90 year old photo

[CeDeEl]

It could be either a backdrop with a picture of a table and a fireplace on it, or it could simply be a wall.

[jimHere]

I too believe it's a canvas background. I just thought it was vignetted in a victorian artistic way. Anyway, if you mean it's lighter just behind the people, couldn't you mask them out, then curve the background darker (with a gradient added to the mask to fade it to the sides)?

If you mean the whole thing is too light from the center out, then just the gradient mask on the curves layer...

(I wish higher res images could be uploaded -- sometimes the jpg artifacts get in the way...)

[albatrosss]

Played around with curves and smudge. Also a little clone tool