Before
After
This job was the result of a Herff Jones prototype ring not matching the final production spec. We had already photographed the prototype to include in the annual high school catalogs and were short on time, so I needed to change the finish on the top panel from what we call "antiqued" (the black background finish) to a natural gold finish. As you can see from the layer names below, it took more than one try to nail the look.
The first step was simply to duplicate the original and perform a number of minor touchups: dust and scratch removal and minor color adjustments. Following that was the usual cutout mask, and then I embarked on adjusting the top panel. First I duplicated my touchup version and painted the dark areas of the panel with a lowlight gold/brown color, and then used Levels to brighten them up. The result was far too saturated and red, so I added another hand-painted layer on top, sample from the ring itself and in Saturation blending mode. The last step was to create a soft shadow below the ring, and the end product is an image that we've used many times over the past five years.
