Can these old, irreplaceable photos be saved?

[Calibun]

These are way back when I first got my DSLR and I didn't quite nail the color balance. I have tried every which way to fix the color and some other issues to no avail. I already lost my dog's "puppy puppy" (6-14 wks) photos and these are all I have left of his teen stages.

Any tips to save them? These are the resized versions but thankfully I am a total hoarder and I still have the fullsize, original JPEG's which I can post as well! I have never really done much post-processing (I try to get as correct color and exposure on the photo itself) but looking back through old photos these are pretty bad but all I have.

 

[Calibun]

Whoops. Meant to post this in the graphic programs/photo gallery area. I'll report it to have it moved!

 

[Ysarex]

They are too blue, too dark, and too low in contrast. Make them less blue, less dark and raise the contrast.

Joe

 

[Calibun]

I sadly don't have the higher end programs so I am working between the free ones- GIMP, Picasa, FireAlpaca(for finer edits with my tablet), etc. I tried what you suggested. Actually I think it came out well..

How does it look to anyone else? more improvements to be made? Too light now? I'm having trouble preserving his color as the deeper red rust he was.

 

[manaheim]

You went too yellow.

 

[Calibun]

Is this one better?

Edit/ looking back maybe its too saturated. let me take another stab here...



I almost replicated the above edit but cant get the colors to match exactly. Would the following one still be falling within the acceptable ranges?


Ignore the bottom attachment, can't seem to figure out how to get rid of it.

 

[amolitor]

GIMP is fine, don't let the fact that it's free fool you into thinking it's no good. It has some weaknesses and limitations, but you have to be pretty sophisticated to start running up against them.

You're definitely getting the hang of it, keep it up!

Remember that less is more. If it looks about right to your eye after working on it for a bit, back everything off 20 percent, and it'll look right to everyone else too!

 

[Calibun]

That's probably good advice with the 20% I tried it out on family and it helped hah!

Is there a way to do color-correction in a photo where there is both too much blue (shadows) and too much yellow (sun) in the same photo?
Like this?

 

[manaheim]

Colors are still way out of whack. Is your monitor calibrated?

 

[Josh66]

There is white, black, and probably something grey in that photo - so even in GIMP it would only take a few clicks to correct it.

I would show you, but I just started a game and don't want to open GIMP while it's running...

 

[Josh66]

Not perfect, but the colors look more natural to me.

 

[bratkinson]

I don't know if GIMP has a white balance tool like that in Lightroom, but if it does, use what I frequently do...set the white balance to something white in the picture (the screen door and the car come to mind), then 'touch it up' from there. Only VERY MINOR touch up will be needed. In the sequence of pictures at the back door, then use the settings from the one you got 'just right' and copy/paste/manually insert the WB settings into each of the other pictures shot at the back door.

 

[Josh66]

I don't know if GIMP has a white balance tool like that in Lightroom, but if it does, use what I frequently do...set the white balance to something white in the picture (the screen door and the car come to mind), then 'touch it up' from there. Only VERY MINOR touch up will be needed. In the sequence of pictures at the back door, then use the settings from the one you got 'just right' and copy/paste/manually insert the WB settings into each of the other pictures shot at the back door.

GIMP doesn't make it as easy as Lightroom, but it is possible. There is an "auto white balance" that sometimes works - I've found it to be a little picky though. In the levels adjustment window, there are droppers for white, black, and grey. Provided those colors/tones are in the picture somewhere, it works pretty good.

 

[Calibun]

Thanks everyone!

My monitor hadn't been calibrated. I did calibrate it just now however and it appears to be fine color-wise. I took some new photos this morning for some stuff I was selling. I wanted them to be a little on the "warm" side. Color wise they appear just a little warm on my monitor, but how does it look to everyone else? Do I need to re-calibrate? The photos came out with quite a bit of glare on the glass but I'm already fervently googling for a way to work on that.