Western Railroad Discussion > Turning back the hands of time - Thanks, PS!

With the washed-out, trashed-looking locomotive paint jobs of once proud images running around today, or just plain DIRT, one wishes they could get some detail time with some soap, touch-up paint and wax to bring out their best. Thanks to Photoshop, we can do so vicariously. This northbound DENGRF at North Yard in Fort Collins, CO yesterday had a Warbonnet leading with remarkably well-kept Santa Fe lettering on the side. For the rest of the motor, time to do "actual pixels" and beyond, and borrow some nice-looking color and piece it into places where it is not so nice.

Photo 1 - Before, the "honest" photo.

Photo 2 - After, the "dishonest" corrected photo. Looks like at least a decade ago if not for the newer CSX scheme!

Just playing hookey from my chores today for a while... === === = === JLH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/14 21:49 by highgreengraphics.

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Uncle Cyrus would be proud of ya!

;^)

And you guys call that photography!

Too much time in the darkroom, dodging and burning, and those stinky chemicals... === === = === JLH

Well done!

Cheers,
Jack

Remove that tiny little patch and call it good :]

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

Okay...I resisted doing that because it would not fit the time frame of the CSX paint job behind it, but here it is sans sublettering. === === = === JLH

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Nice job, looks good, that took some time.
JB

highgreengraphics Wrote:

> Okay...I resisted doing that because it would not
> fit the time frame of the CSX paint job behind it,
> but here it is sans sublettering.

No problem - your next Photoshop challenge is to repaint the CSX unit to "bright future." ;^)

Seriously though, what was your technique in Photoshop to liven up the red on the Santa Fe unit?

Now can you paint it orange?

GDRVVF
-John

Photo One is a true representation of what is happening. No. 2 is truly "dishonest." You do get an A-plus in the use of Photoshop in this experiment. Thank you.

Well, I only have Elements, not the fancy uber-expensive version CS, and though I have raw copies of everything, I am not good enough to do much with those, so this is JPEG. I just use a mouse, I don't have a pen tablet. I do have a photo-editing screen, don't try to edit on a laptop! The entire nose color started with the battery box, just spread it around until it is all the same. I enlarge to "actual pixels" or beyond to get the corners and edges. Blend in any aberrations in the smoothness of the paint. Then adjust lighting, hue, contrast and saturation until it looks right on just the nose and the entire photo. I always seem to get lime-green buildup in foliage and purple shadows, and old trucks either black or silver have a red buildup, selecting these separately and subtracting saturation stomps out those problems. On these Santa Fe-lettered motors, if the side lettering is screwed up or too badly faded, not much can be done as the lettering sits behind the handrails where you can't do much with it. Basically, it just takes time, patience and some practice. It's a bit like modeling on a flat plane! === === = === JLH

Highgreen -Wow, that is a lot of work in PSE. Good job. Had to take a long time to do that.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO