October 31, 2009
A very big thank you to this amazing young man who gave permission to use this photograph. Camera Settings for this photo: This original photo (and scan) is dull and flat with very soft focus. I want to change the clothes color - he would like to have khaki pants and a navy blue t-shirt. I also want to boost the contrast in the image, sharpen the image, and get rid of the orange reflections on the wall behind him. I begin by duplicating the image (CTRL-J) in Photoshop (renamed Background Copy), and open the Levels Adjustment Layer (Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer at bottom of Layers Palette). The Histogram shows that the Blacks don't go all the way to the left, so I slide the arrow in the where the Darks on the Histogram are. The Whites are actually ALL the way to the right, and I don't move the white arrow at all. This increases the contrast of lights and darks in the image quite nicely. I add a Curves Adjustment Layer and in the Curves graph, I click on the center point of the graph line to anchor the center point. I click and hold on the line halfway towards the bottom end of the line and very slightly drag the line until I get a very slight "S" curve. This noticeably boosts the contrast in the image even more. To sharpen this image, I will use "High Pass Sharpen". I like the look it gives images. I clicked on the Background Copy Layer, then clicked on Filter->Other->High Pass. When the dialog box opens I set the Radius (in this case, to 12). I change the Layer Blending Mode (at top of the Layers Palette where it says "Normal"), to Soft Light. I like the way this looks, but if the effect is too strong when you try this, just adjust the Opacity (top right of Layers Palette) of the layer until you get the look the way you like it. I merge the layers into a composited image at the top of the stack (Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E), and renamed this layer "Composited Layer". With the Composited layer active, I select the Pen Tool (P) (but you can use any selection tool of your choice) and selected his t-shirt. Once it is all selected, I click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and using the Hue Slider, I slide it until I find the blues that I want. I narrow it down to a medium bright blue. This is WAY too bright, so using the Saturation Slider, I lower the Saturation Slider until I get a nice soft gray-blue. I add a new blank layer (Create New Layer icon at bottom of Layers Palette) and rename this layer "T-shirt Color". I click on my Foreground Color Swatch (at bottom of Tool Bar), and when the dialog box comes up, I slide the color slider to the dark blues, then choose a relatively dark black-blue about 3/4 of the way down, and 3/4 of the way to the right of the color chart. I select the Brush Tool (B), and I set the Mode in the Toolbar above the workspace to "Color". I then held down the ALT key and clicked and dragged the mask from the Hue/Saturation layer onto the new blank layer. This will enable me to paint ONLY the shirt, since this selection is only the shirt. I started painting the blue onto the shirt. After painting some of the blue, I changed the Layer Blending Mode to Multiply. (This was after a bit of "trial and error" - I tried several blending modes, deciding that Multiply was going to best give me what I wanted). By changing the Mode to Multiply, the blue color is no longer just "painted" on top of the shirt, but it now blends in with the shirt so that you can see the folds and creases in the shirt. I painted the entire shirt, then lowered the opacity to get a nice subdued Navy Blue color. Moving on to the pants, I selected the pants in the same way I selected the t-shirt. With this layer active, I select the Pen Tool (P) (but you can use any selection tool of your choice) and select his pants. Once the pants are all selected, I click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer, and using the Hue Slider, I slide it until I find the hue that I want. I would like a nice light khaki brown, but with this bright orange, I am not finding what I would like. I decide on the most subdued yellow - which actually looks almost like a gold color. This is a bit more bright than I want, so using the Saturation Slider, I lower the Saturation Slider until I get an almost khaki tan color. I add a new blank layer (Create New Layer icon at bottom of Layers Palette) and rename this layer "Pants Color", and I click on my Foreground Color Swatch (at bottom of Tool Bar), and when the dialog box comes up, I slide the color slider to the browns. I choose a relatively soft khaki tan color that is near the center 1/4th of the color chart. I select the Brush Tool (B), and I set the Mode in the Toolbar above the workspace to "Color". I then held down the ALT key and clicked and dragged the mask from the Pants Hue/Saturation layer onto the new blank layer. This will enable me to paint ONLY the pants, since this selection is only the pants. I started painting the tan onto the pants. After painting some of the some of the tan onto the pants, I changed the Layer Blending Mode to Hue. (Again - this was after a bit of "trial and error" - I tried several blending modes, deciding that Hue was going to best give me what I wanted). By changing the Mode to Hue, the tan color is no longer just "painted" on top of the pants, but it now blends in with the pants so that you can see the folds and creases in them. I painted the entire pants, deciding that the opacity of the layer was fine, but I adjusted the "Lightness" in the pants Hue/Saturation Layer, lightening the tan color to get exactly the khaki color I was looking for. Once again, I merged the layers into a composited layer at the top of the stack by using Shift->Ctrl->Alt_E. I zoom in on the image and go all around the edges of both the shirt and the pants to make sure that there is no orange "edge" left anywhere. I find a few spots where I can still see the orange, and using the Clone Stamp Tool (S), I clone these areas, being careful that I am not extending the shirt or pants onto the background where there is actually orange being reflected. I also check other areas, such as skin, to make sure there are no areas of strongly reflected orange. There are several such areas - hands, arms and neck area - and I will use a Selective Color Adjustment Layer (Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at bottom of Layer's Palette) to adjust the skin tone. Using the Pen Tool (P), I select the arms, hands and face/head. I select the Selective Color Adjustment Layer - when the dialog box opens, the reds are showing - I put -60 into the Magenta, and -20 into the Yellow. This will turn the selected areas quite Yellow. The mask on the Selective Color Layer is Black. Making sure my Foreground Color is Black, I now hit Alt->Backspace, and this fills the selected areas with Black, hiding the Yellow. I set my Foreground Color to White, choose a medium slightly soft Brush (B), and set the opacity to about 30%, then I begin to "paint" over the skin areas to lessen the red/orange in the skin until I get the skin tone where I want it. Now, I want to lessen the effect of the orange reflected on the wall behind him. Once again, I will use a Selective Color Adjustment Layer. Using the Pen Tool (P), I select the background, then choose the Selective Color Adjustment Layer. I type the following adjustments into the "percentage" boxes:Reds: Magenta (-100) I am quite satisfied with these adjustments. I save my .psd file (as I always do) in case I might want/need to work on it again, then I "Save As" a copy into a jpeg file. I close my .psd, open the jpeg, duplicate the layer, sharpen it very slightly using HighPass Sharpen, flatten the image, and I am done.
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