Coffee stains on Photo

[Randy Rued]

I have a photo with coffee like stains on it. How can I get rid of it?

[Blacknight]

Toss it in the trash? Oh - maybe you mean the stains...ha!

There are those who would disagree, and it DOES depend on the photo and where the stains are, but the clone tool (or in Photoshop 7, the healing brush) has always been my first choice. Some say selecting the area and using hue/sat or finding which channel has the worst stain in it and substituting that channel with a copy of a clearer one works for them.

How about posting it here, and then we can better tell how to best approach it.

[jeaniesa]

Randy,

If you're able to post the photo, we can give you more specific feedback. (Just remember to make the file size under the 100KB limit before attaching.)

Is the photo color or B&W?

Jeanie

[Randy Rued]

Well here is the photo.
What do you think?

[Randy Rued]

Download this one instead.

[Doug Nelson]

Take a look at the red channel. The stain is barely visible there.

[jeaniesa]

I apologize for not giving you a warm welcome in my first post. So, here it is now: Welcome to RetouchPRO!!

Exactly what Doug said. Look at the red channel. I would delete the green and blue channels and only work on the red channel. It is still slightly visible, but it should be easy to fix that using either the healing brush (PS7) or cloning.

I'm not sure how much you already know about photo restoration/retouching or what application you're using, so if what I've said above doesn't make sense to you, please just say so and I'll add more details for you.

Jeanie

[Randy Rued]

Thanks. Red it is.

[Andrew B.]

Hi Randy,

Russel Brown offers a very effective stain removal method that works at the channel level, and uses the stain to reverse its own effect. The only hard part is selecting the stain, but after that the magic is a sight to behold.

The instructions came as a movie file on one of the Photoshop4 CDs. If you don't have this, there is also a PDF version. Use Google to search for "rbstains.pdf", and you should be able to find it. If this fails, let me know and I'll look around for my PDF copy.

[Randy Rued]

Thanks Andrew B.
I will get the rbstains.pdf.
Bye for now,
Randy

[T Paul]

I believe the link below will take you to Russel Brown's stain removal method:
Digital Stain Remover Tutorial File

[Mike]

Some times in our rush to impress ourselves and others with our skills at retouching, we miss a very simple solution. After getting a good copy image (either by scanning or by camera) life can be made simpler by the application of water. In other words, if the print will take it, you might try washing the print and see if the coffee or whatever will simply wash off.
Such a technique should just not be done everytime but used only on those prints that will stand the process and only after you have captured the image just in case!
If you can get rid of a great deal of the stain this way, then rescan and just work on the new, cleaner image.
Remember to be careful!
Mike

[pstewart]

Mike, yes, rinsing a picture in water generally won't harm it, since it was developed in a water-based bath in the first place. Long before Photoshop and digital retouching I learned to correct bad overall color in prints (too red or blue or yellow etc.) by simply soaking them for a minute in food coloring solutions. It worked great!

Don't know if an old old coffee stain like this one would come off easily though...but you never know!

Phyllis

[Randy Rued]

Thanks all. The red Channel is what did the work. Lots of Clone and Healing. Thanks all for the info.