Can this hair be "fixed" or better looking in AP?

[PaulWilliamson]

Hi,

Their hair looks matted down and blurry.  Is there something I can do to enhance it?  It also looks "fake" and washed out.  I didn't take the picture but not that it would have made a difference 🙂  Probably a cell phone picture.

Thanks

Paul Williamson

[NotMyFault]

I would add a highpass filter, blend mode “linear light”, blend range reduced for shadows,  to add a little contrast and saturation.

Regarding hair and other details, nothing much possible in Photo. You could try one of the AI based upscalers.

 

[PaulWilliamson]

That looks better!  I am reading up on how to do that right now.

I can also try and figure out Peter Dam (Photography-RAW) stuff too.  I thought maybe I could draw some hair somehow but the gals do not want any fake PhotoShop look to the image.

Thank you,

-paulw

[smadell]

A different take from me. Given that the ladies don't want any "fake Photoshop look(s)" on the image, subtlety is important. To begin with, the image is kind of flat and needs some Brightness and Contrast. That was the first thing I added. Second, I think that the hair looks "matted down and blurry" because (a) the whole image is low contrast; and (b) the photo is indeed a bit blurry. To deal with that, I added a Curves adjustment and a High Pass adjustment, put them into a Group, and masked the group to entirely black. Then, using a soft brush with low opacity and low flow, I painted the hair only with white, bringing those adjustments onto the hair (but not onto other areas). Also, I set the Blend Mode of the High Pass adjustment to Soft Light, since this give a softer and more subtle effect.

[PaulWilliamson]

Hi!

How did you mask the entire group black? And then "I painted the hair only with white, bringing those adjustments onto the hair (but not onto other areas"?

-paulw

[smadell]

@PaulWilliamson - once you've got the two adjustments into a Group, select the Group itself (in the Layers panel) and either (i) add a mask and then Fill it with black; or (ii) hold down the Option or Alt key (Mac or Windows) and click the Mask Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel; or (iii) with the Group selected, choose "New Empty Mask Layer" from the Layer menu. Any of these will give you a "black mask" which hides all the adjustments within the group. Then, with the Mask layer selected (click directly on the Mask icon to select only that layer) use the Paint Brush tool and start painting with White. You can adjust the opacity, flow, and hardness of the brush from the Context Toolbar.

[PaulWilliamson]

Thanks!  I am going to try it in a few minutes but I think I am going to get interrupted for the rest of the day.  So you may see a reply from me in the morning 🙂

I also just found this YouTube video from Affinity Revolution where she totally changes the gals hair color.  Very interesting.  Lots of techniques new to me!

"How to Change Hair Color in Affinity Photo"

-paulw

[PaulWilliamson]

Am I supposed to see the white brush when painting over something?

-paul

[smadell]

Hi, @PaulWilliamson. First of all, based on your screenshot, it looks like you've masked out both the Curves and HighPass layers indivually. You also have a completely black mask on the Group. You need to mask only the Group - the Curves adjustment and High Pass filter should not be masked individually. (Take a look at my screenshot a few posts higher in this thread.)

Once you have the Curves and High Pass layers individually un-masked, but the Group itself masked with black, you can paint white on the Group's mask. Remember - black conceals and white reveals. Once you start painting the mask with white, you will un-hide ("reveal") the adjustment and filter within the group.

[PaulWilliamson]

I am still not seeing the paintbrush paint anything smadell.  I have the mask by itself under the group and it is not applied to the other layers in the group.  When I go to paint the hair with the brush I see it on the mask icon in the layers panel but do not notice anything in the image.  I did not apply a black and white layer like you did in the video.

-paulw

[smadell]

Paul…. Try opening either the High Pass layer or the Curves layer and pump them up to ridiculously high amounts (temporarily, of course). If you have the Group completely masked, you will not see these effects. However, once you paint white on the mask, you should see the adjustments showing in those areas. You can then go back into the Curves and/or High Pass layers and bring them back down to acceptable amounts.

[PaulWilliamson]

do you mean the radius with the high pass?  I did slide it up to 100% and I do see a little bit of difference.

Do I have my layers in the correct order?  Did I mess up the group and mask again? 🙂

-paulw

[smadell]

Your latest screenshot looks like the group is formed correctly. Try this: select the High Pass layer and then ADD an additional adjustment layer. Try a Recolor adjustment.  It should show up above the High Pass layer, but still inside the Group. The default for that adjustment is bright red, so just leave it like that. Now try painting white on the mask. (Make sure that you paint enough to get the mask to turn a visible shade of grey/white where you paint. If the mask doesn't show your white area, then increase either the Opacity or the Flow on your paint brush tool.) Did the area you painted in show the red color? If so, then everything is working as it should. You can go back and delete the Recolor adjustment once you know you've got the process working.

[PaulWilliamson]

No, the recolor is not red and the brush is not painting on the mask as far as I can tell.

I hate to keep feeling like a pitb because I am missing some steps or doing them in the wrong order.  I attached the aphoto file in case that will save time and frustration for you.  I hope you do not mind. And another screenshot.

-paulw

08082021.firstchoice-cropped.-smadellfromforum.afphoto

[smadell]

Paul... You did everything right. With your .afphoto file open, zoom in to the lady on the right (pretty much as you've shown above) and then turn the Group's visibility off and then on again. You'll see that there is, indeed, a change. Yes, it's subtle. Maybe try this: open the High Pass layer, set the Radius to about 13 and change the blend mode to Vivid Light. That will give you a more dramatic change, and one you should notice right away.

I went ahead and changed the High Pass layer, and then painted white on the mask with 20% opacity, 100% flow, 0% hardness. I did this over the hair of all the ladies. I'm attaching the additionally-edited file for you.

08082021.firstchoice-cropped.-smadellfromforum.afphoto

[PaulWilliamson]

Thanks so much!!  I think I see an additional white balance layers in yours.

Their hair looks so much better when I turn off and then on the group.  I closed out AP, reloaded the file I sent you and then I could see the change that I did.  I do not think I saw that until I closed all files and reopened it.  Got me!

I am going to study what you did and print out this entire thread.

The lady in the blue in the center is my wife's mom who just turned 89.  My wife is on her left in the white and the other gals are her daughters.  Five girls and no boys!!!  Her poor dad!  🙂 Only one daughter had kids and guess what they were?  Three girls, no boys!!  

The picture was taken in Delaware on her 89th birthday.  She and one of the daughters are flying out here to Montana to visit her daughter (my wife) next week.  So, I have been struggling with making that picture look better for a frame as a present to my mother-in-law.

Thank you smadell and NotMyFault!  I have learned a lot!

-paul w

[smadell]

If these ladies are all family, then by all means take your time and get it right. Not only will you score big points with your wife (a feat never to be trivialized!) but it may well be one of the last photos of your mother-in-law, and of all her family together. Framing the photo for your mother-in-law is a really nice gift. Such a nice boy!!

By the way, the "extra" White Balance layer was there when I opened it. You must have added it at some point.

I'm so glad that this exercise went well. I think the photo will look better, and that's no small accomplishment since it started as a low contrast and low resolution image.

[PaulWilliamson]

Thank you!

I turned off the WB layer and see no difference.

Just my thought about my mother-in-law.  She is so alert for 89!  I may never see her again.

I have a friend who is a professional photographer and videographer (almost all outdoor stuff and some home show stuff).  I told him about AP and he said his tip is to get the photo right the first time!  He only uses Lightroom occasionally.  Mostly for categorizing his work.

By the way, I never did see the white paint when I was using it.  I am going to have to retrace my steps.  I know I have had this problem with AD a few times before but mostly it was dumb stuff like not selecting the correct layer.

-paul w

[smadell]

"Get it right in camera" is wonderful in theory, but even professional photographers end up doing some photo editing after the fact. The rest of us mere mortals count on an application like AP to help smooth over our ionadequacies. I agree that taking a photo and saying beforehand, "Oh, I'll just fix that in post" might not be the best approach; sometimes, though, it's all we've got. I'll go out on a limb and bet that your mother-in-law and her 5 daughters were not posing for a professional photographer who could take his time and used multiple light sources, etc. I'm guessing that one of them said, "Hey, everyone. Come over here so Paul can take a picture..." or something like that. That kind of picture will always benefit from editing.

As to "seeing the white paint," when you're painting on a mask you won't ever "see" the white paint unless you're looking at the mask in Isolation mode (option-clicking on the mask thumbnail). Because it's not really white paint in the traditional sense; it's a greyscale representation of what is opaque and what is transparent. What you'll see when you paint in black or white on a mask is that parts of a layer will disappear or appear (respectively) as you're brushing.

[PaulWilliamson]

No I wasn't there but safe home alone in Montana with my two dogs and no mask 🙂  Since all of the family was there, and I doubt the local brother-in-law went with them to the museum or whatever the place was that the picture was taken at, they must have asked a tourist to take a picture using one of their phones.  

I know what you mean by looking at the mask thumbnail.  I did see that sometimes (when I was probably doing something right!).  But I need to watch your video of the flower again in slow motion because clearly I saw the discoloration of the flower.  And study the histogram.

Thanks so much!

-paulw