Preserved Topic: Need some advise, help, wisdom .... (Page 1 of 1)

I been working away on this old image to practice my mediocre painting and airbrushing skills.

I have an aweful time getting the hairline and skin color to blend and no matter what I have tried sofar has worked - there always is that purple or burgundy tinch to it.

This is what I have done sofar :

Image is scanned at 600 dpi .. figured I can always reduce that later on... I know that is a little high.
Cleaned it using the channel mixer and levels and adjusted the curves.
I am in RGB mode with it. Using layers in color/or soft light mode for hair and face and so on.

this is a cross section of the problem area - the start and where I am with it at the moment




Any advise is appreciated or for that matter critiscm - and if I have to start from point zero ago cause I goofed somewhere that is cool too.

thank you....

sib

edit: Just noticed this is not the greatest example. If no good will put up another one... sigh :-(



[This message has been edited by sib (edited 01-12-2003).]

Sorry sib...

I'm all about helping if I can, but your problem isn't exactly clear right now. What seems to be the major issue, and where is it that the "painting" is going awry? I can't see what's "painted" at the moment, so the post is a little unclear.

Might not need to post another example, but just clarify your problem a bit, and what you're looking for as far as help and end result. Then we can deal with the processing

Peter

sib if its colorizing an old photo, there is a few links in the FAQ somewhere, i havent got time to dig em out now, but i am sure someone will point ya in the right direction, there has been some really useful threads dealing with this in the past...maybe DG,or DL or DB will remember who did it..

edit:Found it


Weedahs amazing black and white to colour photo tutorial

hope this helps


tom


[This message has been edited by tomeaglescz (edited 01-12-2003).]

Ah...see that's the problem..toss out the word "paint" and I don't think of layers anymore

Is it a fethering issue then sib? If your colour blocking seems too abrupt, then you can toy with the opacities and feathering of your brushes. Blends can be tough. Is it a colour issue?

Yep, still need a bit of info, but it's a tad clearer now.

If you are colorizing that photo, and trying to use the color blending mode, I would make sure you bottom layer, is desatureted first, so you don't get any weird results with softlight. You can alway replace any Sepia like effects later.


There might also be a problem with how you are apply the color, are you stopping you flesh midway through the hair with a feathered mask? You might what to try appling the skin tone to the face and hair, then create a new layre for just the hair.





jstuartj






[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 01-12-2003).]

Feathering that is it... just did this to show the purple more that I am getting.

sample ( shows up better on a white bg only 53k)
The images above ... the one with the yellow tint is the original.

checking on the link... must have missed that earlier when I was poking around.

I have the brush set at ....heck maybe 25 to 35 opacity should I go lower then ?
Another thing I am working in color mode on the layer maybe I should use normal and lower the opacity on the layer itself?

thanks guys !!

sib

edited to fix the USB code

[This message has been edited by sib (edited 01-12-2003).]

[This message has been edited by sib (edited 01-12-2003).]

must have posted at the same time ....

I am making a loose selection with the pentool and feathering that at 1px but that does not explain that purplish tint.

I don't think I desaturated the layer ... trying that right now !!

sib

See here's the thing:

Every photo has specific needs. Colourizing isn't quite a science, it needs certain touches.

Having said that, there's a general formula that I play with.

Desaturating your main photo layer is a MUST as jstuart mentioned. Any ambient hues will blend poorly and cause colour shift in areas. Make a copy of your original photo layer though, and lock the original so you don't destroy it. Now I work with the copied layer visible and unlocked. I usually adjust the curves, levels, and contrast to get a version of the photo that is more tonally contrasting. The subtle tone changes will stay on the original layer for later, but the copy should give you something a touch more stark so your guides in areas are more visible.

This makes everything a bit easier to work with (and keeps your eyes from bleeding as it can be a looooong process).

Now you're set to work on a color mode layer. Block out your colours first...don't worry, colouring outside the lines is legal..you clean it up later. It's a hell of a lot easier to work on this layer in "normal" mode at first..just lowering the opacity a touch to be able to see your guidelines on the pic underneath. Keep switching to color mode to see your progress and make sure your colour sats are even. Don't worry too much if you seem oversaturated at this point, just that your sats are in the same ballpark. You can reduce it all later.

Start refining your layer after the blocking by using finer brushes and lower opacities with your brushes. Brush in your shadows colours (cool colours..blues, purples...low opacities) and your warm, highlight areas (yellows, reds, oranges...low opacities again) so you get some variance. Skin isn't a flat colour..don't treat it that way. Use your smudge tool a bit...find a natural brush, something with a bit of grain in it. Lower the stroke amount and don subtle blends and smudges (SUBTLE DAMMIT!).

Hairlines can be a bitch...but a combination of soft brushes, low opacities, and smooth blends/smudges can help. Keep in mind that your colours will slowly fade into each other, but keep the plane of your blends along the hairline evenly. Don't think of the hair as a seperate entity from the head...it's flowing FROM the skin, so don't keep it blocked too sharply.

Refine even more...check your colour variance...freckles? Well get some sepia and red toning there...bags under the eyes? work the blues and yellows.

You're doing great by this point, and (aside from your saturations and colour tweaks) you should be moving into the home stretch. Feel free to work piece by piece now..breaking it down into sections like hairlines, wrinkles, eyes etc. etc. The big picture getting refined smaller and smaller.

Once you think you're done, tweak your saturations a bit..play with the hue...and even look at creating a duplicate of the color layer and setting it to multiply (or other overlaying modes) and then playing with that to enhance the colour tones. Now, make that copy of the original photo layer invisible, and see what your colours look like over the original. Tweak again..repeat..and you're good to go.

Soft brushes, natural chaos, and tweaking your opacities and amounts are your best friend when you're working on blends. Just keep that in mind, and it's go time. Working your brushes in modes is also a godsend. Multiplying at times with your brush on very low opacities will give the subtle touch that your eye is looking for. Highlights with screen or dodge are just the same. Subtelty is the key after blocking it all out.


Hope it helps...keep us updated.


Peter

Ok :-) Going for a clean start with this.

Really would like to get this just ... well ... close to perfect as I can.

Really appreciate the HELP..... :-)

sib

Just to keep you updated on this.... a far cry from being finished !!!
I have taken all the advise here to heart and I am pleased with what I have so far - like I said still have miles to go.
to keep things tidy here is the link:

http://home.golden.net/~cisco/h-sample4.jpg

I took the facial colors right into the hair like jstuartj suggested - still working on the hairline and the Hair for that matter - needs more highlights on the darker sides looks like a blob of color at times despite the fact I have at least - got to be oodles of colors in there - but it is coming along slowly.

I am a little bit at odds with the strokes for the smudging - guess practicing might be the key and shorter strokes have to play with it. In normal mode it looks a psychadelic nightmare or heaven :-)

Been also poking in at Michaels wip for reference on how to apply the colors and how to dap -gheez.

Only rough rough here .... and only to show the progress.

sib

Looking pretty good. I know you're still working on it, but thought I'd throw in a couple of thoughts on it - you can still tell that it is a colorized B&W as opposed to a color photo from the shadows on the face (well, obviously also from the parts that aren't colored yet, but...that's not the point =). The shaded areas on the face still come through as grey. What it needs, as DG mentioned, is to be shaded with a bit more color that actually represents the shadow as opposed to a flesh color that covers that shadow area.

Again, I know you're still working on it, just thought I'd add that.

DL - I appreciate the input.

I feel at times a little hesitant almost scared to apply to many different colors in case I scr... oops. Maybe I should throw caution out the window and just dab and smudge away.


sib

Yup

You can always go back to the original if you mess it up too bad

Save different versions along the way so you have options if you decide to revert back. Hard to go wrong that way.