fewer steps.

[Bendr]

One way to save is to simply make a copy of the blue channel by dragging it to the duplicate icon on the layers pallette, selecting all in the new blue channel, copying, going back to layers and pasting the new layer in. Now you will have a new layer (the blue component without the blue stain) which you can save or do anything to as you normally would. This fix attached took roughly 10 minutes ... with some more time it could be almost perfect. And I left it sepia-old for ya, and even put a deckled edge on it!

Wow nice job!

[Richard]

In CS3, if you use the blue filter preset on a B&W adjustment layer, you get rid of almost all the stain. That does leave a darker area on the flag, which you can correct in a number of ways. I added a curves layer and lightened that area, then masked that layer so as not to affect other areas so much. I didn't want to spend a lot of time creating the mask, so I just used apply image to copy the inverted red channel of the original to the mask. If that seems too tricky, you could also just paint it in quick mask mode.

http://rsinmadrid.smugmug.com/photos/272212773_HVNeC-L.jpg

Not perfect, but not bad for about 3 minutes of work. With a little cloning to get rid of the cracks and some more work on the contrast, I think it would be fine.

[Zanotti]

Thanks so much guys, this worked out great.

There is so much to learn in PS that its unbelieveable.

Z

[Zanotti]

Here's my effort: Getting Better!

http://zanotti.smugmug.com/photos/272253553_k4f3W-L.jpg (http://zanotti.smugmug.com/gallery/1953056_N23Z4#272253553)