affinity photo Boys in the Band

[dannyg9]

Photo retouching/restoring.

Client asked "See what you can do."

Could use a little more refinement, in my opinion, but the client had ZERO expectations and was blown away by the results. He said where it was at was fine.

This is the first real retouching job I did with Affinity Photo so it was learning as I was going. 

Never looking back at Adobe. The future is Affinity.

[SteevB]

Fantastic job, well done.

I dumped Adobe when sub's came in (expensive) and they discontinued 'Fireworks'.

[dannyg9]

Thanks Steve!

I never bothered with subs. Staggered along with CS5. Was pissed when they dumped Fireworks instead of using that to replace Illustrator. Went back to QuarkXpress for a bit. Since Publisher went full version, I've not used Quark and everything else is Affinity. My machines are Adobe-free.

[Smee Again]

My eyes keep seeing a bit of "sepia" or maybe yellow in the image.

Did you convert to grayscale?

[dannyg9]

You’re eyes do not deceive you. I converted it to grayscale and then to CMYK for digital printing as per the client’s request.

The original had yellowed quite a bit, plus there was water damage and spotting.

[Smee Again]

You might have a bit of fun with the attached file. By no means finished, but play around with what I did with the gradient maps if you've ever thought about "colorizing" images like these.

The brush work leaves much to be done . . . you're only using two colors: black and white . . . to make the process work for even complicated items like the jackets those guys are wearing.

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and the patch tool took out most of the discolorations around the door. Cloning tool is great, but I like to come behind it with the patch tool and with a bit of patience I can remove most of the evidence of cloning (like the dark smudges).

boys_in_the_band.afphoto

[Smee Again]

BTW, looks like a 60's band -- the kind my older cousin was in. The matching clothes give it away. By the 70's most of those were gone.The closest we came was everyone wearing blue jeans.

 

[dannyg9]

Smee,

I believe the client said late 50s to mid 60s so you're pretty spot on.

[dannyg9]

14 hours ago, Smee Again said:

You might have a bit of fun with the attached file. By no means finished, but play around with what I did with the gradient maps if you've ever thought about "colorizing" images like these.

The brush work leaves much to be done . . . you're only using two colors: black and white . . . to make the process work for even complicated items like the jackets those guys are wearing.

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and the patch tool took out most of the discolorations around the door. Cloning tool is great, but I like to come behind it with the patch tool and with a bit of patience I can remove most of the evidence of cloning (like the dark smudges).

boys_in_the_band.afphoto 1.18 MB · 4 downloads

I like what you did. A little dark overall but even that lends itself to the time period when the flash bulb of an instamatic camera would illuminate the center focus and render everything else dark.

I think you're of the same thinking. We can keep looking at these images and continue to refine them, as options truly are endless. I'll definitely play around with the file you attached.

[snuffleberries]

You've done a great job of repairing a truly damaged photo!!

My only suggestion would be to make it fully black and white and increase the contrast a bit.

Here is my version:

[snuffleberries]

I then had a go at colouring the photo. I started doing it before I saw that someone else had as well. Their version has much better colouring I think. I'll throw up what I got so far myself though. I think the colours are too light though.

[Smee Again]

19 hours ago, snuffleberries said:

I then had a go at colouring the photo. I started doing it before I saw that someone else had as well. Their version has much better colouring I think. I'll throw up what I got so far myself though. I think the colours are too light though.

Add a gradient map instead of just painting over the area with a color . . . I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere on the forum or open the afphoto sample I uploaded. Decide what you want to color, set your colors for the gradient map close then invert the mask by clicking <ctrl>+<i>. Paint in the area by painting on the mask with white, then make a final adjustment on your colors.

Experiment with different "blend modes" like soft light, overlay, etc. Then tweak opacity.

Also, sometimes "blend if" will  help get you where you want to be. Just click on the little cog at the bottom of the gradient mask panel right next to the blend modes on the bottom right of the panel.

One observation about the source photo: When doing restoration, we often rely too much on the clone tool. Try using the patch tool. Notice the difference along the door trim and the door. Those dark splotches stand out because they are a product of the clone tool. Using the patch tool instead will do a better job with some practice.

Look at the door and trim and paneling in the attached image, then look at  the difference between the clone tool and the patch tool results. The repeating dark/light areas are gone.

The paneling color and the trim color use the overlay blend mode.while the door uses a soft light blend mode.You'll find that after you've painted in the area with white, you will definitely want to readjust the gradient map for that item. With a little patience (about 40 minutes here) you can get something that looks very realistic.

I can't remember the other member's name, but there is someone on here who is much better at colorizing than I am and he did explain some of what he does.

Keep having fun. If it isn't fun, forget everything I said. If it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing.

[snuffleberries]

5 minutes ago, Smee Again said:

Add a gradient map instead of just painting over the area with a color . . . I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere on the forum or open the afphoto sample I uploaded. Decide what you want to color, set your colors for the gradient map close then invert the mask by clicking <ctrl>+<i>. Paint in the area by painting on the mask with white, then make a final adjustment on your colors.

Experiment with different "blend modes" like soft light, overlay, etc. Then tweak opacity.

Also, sometimes "blend if" will  help get you where you want to be. Just click on the little cog at the bottom of the gradient mask panel right next to the blend modes on the bottom right of the panel.

 

Thanks! I haven't ever used the gradient map tool before. I'll give it a go and see what I can come up with!

[dannyg9]

On 7/27/2020 at 3:13 AM, snuffleberries said:

You've done a great job of repairing a truly damaged photo!!

My only suggestion would be to make it fully black and white and increase the contrast a bit.

Here is my version:

I agree. I like the Black and White better, but for whatever reason, the client wanted the sort of sepia tone. I actually think that the original is black and white and if I remember correctly, older prints had what seemed like a film over them (probably just the paper delaminating). I think the photo was yellowed with age and possible water damage.

[Alfred]

12 hours ago, Smee Again said:

I can't remember the other member's name, but there is someone on here who is much better at colorizing than I am and he did explain some of what he does.

I suspect you may be thinking of @EZeemering.

[Smee Again]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

I suspect you may be thinking of @EZeemering.

Yes, thanks Alfred.

2 hours ago, dannyg9 said:

I agree. I like the Black and White better, but for whatever reason, the client wanted the sort of sepia tone. I actually think that the original is black and white and if I remember correctly, older prints had what seemed like a film over them (probably just the paper delaminating). I think the photo was yellowed with age and possible water damage.

"Sepia" is easy. I like to use "Layer/New Fill Layer". Set the blend mode to "soft light" or "overlay" and then adjust the color (I prefer HSL color mixer). A good starting point for HSL color is 30/70/40 (Hue 30, Saturation 70, Luminosity or Lightness 40).

Why a "New Fill Layer"? Because you can adjust the color until you get the desired effect. Kind of like using a "live filter".

[EZeemering]

Thanks @Alfred

If I may give a tip. Objects have a local colour. But colour fades in shades and highlights. If done correctly it will give more depth. You can take it even a step further to make the dark shade a tad cooler/warmer and the highlight the opposite. 

This image has one heavy light source. So the highlights will be bitten out and the shades will go near black (well, not black but colourless).