Cleaning up a weathered bench

[Hilary]

During the session there was a bit of concern over this bench appearing a little weathered and dirty. I used a layer on colour mode and painted a bit of good colour back onto some of the greyest parts - is there anything to be done with the areas that look dirty? Thanks!

[Damien Symonds]

Yes, I'm quite confident I can help with this, to a degree at least.  Go ahead and do your raw processing as usual, then post the photo again and we'll talk about the Photoshop part.

[Hilary]

That is with my raw processing done - what is incorrect?

[Damien Symonds]

Please read over Modules 5 and 6 of the Raw Class again.

[Hilary]

I think the deluxe class is in my future. For now, hopefully this has corrected the issue enough? I can get another crop of the bench if this will suffice.

[Damien Symonds]

So, I was going to suggest a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, with these values:

• Red +100, 0, 0, 0
• Green +100, 0, 0, -25
• Blue +100, 0, 0, -45

Then masked VERY carefully to the whole chair.  You'll definitely need this.

[Hilary]

Here's my start at it, before I go on to the whole bench. Look okay to you?

[Damien Symonds]

Yes, that's looking how I expected.  I suggest you move to the actual seat part of the chair next, that's where you'll see the most change. Let me know if you like it.

[Hilary]

I still need to fine-tune the masking, but overall I am very happy with it!! Thanks so much Damien. I think my client will be happy too - or I suppose they won't actually notice that I did anything, and just think their old bench doesn't look too bad after all  

[Damien Symonds]

Chair looks good.  Skin does NOT.  Some nasty clipping there.

53 minutes ago, Hilary said:

I think the deluxe class is in my future.

Yes, you're on the waiting list.  I'll contact you when your opportunity arrives.

[Hilary]

I think I know why...I put the new raw file in my previous PSD wondering if my levels layers would still work with the new raw. Not so much, yikes. Starting from scratch!