Posted by Lon Overacker on January 21, 2017 at 4:40 PM
Looking for some processing help/suggestions. Here is a photo of my father. He has dementia and lives in a Memory Care facility. My sister took this image while visiting recently. I LOVE this picture of my Dad and want to print/send to siblings.
I already have thoughts about some Orton type processing, vignette, etc., even b&w.
Here's my question. His right hand is blown/washed out. I don't mind that it's blurry because it shows the motion of stroking the ukulele. What would you do to either tone down the brightness, or perhaps creatively fill that in with something? I've looked for photos where I could clone his hand in from another image. Burning, curves/levels and even TK's Triple play don't do much, except make it worse, because there's really no data in that spot.
Any ideas? Feel free to grab the image (if you can?) or I can send a copy if you're willing to take a shot at it.
Thanks in advance!
Posted by Max Waugh on January 21, 2017 at 6:03 PM
Lon, my first attempt would likely involve the cloning brush and some content-aware fill to try and bring in some of the medium (non-blown out) flesh tones. But, more likely than not, that would result in a medium monotone patch rather than a bright one, which isn't going to look much better. So the next step would be to attempt to add some subtle variety in skin tones to emulate the type of changing light you might get on a contoured surface like a hand. Basically, you'd be painting that area in.
I think it would be pretty difficult to pull off with any sense of realism, but the only plus side is the hand is obviously blurred, so being able to do it without requiring real sharp details would be possible.
The only other potential option would be what you mentioned, cloning in a hand from another shot.
Lon, I think you might be able to clone small bits at a time from the other hand. You'd get the same skin tone and lines, and - as Max points out - it will be blurred anyway.
Good luck!
A beautiful image - cherish it and the time with him. My father is in the same circumstances.
Sandy
Posted by Keith Bauer on January 21, 2017 at 6:53 PM
Lon:
Attached to this message is a copy of the image that I worked. If you think this looks OK, I'd be happy to do the work on a higher res version. I largely removed the hot spot on the guitar and workd the hand. For the hand I used some low opacity clones, surface blur, and added a touch of noise to generate texture on the back of the hand. Then a clipped curves layer to help try to match overall tonality.
Lon, this is truly a wonderful photo of your father. For me it is just great to see your father here once again after all this time. I think the last time in person was at the gathering in Westlake / Thousand Oaks years back now. He actually looks in excellent shape in this photo. Of course having my own father experience this same illness and decline looks can be deceiving.
I think the offered variety of ideas for repair here are all worthy approaches and some times it takes some real trial and error to find the best look in the end. Not sure I saw a multiply approach listed. I do that at times to see if the pixel increase / density makes a better starting base. Keith's look here is pretty good and maybe some color painting might finish things off. Anyway, good luck with the finished product.
Posted by Lon Overacker on January 22, 2017 at 12:12 PM
Thanks Max, Keith and everyone! Keith, yours looks about as good as what I was able to come up with. I did end up with some combo of cloning, levels and sat adjustments. As it turns out, I cloned in with a low opacity from his head; that brought in some texture and color/sat. I also cloned the one area that did have some texture/variation by his thumb to try and distinguish some resemblance of other fingers. In the end, motion blur pretty much dictated the end result. I thought about cloning out the hot spot on the ukulele, but never got around to it.
Thanks Paul for remembering. That was 2009 I believe. It was less than a year later where Dad fell and suffered the brain injury, which started it all. Sadly and ironically, my wife's mother was in attendance and she too now suffers from Alzheimers and right now fighting for her life with pneumonia. All part of the cycle of life I guess, which is why we all cherish moments like these.
Oh, also, did some enhancements to the photo including some burning around the edges for some vignetting. But the big adjustment was a technique I've been using lately. First, I duplicate the image and flatten the duplicate. Change the color mode to LAB, add a curves layer and manipulate the a and b channels. Essentially significantly compressing the two channels. the a channel in LAB mode modifies the green>magenta and the b channel modifies the blue-yellow. This basically adds a ton of color without affecting luminosity (hence the LAB mode) When done modifying the duplicate image, I move the bg layer of the duplicated image back to the original image, placing it on the stack just above the original background layer. The colors are overboard, but you simply find an appropriate blending mode, lower opacity to taste and do any masking, whatever from there. I've found the blending modes that work best are: Color, Saturation, Normal, Overlay and Soft Light. Each having slightly different effects. Similar results as perhaps the Orton technique.
Lon, looks like a good repair there. The hotspot I would just loop with the lasso and do a CA on. I think it would take that out without any further issues.....
Really sorry to hear about your mother-in-law too. I do recall meeting her also back then. My father died from Alazhemier at 86 and he actually looked like he was in his mid 70's as he never had any real physical aliments to speak of. Doctors have done amazing work to keep our bodies going, they just need to figure out how to keep our brains working as well......
Posted by Lon Overacker on January 23, 2017 at 3:48 PM
Discussion
8 repliesI already have thoughts about some Orton type processing, vignette, etc., even b&w.
Here's my question. His right hand is blown/washed out. I don't mind that it's blurry because it shows the motion of stroking the ukulele. What would you do to either tone down the brightness, or perhaps creatively fill that in with something? I've looked for photos where I could clone his hand in from another image. Burning, curves/levels and even TK's Triple play don't do much, except make it worse, because there's really no data in that spot.
Any ideas? Feel free to grab the image (if you can?) or I can send a copy if you're willing to take a shot at it.
Thanks in advance!
I think it would be pretty difficult to pull off with any sense of realism, but the only plus side is the hand is obviously blurred, so being able to do it without requiring real sharp details would be possible.
The only other potential option would be what you mentioned, cloning in a hand from another shot.
Max
Good luck!
A beautiful image - cherish it and the time with him. My father is in the same circumstances.
Sandy
Attached to this message is a copy of the image that I worked. If you think this looks OK, I'd be happy to do the work on a higher res version. I largely removed the hot spot on the guitar and workd the hand. For the hand I used some low opacity clones, surface blur, and added a touch of noise to generate texture on the back of the hand. Then a clipped curves layer to help try to match overall tonality.
See what you think. Happy to help out.
Maybe a little pinker to match the skin tones of the other hand?
Sandy
I think the offered variety of ideas for repair here are all worthy approaches and some times it takes some real trial and error to find the best look in the end. Not sure I saw a multiply approach listed. I do that at times to see if the pixel increase / density makes a better starting base. Keith's look here is pretty good and maybe some color painting might finish things off. Anyway, good luck with the finished product.
Thanks Paul for remembering. That was 2009 I believe. It was less than a year later where Dad fell and suffered the brain injury, which started it all. Sadly and ironically, my wife's mother was in attendance and she too now suffers from Alzheimers and right now fighting for her life with pneumonia. All part of the cycle of life I guess, which is why we all cherish moments like these.
Oh, also, did some enhancements to the photo including some burning around the edges for some vignetting. But the big adjustment was a technique I've been using lately. First, I duplicate the image and flatten the duplicate. Change the color mode to LAB, add a curves layer and manipulate the a and b channels. Essentially significantly compressing the two channels. the a channel in LAB mode modifies the green>magenta and the b channel modifies the blue-yellow. This basically adds a ton of color without affecting luminosity (hence the LAB mode) When done modifying the duplicate image, I move the bg layer of the duplicated image back to the original image, placing it on the stack just above the original background layer. The colors are overboard, but you simply find an appropriate blending mode, lower opacity to taste and do any masking, whatever from there. I've found the blending modes that work best are: Color, Saturation, Normal, Overlay and Soft Light. Each having slightly different effects. Similar results as perhaps the Orton technique.
Really sorry to hear about your mother-in-law too. I do recall meeting her also back then. My father died from Alazhemier at 86 and he actually looked like he was in his mid 70's as he never had any real physical aliments to speak of. Doctors have done amazing work to keep our bodies going, they just need to figure out how to keep our brains working as well......