Attempting Photo Restorations

Well, my second attempt did not go so well.  I was absolutely over my head with the next assignment however per some very helpful advice, I picked up a copy of "Photoshop Image Editing" from Barnes and Nobles which came with a disk.  One issue I was having was trying to find relevant photos to fit the assignment and all examples in the book are also found on the provided disk.

I chose a section on Restoring Photos.  I know this will likely be very helpful as we always run across photos that become ruined.  In the past I have just thrown these away but now know that it can be extremely simple with a little patience to restore these to almost new condition.

Here is the photo I started with originally.  

Photo from the disk - Before

Notice the ugly red creasing throughout the photo?  This wasn't hard to remove at all but did require a few different steps.  First I zoomed in on my photo.  This can be done easily by pressing (Ctlr +)

You first need to create another layer.  (Anytime you make additions or changes, create a new layer so that if you make a mistake, you delete the layer and your original photo is in tact.)  

Once you add a new layer, change the blending mode to "Color".  Next, you will select the eye dropper and under sample size select 5 by 5 average.  Next select your brush tool and make sure to select a brush size that is slightly larger than the crease area.  

Now you will toggle back and forth between the eye dropper and the paint brush - sampling grass to replace in this area.  You can even take this a step further and repair some of the dead grass.  Some may prefer to leave this in it's original state, but I decided to play with this anyway to get the hang of it.  The great thing about using this tool is that it seems to sample the blades of grass as well, not just the color!  I repeated this step not only for the grass but for the sky as well.  I was nervous when I got to the tree in the distance, but to my surprise it seemed to know to copy branches and background.  

Once I finished this step, this is what I was left with.

After removing the red - just before fixing more green.

This is where things got a little tricky.  Now that we have fixed the coloring, we need to remove all evidence of the actual crease.  This is done using the patch tool.  

Again, create a new layer and right click the layer and when the menu pops up, hold down the Alt key and choose "Merge Visible.  Then you are going rename your layer to "Clean Up" or whatever suits you.  Using the select tool, you are going to make a rectangle around the section you are trying to remove.  (The book says to do a small section, but I found this was easier if I used a larger box.)  

Use the patch tool to click inside the boxed area and drag past the imperfection.  You will need to keep doing this in all sections until you are satisfied.  

This is what I was able to create after making all of my changes and going back to make some updates as well.  

After all changes were made