Ask The Retoucher #54 - Siding and Retouching Fix Up

Ye Old Copy Shot

Old Fashioned Loupe

Distortion With Warp

Use photo loop tool to examine the quality of the grain of a photo. If there is good detail, you will be able to retouch photo successfully.

Straighten and crop the photo.

Clean up the photo using the Clone Stamp tool and the Healing Brush.

To replace large areas of the house siding, clean up one portion of the siding to use as a sample.  Then use the Lasso Tool to “cut out” a sample, feathering the edge with a one pixel radius. Place it over areas of the siding that need replacement, using the distortion feature and adjusting capacity to fit it into the surrounding area.

Use a Layer Mask as necessary to improve the look of the siding.

Pasting in the new siding

Adding a person into a photo with other people

Most important factors to consider when adding a person into a photo are:
element of focus, grain, lighting and perspective.

Hard edges make it look fake

On the sample picture, the element of focus is very good (similar to others in the photo), and the grain also matches.  The person also has the same perspective.

However, there is an issue with the angle of the lighting on the added person. To fix this, use the Burn Tool to adjust the shadows around the person’s arm and shoulders.

The contrast is also a little off, compared to the others in the photo.  Build a Path along the person and use Curves Adjustment layer to adjust the contrast.

Also the person adjacent to the added person needs to have his hair “repaired.” Use the Lasso Tool to replace the piece that was chipped away by the added person.

A selection makes it easier to darken

 the edge

A lot of this work requires us to go back and forth between the retouched and un-retouched. Since the photo was already done, I’m just showing you how to improve it.

Please send your questions and problem photos, your location—and genealogical society affiliation if appropriate—to Eric for future "Ask The Retoucher" columns. Visit Photo Grafix online for more information.

Eric runs Photo Grafix, a humble photo-retouching studio in Evanston, Illinois (USA), making photo illustrations and improving photos for hundreds of people and companies worldwide. If he doesn't know the answer, he won't rest until he finds it. Eric Basir is at your service: With each "Ask The Retoucher" article, he'll help you successfully tackle your digital photographic problems. 

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