Weird Stain

[lcramer53]

A relative sent me a photo of her parents back in the 40's, asking if I could "fix" it up. The overall photo had some silvering and other junk, but the part that has been troubling me was the area where it's stained. It almost looks like it was torn, but, she sent me the original, and there was no tear, just this darkening.

I did the best that I could with it, using adjustment layers (shadow/highlight and brightness contrast), mostly to address the other parts of the photo. Pretty much from there, despite trying the channel mixer and other things, the only thing that seemed to "work" was simple cloning, patching, healing.

I'm not happy with my results (imported her eyes from an old photo I had of her), but my brain is still stuck on the weird stain portion and wondering, is there a simple way to fix this? (My before & after are posted below).

Thanks,
Sue

[0lBaldy]

Can you scan it in color with all the auto stuff and other adjustments turned off?

It looks like she has a nice smile with teeth showing... did you close her mouth? That may one reason be why it looks different and you are not happy with it..

[lcramer53]

Believe it or not, I did scan it in RGB with all the other adjustments turned off and then I sent the original back to my cousin, so I can't re-scan and don't think it would do any good. I agree about the mouth, sometimes when I look at the scanned original, it looks like you can see her teeth but when I look at it too much, I begin to think that it's shading.
It might just be the closed mouth thing that I'm not happy with... I'll work on that and get back here.
Thanks OB.

[lcramer53]

Using different layers and opacities, I outlined the dark areas of her mouth on one layer, and on another layer, lightened the lighter areas so that I might get more definition. I worked with the highlight layer for the open mouth smile and the dark layer to better define the actual shape of her mouth.

This is where I'm at now. Probably won't do any more today, have a neck ache.

[0lBaldy]

Me thinks thats looking really GOOD Susie!

[lcramer53]

Thanks OB, although I really thought it could be better, just didn't know what to address. Thanks again!

[Kraellin]

susie,

tone down the teeth just a bit. they're standing out too much now. also, try running a light unsharp mask on the whole thing... very light. it's currently out of focus. love what you did on the dress. you really brought that out!

and having looked at this closely in paint shop pro, the mouth is closed. though, i must say, you did a remarkable job on doing it as mouth open

[lcramer53]

Craig,

Thank you for your comments. I agree, that it looks out of focus , tried different things to clear it up but don't think I tried the unsharp mask, and the teeth are too bright, I'll change those and get back here.

I was also very relieved that you saw the mouth 'closed' as that was my 1st instinct.

Went back & closed her mouth, ran a smart sharpen over it all, independently blurred some blotchy areas on forehead, tried to clarify her eyes. I think I'm finished.

[Kraellin]

it's a tricky image. i fiddled with it a bit.

i'm looking at yours and i again, like the dress. the face is a little patchy. that can be smoothed out with smudge/push. also, you might airbrush the whites of her eyes in. use the color picker to get the right color for that and use an opacity of only 3 or 4 or so. keep it light. it's very easy to overdo and do it on a blank layer over the top of the others. nice job on the mouth.

oh, and nice job on removing the stain!

[0lBaldy]

I also like the dress you found..

I know the mouth is open but I used your previous try to work with because you got rid of the stain so well and I could not replicate your work

I just tried to define things a bit and found that lightening it some seemed to help also

It is a bit blown out and still needs some eye work... but I thought I would offer an alternative look

[Cupcake]

Good work on that one Susie.

[aartist]

She definitely has teeth showing in her smile.

[lcramer53]

Craig - thanks again regarding the dress. I have a lot of family photos from that time era and found a dress similar to what she was wearing, cut, pasted, warped to fit, then added a very minimal amount of texture and painted shading on a separate level, merged, duped and adjusted the blending mode.

Regarding the mouth, I'm happy with either way and quite frankly, I don't know if she (my aunt) would even remember whether it was an open or closed smile.

I'll try your suggestions for the blotchiness and the eyes and get back with the update.

OB - Brightening it up seems to really help. The only problem is that this is only 1/2 of a total portrait of her and Uncle Johnny. When I've played with the lighting to make her look better (or him) the other person doesn't match. Playing with separate brightness/contrast masking layers this is pretty much the best saturation for the overall photo.

Cupcake - Thank you!

Aartist - Thank you for your viewpoint. As I said, I'm happy with either way and when this is finished, I'll print both versions for her and she can decide; I don't know if she can remember whether she smiled openly or closed mouth.

[Kraellin]

susie, well, you did a nice job

ok, let's end the controversy here over teeth or no teeth i told you all i was sure of 'no teeth' and here is why, see attached. this was done with paint shop pro's 'fade correction' tool. i purposely exaggerated this to show the lips better. i duplicate the background and then run fade correction on that. i then set that layer to 'luminance'. this all gives a pretty good contrast and shld show up whether 'teeth' or 'no teeth'. you decide.

[lcramer53]

Craig - YES! I did something similar when I first began the photo with levels etc... plus, the lady in the photo is my Aunt and she always seemed to have had a fuller lower lip, that's another reason why my 1st instinct was closed mouth.

I haven't been back with the finished version - rebuilding my website and am almost finished, hopefully the new version will be up this weekend. Then I can breathe and get back to finishing this photo.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and I will be back with my final, final version.

[Kraellin]

susie, thank you for the comment on the fuller lower lip. that part had been bugging me. since the lips are in the stained area, it's very easy to mis-read what's there, or rather, what was there. so, that comment helps. i still consider a lot of that as shadow, since this whole picture is shadowed pretty heavily, but the lower lip was definitely bugging me