Restoration advice

[secondguessing]

Hello everyone

Long time reader of these forums, but first time registering and posting! I would really appreciate some advice if anyone can help at all. I hope to be able to get rid of the vertical lines that are appearing in this photo, but have tried everything I can possibly think of including a Fourier transform (but the issue there is that they're not uniform), and have had no luck. If anyone had any advice on anything that could be done with this, I'd be extremely grateful. It may well be that there's something very simple that's not occurring to me...

In the end I resorted to zooming in and trying to simply do it manually with healing tools, etc., but even this would not give a decent result.

Many, many thanks

Polkerris - Forum Post.jpg

[Doug Nelson]

Can you photograph the print instead of scanning? Softer, multidirectional lighting might help.

[roger_ele]

I would try duplicating the layer, changing the new layer to lighten blending mode, nudging that layer left or right just a little until some of the damage disappears. masking the whole layer and filling with black on the mask - paint on the mask white to bring back just the areas where it doesn't change the shape of the objects and then see where you are with it.

Another way to approach this is to use the clone stamp on lighten mode (or darken mode if you are in a spot that has mostly light toned damage) and carefully 'rock back and forth'. in small adjacent areas being careful to to sample and paste in directions that work with the shape of the objects.

Or you can use the smudge tool on normal, lighten or darken mode to do a smudge paining and then add texture over the top - to add the texture creat a blank layer, fill with grey, add noise, change to overlay mode, reduce opacity to taste and mask to taste.

Also the image is real contrasty and blocked up in the shadows - if you can copy it with a gentler tone / more shadow detail it might be easier to see, and you might have an easier time blending in the vertical lines.

[secondguessing]

Thank you very much Roger and Doug. Both very good ideas and I will give them a try though likely at the weekend as I've a lot on over the next few days!