Iris #1 - Unsharp Mask
Original ---- Enhanced

How I did it...

Using PSP8:  
1. General Comments:

The photograph is a bit dark. My objective was to lighten and sharpen it. Also, the top of Prof's head has some hair that is out of place. And, the light spots on the bench are a bit bright and need to be softened.

The key techniques different from the first series include using the Smudge and Soften brush to smooth over some picture imperfections, particularly on the faces. This technique also softens the faces making them smoother.

In using the Smudge and Soften brush, as with many effects, a good approach is to zoom the picture which will review the imperfections. Then use very small values for size, hardness, and lower values for density and opacity. The technique is to 'dab' rather than 'drag' the brush which softens but does not eliminate color variations.

2. Picture Enhancement:

• Began first with the One Step fix Photo Fix which did a decent job in lightening it. However, I wanted to get it a bit lighter so started over and used the Histogram effect setting the high value to 165. The result was much better though there was still a red cast which I fixed later.

• Then, to remove prof's hair line at top of his head, I used the clone brush with hardness set to about 45. I zoomed the picture and worked carefully around Prof's hair line. I both dabbed and dragged. I also went around mom's hairline to soften it down a bit as well.

• For the light spots on the bench and to bring them back into more of the same bench color I used the clone, smudge and soften brushes mainly dabbing. I also used the sharpen brush when done to get a grain look in the wood.

• I zoomed the picture again and used the smudge brush with low values for size and hardness and slightly lower values for density and opacity. I worked the face being careful to leave the eyes alone to maintain a sharpness and not to smudge over the glasses.

• I worked on mom's face removing some imperfections in the forehead area, smoothed out the hair line there, and smoothed out some of the wrinkles. Then for mom's forearms I used the soften brush to smooth out those areas.

• Next I used Clarify at default values to get more definition in the shadowing and then the Unsharp Mask at very low values to get a sharper definition around the figures.

• I used the Auto Color Balance effect at default values and checked the Remove Color Cast button to begin getting a more natural skin tone.

• Finally, I used the Black and White points setting the desired color to a very light tan rather than light grey to get a bit more color into the faces. Also I checked Perserve Lightness.

  Note: Basically, the Black and White Points is a very powerful enhancement tool, though takes work and experience to use other than the default colors to change color tones in a picture. This tool is well worth time exploring it.

• This project took a little more than 1 hour. The smoothing of facial features took the longest as too much smudging or softening would blur the features.

-- Prof --