Grey surface discoloration on photo?

[dkf10425]

What would be the best way to remove the grey surface discoloration from this photo? Thanks!
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...25/photo_6.jpg

[Mike]

You might read this thread:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...ent-photo.html

Or do a search for many more threads covering the topic "silvering".

Good luck, its an easy fix.

[dkf10425]

Thanks Mike! After searching through solutions I came across a reference to using vaseline on the photo to get rid of some of the silvering. I took a huge chance on this clients photo by doing this. After doing a small test area, I proceeded to apply a very, very small amount of vaseline on the surface of the photo. Using a soft paper towel to apply, then lightly buff the vaseline into the photo. I then rescanned at 600ppi. Good results.

[Mike]

You had originally asked for "the best way" to cure the problem and I think you picked absolutely the worst way. The effect of the Vaseline on this old photo will be what in 5 or 10 or 20 years?

Most people that I know that do this type of work live by making the very best copy of the original without doing any harm to it. With this problem, that would be very easy to do without smearing Vaseline all over it.

If you are a professional at this, that was extremely unprofessional. If you are a beginner at this, then you need to educate yourself on the proper ways to do things.

[dkf10425]

Okay now I feel like an idiot. I should have researched further. A mistake like this won't happen again.

[Kraellin]

i had a go at this. needed the practice on this type of damage.

1. duplicate background

2. change new layer to multiply

3. duplicate layer.

4. already set to multiply. left it so.

5. duplicate again

6. set to luminance

7. ran a channel mixer filter (based on one of Solitear's steps in a previous thread)

8. added a new, blank layer and cloned to fix background and other damage.

done.

[dkf10425]

Thanks for the help. Excellent job. This is what I have done so far. My results are derived from the photo after I applied the inappropriate pretreatment I described above. However, I'm not comfortable with the background. It looks too perfect compared with to the man in the photo. It needs a more realistic feel. Should I paint in a slight drop shadow with very low opacity to give it a better look? Or simply add more texture to the wall?
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e81/dkf10425/ml.jpg
Edit: The image was saved at low quality.

[Kraellin]

thanks.

Should I paint in a slight drop shadow with very low opacity to give it a better look? Or simply add more texture to the wall?

one of the reasons i use clone on backgrounds like this is that i can borrow texture and even shadow from the rest of the background with cloning. i didnt so much on yours, but it's one way to go if you feel it needs it. if not that, try a light opacity airbrush.