Fixing Light Leak

[BobF]

I did a search and found some solutions, which I've tried but I can't seem to get anywhere with a light leak issue. I've tried a variety of masking techniques, separate adjustment layers and nothing seems to work all that well. As it happens I've got a blank frame with the leak so I tried scanning that, inverting it and using it as a mask at different opacities and blend modes but that didn't work overly well either.

Sample image attached. Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

[Swampy]

Try doing a "Calculations" on the Red and Blue channel set for Multiply at 100%

That should get you started

[rrustic]

For my try, i duped the layer 3 times and set the blending mode to multiply.
I used a gradient mask to just show the effect on the left side. More work is needed but I think you should get the idea.

[mistermonday]

The first thing I would do would be to duplicate the background layer. If it has noise or is pixelated like the version you uploaded, clean the copy up before doing anything else. (BTW, instead of sizing your image to 12x12 @72ppi and compressing it at jpg level 4, I would have sized it to 6 x 6 @ 72ppi and saved it at level 8 because the image would have been way less pixelated than the it is. Consequently I did not work very long on this one).

Add a layer mask and use the gradient tool to apply a gradient to the mask to expose as much as possible the overexposed area. Refine the gradient as much as you can because the same mask will be used on the layer above.

Ctrl Click the layer mask then click the New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the layer palette and select Hue Saturation Layer. Adjust the hue toward the right to shift the grass / trees from yellow to green. Increase the saturation a little.

Next add a layer on top of the stack and fill it with 50% gray and change the layer blend mode to Overlay. You can take copy the layer mask to that layer if you need it but you probably won't. Now with a soft black brush at 5% opacity, paint over the areas that need to be darkened. If you accidentally go to far, change to a white brush and paint over the areas to lighten them.

I added a final Hue Sat layer to reduce the magenta in the faces of the other two people and patched out the lens flare spot at the left.

This is the 5 minute job. With a quality scan and a little care you should be able to get very satisfactory results.

Regards, Murray

[chillin]

I did similar steps like Murray, but I end up with 3 PSD files. Layers of one I have posted here.

[BobF]

Thanks all. I appreciate the help. Many of the steps suggested are similar to what I've tried. Some are different. At the end of the day, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try and recover these. I'll have another go though and see what happens

Murray, these are MF negs that were scanned only at 400 ppi for sample purposes. I had to resize them down to what I did in order to get them under the 100kb limit. I do understand your point though. That spot on the left wasn't lens flare either it's an air bubble that I didn't fully remove from wet mounting the film. Since it was just a sample scan I didn't ensure to get all the bubbles out.

[LonK]

I did much the same as the others -- and cropped for composition. If it hadn't had so much JPG artifacting to begin with, it might make a very nice portrait.

[Oh_Heck]

This was my spin on it. No matter how you worked the left side, you end up with an enormous amount of artifacting. So, as far as the background goes I started to constuct a new left side. As for dad, there is extensive detail loss on him. I would suggest seeing if there are any other photos with him in it that can be worked into this one. Even if its not related to the wedding, any dad reference imagery would help.

[Liz]

Not an easy job! Seeing the results and the steps people take to approach the problem really helps a newbie like me. LonC, i'm interested in that slight variation you bought to this photo with the black around the edges which seemed to disguise a lot of the problem and place the focus on the people. Would you mind sharing that process with me please?
Thanks

[LonK]

Liz, throwing a background out of focus (i.e., narrowing depth of field) is a common technique to de-emphasize a distracting setting. Darkening the edges (i.e., vignetting) is also commonly used to bring more attention to the subjects. Both are very easy to do with just about any capable editor.

[mashny]

Well, here's my quick and dirty approach:

1. Two Curve layers with gradient masks. The first curve layer darkened the left side, the second fixed the contrast.

2. I merged the layers.

3. I copied the right side to a new layer, flipped it, then cloned where necessary.

4. The faces of the two people on the right were tinted magenta, so I gave them some red, while the woman in the middle, whose face was so washed out, also received the red to give her color.

5. The faces of the three people on the right were too light, so I darkened them a bit.

6. I used a Selective Color adjustment layer to take some of the black out of the reds in the face of the person to the left.

It's often easier to replace the background than to fix it, so that's what I did. I realize there are times when the background is crucial, but that didn't seem the case here. And, yes, it's pretty obvious I've cloned the right side of the picture, but I just wanted to do a quick fix. I could have found another photo and used that for the left side of this one to make it look more natural.

By the way, the advice given by Oh Heck about finding another picture to use for the face at the left was a very good suggestion.

I hope this helps.

[albatrosss]

Used levels and mask on left side of image. Then curves to adjust face color. Cloned grass and used smudge for both lawn and faces. Went back and forth so many times I'm really not sure of what I did.

[Alison]

This is my take on it. I think it could be improved a fair bit, given some time. Used a couple of multiply layers and gradients to sort the left hand side out. Used levels and curves adjustments. Didn't go beyond that.

[Kraellin]

tried this one also.

the short explanation is contrast/brightness, hue/sat, and curves layers done on a gradient mask for the bulk work. lots of clone, push and airbrush for the finer work.

[lilysharon]

I tried using layers and masking. Level adjustments, Working of damaged area separately. Added some noise back to detract.