Can anyone help me PLEASE!

[tawnidilly]

I have an old photo that was ripped and taped together. The picture is a scan. The photo is discolored and the tape stain runs right over faces. I can't get it right. I have already put 10 hours into this. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I am using Adobe Photoshop 7.0. You don't have to do the work, just please tell me how. I can do all the other work, I just cant seem to correct the tape stain.
Thanks,
Tawni

[Gary Richardson]

Your picture is a little small to work on.

Try to post an image of about 800x600 pix in size.

The max size image you can post is 100KB, yours is much below this.

Flora has written some instructions on posting Images to the forums Here

[mistermonday]

A larger image would be better to work with. However, in concept this is one approach I might take:
The tape marks are less pronounced in the Red channel than the others. I would make a copy of the red channel. Use curves and or the Clone tool to make the tape area the same lightness as the rest of the image. I would then apply the modified Red channel (in normal blend mode) to a copy of the background layer. Then change the blend mode of the layer to Luminosity. The goal is to lighten the damaged area to where it is roughly the same lightness as the undamaged portion of the image. Now add a blank layer set to Color blend mode and sample the undamaged areas and paint over the damaged ones.

[tawnidilly]

Thank you,
I have posted a larger picture.
Thanks again

[Swampy]

Good work, Mrmonday! Especially working on such a small image.

[Gary Richardson]

Had a quick go with your image.

First thing was to align the two halves of the image as they are not properly registered.

I did this by duplicating the pic, then used the extract tool to select the right hand section. Aligned things using the Move tool, then cleaned the join using a layer mask and some cloning.

New layer to clone out some of the blemishes.

Made a few "patches" and adjusted levels on them to minimise the darkening caused by the tape.

Not a complete job by any means, but hopefully gives you an idea of what could be done.

[tawnidilly]

Being new to this group, I can't tell you how grateful I am for all the help. This has been so frustrating. Thank you to all who have helped. you are WONDERFUL.
THANKS,
Tawnidilly

[tawnidilly]

Hi,
Thank you again for all your help. Here is what I have gotten to as far as basic restore. I have tried to create layers with just the tape stain and adjust the hue & saturation, curves, levels, color balance etc. I have also tried copying the best color channel and pasting it in the worst. I tried cloning and using facial features off others in the picture. All with no success. I am just learning how to use and manipulate layers. Im just learning Photoshop 7.0. I have used Adobe photodeluxe 4.0 to fix pictures thus far.
I appreciate all help and suggestions.
Thank you,
Tawnidilly

[Gary Richardson]

Looks good so far, you've obviously still got work to do, mostly on the eldest girls face and the young boy's (or is he a girl too?) face.

Because I was short of time I cheated with the boys face, I copied most of the right hand side of his face, then pasted it to a new layer. Did a horizontal flip with it, then manouvred it into position. A little cloning to hide the "joins", and a little Dodge & Burn to adjust the lighting.

Makes things easier, but at the cost of losing his/her true appearance. Alternative is some careful cloning, hard to tell what kind of result you may get with the original sized image.

For the girls face, just select the dark area, then copy/paste to a new layer.

Adjust using levels &/or curves to lighten it up.

You can do this just with a masked Levels or Curves adjustment layer, but I like to do it this way because I can fine control things by adjusting layer opacity (and because it's become a habit).

[tawnidilly]

I did it. No short cuts, No nothing. Just building new layers, copying the faces etc. It was hard work and has taken me hours upon hours. Two weeks. This has been my hardest restore! Thank you everyone for all your help and sugestions! This is my favorite new website! Thanks again.
Tawnidilly

[tawnidilly]

I did it. No short cuts, No nothing. Just building new layers, copying the faces etc. It was hard work and has taken me hours upon hours. Two weeks. This has been my hardest restore! Thank you everyone for all your help and sugestions! This is my favorite new website! Thanks again.
Tawnidilly

[Swampy]

Congrats, Tawinidilly! Good job.

[Gary Richardson]

Nice finished piece, you've obviously put a lot into it.

[Kraellin]

looks good.

i merged your recent thread on this image with the original. good to keep this all in one place so that your most recent post makes sense to everyone.