Post by Angie on Aug 15, 2006 16:05:37 GMT -5
This is for repairing spots, lines, tears, and cracks. There aren't too many techniques possible, so it's a short tutorial.
* Go through this tutorial, and do anything from it that you think you need to do.
* Do all or most of your work while zoomed in at 400% or 800% (there's a drop-down box to the lower left of your image), but zoom out frequently to check and see if it looks uniform and blended well.
* Be ready to spend a lot of time on your repairs, and don't rush at any point. Also be prepared for the fact that the photo may never be perfect.
* If you have a spot on you photo, use the rectangular selection tool (or another selection tool) to select a very small part of the closest region to it that's not messed up in any way. CTRL + C and CTRL + V to copy and paste it, and then use the move tool (cross with arrows on the end) to put it over part of the blemish. Repeat with another area (so as to make it look variated and more natural).
* If the copied and pasted block doesn't blend well into the photo, use the smudge tool (hand with pointing finger) with various brushes, strengths, and opacities to smooth it.
* Some tiny spots on a fairly detail-less area can be fixed with a few strokes of the smudge tool instead of copying and pasting.
* If you have a deep crack, make sure to go far enough away from the crack for your copy area so that the shadow from the dent doesn't give you a big dark spot once you're done.
* If you have an area where the top layer of the paper was ripped off (see the right side of the example photo), try to find a very similar area in the picture to see if you can copy and paste it (you'll have to use the lasso selection tool and do a Select > Feather at some point). If the problem is toward the edge of the photo and isn't very important, you may want to just crop it out with the crop/scalpel tool. My dad once restored a baby photo where my mom and her twin sister were sitting on a blanket in the park, and my mom's face was completely gone, so he managed to copy her sister's face and fix it.
Before:
After:
* Go through this tutorial, and do anything from it that you think you need to do.
* Do all or most of your work while zoomed in at 400% or 800% (there's a drop-down box to the lower left of your image), but zoom out frequently to check and see if it looks uniform and blended well.
* Be ready to spend a lot of time on your repairs, and don't rush at any point. Also be prepared for the fact that the photo may never be perfect.
* If you have a spot on you photo, use the rectangular selection tool (or another selection tool) to select a very small part of the closest region to it that's not messed up in any way. CTRL + C and CTRL + V to copy and paste it, and then use the move tool (cross with arrows on the end) to put it over part of the blemish. Repeat with another area (so as to make it look variated and more natural).
* If the copied and pasted block doesn't blend well into the photo, use the smudge tool (hand with pointing finger) with various brushes, strengths, and opacities to smooth it.
* Some tiny spots on a fairly detail-less area can be fixed with a few strokes of the smudge tool instead of copying and pasting.
* If you have a deep crack, make sure to go far enough away from the crack for your copy area so that the shadow from the dent doesn't give you a big dark spot once you're done.
* If you have an area where the top layer of the paper was ripped off (see the right side of the example photo), try to find a very similar area in the picture to see if you can copy and paste it (you'll have to use the lasso selection tool and do a Select > Feather at some point). If the problem is toward the edge of the photo and isn't very important, you may want to just crop it out with the crop/scalpel tool. My dad once restored a baby photo where my mom and her twin sister were sitting on a blanket in the park, and my mom's face was completely gone, so he managed to copy her sister's face and fix it.
Before:
After: