Rihanna Black and White restoration

[chitkaran]

Here's what I did today while sitting idle in office.

 

[ibclare]

Nice for a quick shot. No, nice anyway. I think the lips look a little too dense, hard to see any detail or roundness. I suggest lowering opacity or different blend mode or both. The face color is good but needs more variety of color, shades and tones, or it just looks kinda flat. The base is good; I'd like to see a little more pink, some taupe browns, that kind of thing, maybe even a warming layer adjustment. You can always use the layer mask on that to remove the warmth where you want it to be more cool. My suggestions. You picked a good subject to work on and the jeans could also use some color variation but they're darn near perfect.

 

[Inkz]

Everything Clare has said...

And look at your coloured version, her hair near her face is brown and the rest is black and grey lol.

Good effort

 

[Paul]

Nice effort mate, just need to remember less is always more, and watch those edges

 

[chitkaran]

Thanks for the replies guys.... here's an updated one with the minor changes... I have taken off the background for now..

 

[ibclare]

That's good. I still think the face lacks color variety and could use some color layers above set to color or soft light, etc, or using one of the gradient techniques. It looks washed out in the facial highlights, and still has a flatness from lack of detail. Could even use cloning (on a separate layer to be non-destructive) to move some color pixels over.

 

[jonnyfilmboy]

Looks good though she looks a bit light-skinned here and I'd not attribute it to slightly positive exposure which can change skin tone. I'd very slightly give her more color to her skin. But overall you did a good job!

 

[rufinatti]

very slick.

what masking techniques are you using for the fine stuff like the torn threads in her jeans and the chain around her neck? I'm trying to learn a bit.

thanks.

 

[chitkaran]

very slick.

what masking techniques are you using for the fine stuff like the torn threads in her jeans and the chain around her neck? I'm trying to learn a bit.

thanks.

Thanks Mate...

For the torn threads on the jeans... I Zooooomed-In and used a fine hair brush and painted white color on top. Then blended the layer into the original image.

For the jewellery around her neck... same technique used and painted a yellowish golden color using soft round brush on a new layer following the jewellery lines.. and then blended the layer to give effect.. lowered the opacity to match the lighting of the image.

The white stones in the chain were done similar way.

 

[rufinatti]

Thanks Mate...

For the torn threads on the jeans... I Zooooomed-In and used a fine hair brush and painted white color on top. Then blended the layer into the original image.

For the jewellery around her neck... same technique used and painted a yellowish golden color using soft round brush on a new layer following the jewellery lines.. and then blended the layer to give effect.. lowered the opacity to match the lighting of the image.

The white stones in the chain were done similar way.

Thanks for your response.

I guess sometimes the direct approach is easier. I'm always trying to mask things off so I can't paint outside the lines; but masking is so difficult (well, I'm new). I guess in this case, a steady hand and just going for it has yielded great results.

 

[chitkaran]

An updated version.



comments/suggestions please

 

[Jessicayla]

Looks pretty good. The only thing I see is that the outline on her bottom lip is a little too sharp, might need to blend that in.
Just a personal preference, but I think her skin needs to be darker since it's not that light in real life. Example.