Very new to PS, more expeience in AI, but neighbour asked if I could do anything with this photo.

I have read all there is to read on light leaks and colour casts but still find it very difficult to do anything with this picture. I have managed to get rid of some of the colour cast (leak) but when trying to do the layer mask as one of the examples on the forum has stated I lost the thread a bit as the leak is right in the middle of the picture.

I would really appreciate some comments on this picture in a way that a newbie to PS can follow. I know I am asking alot but this picture is very important to my neighbour as it was on her only sons graduation into the Brittish Royal Navy. Using PS CS.

Browsing this forum I have found it very enlighting on what one can do with PS with knowledge. Still trying to find this knowledge and get it to stick in my brain.

Hi albacore,

Welcome to RP! :pleased:

I've tried improving your picture .... (I tried everything I could think of...) but, unfortunately, I couldn't get an acceptable result ... not event converting to B&W for colorizing afterwards .... . After removing the red of the light leak, the faces of the boy but particularly his father(?) just didn't have enough detail I could work on ... Sorry .... :sad:

Flora as she has done many times has had a shot at repairing the problem and made some suggestions and basically stated that the easiest solution would be convert it to B/W. By the time that this email came through I had came to this solution myself and had told my neibour she could get only in B/W.

At the same time I had also joined the "PhotoShop Deesigner" network and received an email pointing me to this tutorial which I think may help alot of people who are retouching and restoring old photos. The only thing I want to add to this tutorial is that after the marque to select a "New Ajustment Layer" which is not that clear in the tutorial.
http://www.photorestorationtutorials.com/tutz/restut1eivlskdfjwoijslkje.htm

I would strongly recommend anyone who uses this site to also consider joining this network and look at what they are offering.

I've tried with Safari and Explorer to get there but can't. Sounds interesting!
kiska

That's a pretty standard technique (masked Curves adjustment layer, for those who haven't been able to follow the link) but he/she does explain it very well.

Received an email stating that you had problems viewing the tutorial so I looked on the forum to find that the url had not pasted well as it may be too long. If you type in the start as given in my last post followed by photorestorationtutorials.com/tutz/restut2eijglkjweroisjdflwkjo.htm that will take you to the correct tutorial.

Leah is correct, it is the standard curves adjustment using the marquee tool so it is no great magic tool that you can use. In my photo after converting it to B/W where the light had destroyed the photo it left a grey cast over the main part of the photo and I was able to remove this using that method. After doing that I only had the sailors body and face to deal with and using the healing brush and physically restoring other details I have got an acceptable picture.