Severely damaged color photo

[marvel201]

Hello,
First time poster here. I have a group photo taken in the 80's that has been damaged by humidity. It was scanned at high res and sent to me for possible clean up. I'm using the latest Photoshop version from the Creative Cloud. I'm familiar with the Spot Healing, Healing Brush and Patch tools but I would like some advice from the pros on where to start to restore this photo. My main concern is the faces with stains all over. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

[Wolly55]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

To save time, i would get a good base then make the image black and white, reducing the blues which will clear most of the damage on the faces and clothing. Then do a full clean up and then colorise using the colours from the colour version.

[marvel201]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Thank you for your prompt reply. I'm proficient in Indesign but just average with Photoshop. Could you elaborate a bit about "making a good base"? Thanks.

[Wolly55]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Hi Marvel201 , by a good base, i just mean a good exposure of the image. Good colours, whites, blacks and greys. There are different ways of doing this with photoshop but my main tool is Curves which should get you a good starting point.
If your not sure where to find Curves, look for the image panel across the top, then down to adjustments then across to curves or you can find it as an adjustment layer in the bottom of your layers panel, 4th icon in from the left ( circle,half black half clear ) then up to curves. This will put it above your image as a layer and then you can readjust if need be.
Hopes this helps.

[marvel201]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Got it. I'll give it a go. I'll comeback if I get stuck. Thank you.

[marvel201]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

I'm at the stage where I have a Curves layer and a Black & White layer. I want to start cleaning up the image but for some reason the Spot Healing, Healing Brush, Clone Stamp don't have any effect on it. What am I missing?

[Wolfman]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Hold command-option-shift-E on a mac and that will produce a layer incorporating your adjustment layers....you can do your cloning, etc. on that layer.

[marvel201]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Excellent. I'm working on Windows 10 at the moment, so the command would be Shift+Control+Alt+E. I will go one step at a time but I see the coloring of the cleaned photo to be a big challenge. The whole photo has like 20 people, buckets of flowers in front and in the background different types of trees. Lots of details!

[klev]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

I'm at the stage where I have a Curves layer and a Black & White layer. I want to start cleaning up the image but for some reason the Spot Healing, Healing Brush, Clone Stamp don't have any effect on it. What am I missing?

It means you selected the wrong layer or a layer mask rather than a layer.

[marvel201]

Re: Severely damaged color photo

Thank you. Merging layers did the trick.