Any picture which has been affected by a light leak or stain usually has two problems
1) The luminosity changes (fading)
2) The colours change (very often turning red or orange)
These marks will be different for every picture so I will try to describe more general methods that should work for most light leaks.
This tutorial was written in PS7 however it should easily translate to CS. [details (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=304)]

Ken, What a great way to start the new year by learning something new from your wonderful tutorial!. Thank you so much!

Great explanation there Ken

Thanks Ken, Great Job!!

Ken, excellent tutorial and really well documented!
Best wishes for a wonderful 2008.
Regards, Murray

Ken, thanks for the great tutorial. I’ll definitely be using this often.

VERY nice tutorial!

Clearly written, and it works - excellent! This should really help a lot of folks with a very common problem.

Terrific tutorial Ken.

Clearly explained with the level of detail that everyone should find helpful.

This is just outstanding. Thank you so much. I can't wait to start going through it myself. Again, much appreciated.

Bill

Great Tutorial thanks for sharing!

Thanks for a great tutorial. I have learned enough to fix a few pictures already. On a particularly bad picture I have to do the whole process described. I am having trouble on step 2a, restoring the color. I have the luminosity repaired and the image is in b&w. Whenever I drag 'background copy' or the original image to the top of the stack it doesn't reflect the changes made in steps 1d-1h. Is there a hidden trick I am missing? IT took me forever to figure out to press ctrl+alt+shift+E to actually get the b&w image in the blank layer so you can actually do step 1g and 1h... Thanks again for a great resourse.

I think the problem I am having is really two fold. #1 when you 'stamp visible' on the blank layer to get the b&w image layer to sharpen/rotate it freezes the changes and wont reflect new changes...I think it may need to be on a different mode... #2 the color overlay has so much red still...even though the red channel was discarded...maybe the luminosity isn't as good as it looks in b&w...Ken, you make it look so easy..I'll keep working here...

Hi Peto.

Thank You. And welcome to Retouch Pro.

I am having trouble on step 2a, restoring the color
Whenever I drag 'background copy' or the original image to the top of the stack it doesn't reflect the changes made in steps 1d-1h

I see the problem.

The tutorial says
Step 2a)
Drag a copy of the original picture to the top of the stack and set blending mode to colour

This is wrong.:dizzy:

Step 2a) should read
Drag a copy of the layer we created by steps 1a, 1b and 1c (ie. Background Copy 2) to the top of the stack and set blending mode to colour

I have amended the tutorial and added an extra picture to clarify this. It also shows how to change the blending mode to color.

Thanks for spotting the error, Peto.

Ken.