Example 2: Faded Glory
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(right click and use your browser's menu to save a larger a version of either image) |
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Sooner or later,
each of us is asked to try our Midas touch on the golden oldie that is not so
golden anymore.
This particular image shows the cyan cast associated with older prints and Kodachrome images. This tint is due to the fact that the magenta and yellow dyes are chemically less stable than the cyan dye.
Overall, the image lacks contrast, probably due to a combination of the optics of the original camera and fading.
The source of these problems is not really important. Fixing them is.
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In this case, no direct curve work is needed. Setting shadow, highlight, and a single neutral, as per the wizard, works wonders in RGB mode. The only tricky part is selecting a suitable neutral. For that we count on the dapper man on the right wearing a white shirt. The gray building in the background is also an acceptable neutral. |
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The resulting RGB curves are shown here. Note the rather ruthless clipping of shadow detail, particularly in the green and blue channels. This data comes from the lens vignetting in the lower corners of the image. This is not true shadow detail, and shows the danger of blind reliance on the histogram. Download this curve and try it out for yourself in Photoshop. |
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Of the glories of Photoshop, few are grander than the ability to repeat the same operation on multiple images. And unlike King Midas, you are not afflicted by a lack of the undo command. The images on the right were from the same roll as the example image above, with the curve we used above re-applied. In Curvemeister this is done by pressing ctrl-F. Not bad, considering that the curves were designed originally for an entirely different image. Each of these image shows substantial improvement, removal of the blue cast and perking up contrast, all leveraged from the work done on the first image. As an exercise, right click on one or more of the images in the left column, use your browser to save the image to your hard drive, and use curvemeister (or Photoshop alone) to set your own shadow, highlight, and neutral to get an even better result. The last image does not do at all well with the curve I created in this example. My guess is the scanner software automatically, and incorrectly, tweaked the colors - see what you can do with it and I will add your results to this web page. |
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Left as an exercise for you, the reader! |
