color adjustment question

[mark532011]

Hi everyone. I have a question about the best way to do color corrections. I have a 1965 pinball machine and the plastics on the playfield have faded, it looks like the red faded out a bit more than everything else, though pure red areas are still red. I tried just making it warmer and playing with the hue a bit but I don't seem to be getting close. Looking at a reference image the face is a lot more pink but the whites are white.

Its a relatively simple colored set of images (originally silkscreened onto the plastic) and I thought I could probably select areas by color and individually adjust, but I have 10 of these graphics to do, is there an easier way?

reference pic:    

scan of my plastic:    

[PixLab]

Many ways to bump your colors/change them without selection,

Colors ➤ Auto ➤ White Balance,
if you're not happy Ctrl+Z (undo)

Colors ➤ Hue-Saturation select each color on that Hue saturation window then play with lightness and saturation only (use the hue slider only if needed, and with lot of care) , if artifacts appear, just add the Overlap slider
Fine tune at the end with the Master button (all colors)

   

Colors ➤ Levels, pick a white or pick a black, click with those button on the screenshot then pick a white if used white button, black for black button
You might want to "straighten" with the 2 cursors once you picked a color, check each Channel for fine tuning (click on Value a drop down menu appear select "Red" or "Green" or Blue"

   

Colors ➤ Curves, you need an understanding of opposite colors (a bit like Levels above), for example I did a simple "S" curve on the blue channel ➤ Increasing the yellow "visibility" in the dark/shadow and increasing the blue in the light/clear part (careful ➤ I'm not adding yellow on the bottom of the "S" curve, I'm just "removing" some blue, thus making yellows more prominent)

   

For reference: Opposite of red is cyan, opposite of green is magenta, opposite of blue is yellow (if you forget this, just open the Hue-saturation to have a look at the colors' icons on the Hue-Saturation window, indeed they are in that order )

   

[sallyanne]

Another way is to bump your contrast up a little, makes the darker colors darker and the lighter colours brighter

[rich2005]

Another quick way is Colours -> Exposure

   

[denzjos]

Another solution is the 'Tools / GEGL Operation'  
   
   

[mark532011]

thanks guys, I will play around with these and see if I can get something I like!
Mark

[mark532011]

thanks for the help. I used pretty much everything and I was able to get where I wanted to go with the plastics.