Hi all! I have been working on the attached wedding picture off and on for about a month, but have been unable to come up with a satisfactory solution to the uneven fading. I've tried working with the channels, curves, layer masks, luminosity, replacing the background-everything in my limited repertoire! I'm hoping that the talented folks here can give me some guidance on the best course of action. Besides the obvious stain on the right side, the less defined fading on the left is giving me fits. I was hoping to give a restored version to my inlaws for their anniversary, but am just getting frustrated by my lack of success. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Franny

Franny,

To remove the "stains" I made a loose selection around the stains and applied a Levels Adj. Layer. I then used the healing brush to smooth out the resultant halo and a Clone Stamp tool set to 20% opacity to even out the background. I made selections of the faces and made Levels adjustments to them plus an empty layer set to Softlight Blend.

To finish I made a slight sepia tone and Smart Sharpened
k

First I took a look at the channels and found that the blue channel didn't have much of the stain pattern, so I made a copy of that channel and put it on a new layer. Then I created a levels adjustment layer, then masked out the parts of this layer that I didn't want. Went back to the blue channel layer and used the clone and healing brush to get rid of any leftover stains. When I was done I added a bit of sepia to the entire image.
Hope this helps!

Hi everybody,

mine was more a 'labour of love' kind of job .... I wasn't satisfied about the results I got trying to darken the faded parts, so I decided to 'fight fire with fire' in this case too .... I lighten the darker parts to minimize the spots ...

I used the Heal brush set to replace first and normal then on the background.

I used separate blank layers and Adjustment Layers to further correct, balance and enhance selected parts of the picture.

Thanks for the help! I am impressed with how quickly you all got such good results! I, like Flora, have been dissatisfied with the result of darkening the faded patches. Flora, your result is outstanding! I'm starting to think there is hope for this picture yet! At least I'm willing to give it another go. Thanks again!

Franny

As is my wont i was going to have a go until i got down to look at yours flora. Absolutely fantastic, and more than just a little cunning. Using the old reverse psychology on the light stains.
Job done i'd say so i'll pass on this one.....

one question here, flora (well done, btw), the lighting is overhead, casting fairly deep shadows across all of their lower faces. how would you brighten each up or would you do it across the boards?

Craig

Hi FrannyMae,

Copied Image to new layer, desaturated layer.

Did a selection round stained areas (one at a time), copied and pasted to new layers, applied levels to even out tone.

New layer, cloned out joins.

Flattened Image.

Selected faces (one at a time) copied to new layers, adjusted levels to up contrast and lighten a bit, applied graduated mask to even shadow out a little.

Flattened Image, and applied Neat Image.

Oops almost forgot, applied slight sepia tone.