Pen Damage

[Elleth]

Hello,
I've been doing photo restoration for a short time and I was thrilled to find this great source of information!
I'm currently working on a project and I'm having trouble getting a quality outcome...
The image I was given had been scribbled on with green pen by a child, I've managed to get rid of the pen marks but the result is a very blotchy image.
Any suggestion on how to remedy this?
I've attached a before and after example
Thanks!

[Juliana Ross]

Does it still come up like that if you delete the green layer from the RGB original?

(without having PS open in front of me) I think it is under the channel tab on the layers palette.

[Elleth]

Hi Juliana,
Wow, that was quick!
The image with the green cast was scanned using RGB mode, when I realized that manipulating the green channel made no difference, (unless there’s a trick I'm not aware of?), I converted the image to grey scale and used the healing brush to get rid of the pen marks.

[Elleth]

Well...

I managed to get rid of the blotchiness of the image (thanks Juliana!). Now the image looks washed out and has a lot if "noise". I cant figure out how to get a rid of the noise without loosing detail. Any input would be appreciated!
Go to the following URL for a high resolution sample of this picture:

http://www.se87th.com/restoration/

Thanks!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Elleth, first of all you've done a really nice job on your restore. I've had a quick go with your picture as follows.

Duplicated image, extracted girl from it.
Duplicated this layer.
Ran Neat Image on Background.
Set 1st Girl layer to Multiply blend and reduced layer opacity to 7%.
Sharpened 2nd Girl layer and applied hide all layer mask. Then painted in sharpness to eyes and mouth using soft white brush.
Created new layer, and painted in catchlights to girls eyes.

Sorry, for some reason Image seems to have posterised when I posted it.

[Juliana Ross]

Glad that idea worked for you Elleth. Nice job on the photo

[venivedi]

Elleth, good job on the tough thing.
The middle one on your list(?) is my favorite. Though it still has blotchness, I can imagine her smiling face.
By the way, she reminds me an actress appeared as Phebe in 'Friends'.(In fact, I like the character of Phebe very much. ^^)