Restore old photos: how to rescue vintage prints and family pictures

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How to restore old photos : steps 10-18

10 Stamp Visible
Click on the Levels Adjustment Layer at the top of the Layer Stack. Press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+E at the same time to apply the Stamp Visible command. This makes a combined version of the layers below. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the unscratched half of the boy's mouth. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to move a copy of the selection onto a new layer.

11 Mouth transplant
Choose Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to activate Free Transform. Drag the mouth left and rotate it 16 degrees. Hit Enter. Use the arrow keys to fine-tune the mouth's position. Now choose Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Spray a small soft black brush on the mask to blend some of the transplanted mouth with its new surroundings. Use a white brush to restore missing mouth detail if necessary.

12 Heal out scratches
Grab the Clone Stamp. Choose a soft round tip with a Size of 10. Tick Aligned. Choose Sample Current & Below. Alt-click to sample the base of the nose and spray to extend the line over the adjacent scratch. Sample the crease of his cheek and extend that over the scratch. Sample little and often to replace other scratches with clean facial details. Use the Healing Brush to replace scratches on less detailed areas.

13 Repair water damage
To remove the water damage from the nose, perform the Stamp Visible command once again. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the undamaged nose half of the nose and cheek. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to float the selection onto a new layer. Choose Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T. Move the flipped nose over the blob and rotate it 16 degrees. Add a Layer Mask and spray a black brush to blend the nose with its surroundings.

14 Repair the girl
Choose Layer>Merge Down to flatten the fixed nose onto the layer below. Grab the Spot Healing Brush tool and set it to Content-Aware. Click to remove the black spots on the girl's face. Repeat the selection, transforming and Layer Mask blending techniques that we applied to the boy to restore the girl's missing facial details. Merge the transformed facial features with the layer below and then tidy up her face with the Healing Brush tool.

15 Remove pen strokes
Create a new transparent layer. Grab the Spot Healing Brush tool. Tick the Content-Aware button. Spray a soft tip over the black pen stroke at the top of the frame to replace the strokes with appropriate window details. You may need to spray a few times to remove all traces of pen successfully. Grab the Move tool. Set the Mode to Extend. Select the children's' feet and drag down to extend them over the transparent areas.

16 Reduce silvering
Once you've tidied up any remaining small scratches using the Spot Healing Brush tool and the Patch tool, apply the Stamp Visible command once again. Grab the Burn tool and set its Range option to Midtones. Set Exposure to 50%. Spray over the mottled 'silvering' texture at the bottom of the frame to darken and hide it. You now have all the skills that you need to repair any damaged details.

17 Set up brush tip
Before colour film was invented, photographers sometimes added washes of colour to skin and clothing. To recreate this technique, choose Layer>New>Layer. Set the Layer's Blend Mode to Color and its Opacity to 54%. Grab the Brush tool. Choose a soft round tip. Click on the Toolbox's foreground colour swatch and choose a skin colour from the Color Picker. Paint over the skin areas.

18 Colorise the kids
Sample a yellow colour and spray over the girl's hair. Add brown to the boy's hair and paint his clothing blue (or any colour you prefer). Feel free to switch to the Eraser tool to remove any colour strokes that stray over the edge of your subjects. You can finish off with a few clicks of the Spot Healing Brush tool to remove any remaining background blemishes.

PAGE 1: How to restore old photos, steps 1-9
PAGE 2: How to restore old photos, steps 10-18
PAGE 3: How to restore old photos in Photoshop Elements