This old mildew-stained photo...

[LensCap]

Hello to the group.
I am continually impressed with the skills exhibitied here. Pardon me if one like this has been done before, and I did search for other do-overs like it, but could not find one quite like this mess.
This 55 year old photo was found in a damp attic and shows lots of staining.
What to do with a photo like this that is so extensively damged with mildew stains?
Thanks for some ideas on a workflow. (I use Paint Shop Pro X2).

[Kraellin]

there is no quick fix on one like this. just dig in with clone, airbrush, and i also use push and smudge. do those all on separate blank layers with 'use all layers' selected. shldnt be too tough.

[TommyO]

Another thought... there is slightly less damage in the Red channel, plus plenty of detail left. You could do a fair amount of restoration in that channel, only borrowing from the others as needed.
(Unfortunately, not much better in CMYK or LAB)

[LensCap]

TommyO, thanks for confirming what I saw too. Thought I might have missed something.
I was hoping for one of those little "miracles" in a color channel or something that you wizards keep finding that would "make mildew dissappear"! Whoops, that's Clorox I'm thinking of.
Craigs reply sounds arduous, but the most realistic.

[Kraellin]

i did a little work on this just to give you some idea of what can be done. this is mostly clone, airbrush and push (smudge), done in paint shop pro x2. i also used a hue/sat adjustment to take out the color in the stain and a small contrast adjustment to bring out a tiny bit more detail.

oh, and this isnt daunting, it's relaxing

[LensCap]

Wow, nice work so far!
Are you working in the red channel?
Thanks for the suggestions and efforts.
Time for me to dig in...

[Kraellin]

hi lenscap and thanks

no, i just work on the whole for an image like this. but, i do use blank layers for the cloning, airbrushing and and push. each layer is set to 'use all layers', so that i'm constantly borrowing through brushwork the work of the layers below. this makes it easy to erase a little here and there to clean things up and then re-do if wanted. it does take a little while this way, but like i said... relaxing

[jesterjeni]

I worked on this a little to see what I could come up with, I changed his clothes and used the spot healing brush adjusted to create texture, I also used layer and clone. I am still a bit of a novice, but here is what I came up with

[aartist]

Attachment 80806Use Red channel
Select left nose/mirror for right placement
Warp brush right to suite
Clone/scratch removal
Darken/lighten.