Can you get the original negatives from him and scan those?
These are not photos he has negatives for.
That is the ‘irreplaceable’ part.
I’m pretty sure he’ll be pretty upset once we mail these back to him and he finds out he ruined these prints. Oh well, another ‘life lesson’ learned.
Try using a Hue/Sat Adj. Layer to desaturate just the red stains (with a layer mask if necessary); and the healing brush for final clean-up.
As an ex-darkroom person…..I have to ask, did you try water and soap also? If it was water based ink, film cleaner will not remove it and vice versa…..
That is a classic! I have not seen that in ten years. ….happily!
If it was one of those Sharpie marker pens, you could also try de-natured alchohol.
The danger with trying to clean-off the red ink is that you might either just spread the stain further or damage the surface of the print.
Thanks for all your ideas.
I tried soap and water and a solvent remover (which did remove a tiny bit that was still on the surface).
whatever kind of ink this is it absorbs right into the paper. I’ll be using the healing brush and cloning for a while. Too bad I don’t get paid by the hour.
You did not mention if these are B&W or color prints. If they are B&W, then scan in color, open in Photoshop and use HUE/SAT, target just reds and move the lightness slider till the red blends in with the background.
Then convert to grayscale if needed…
If they are color prints, a combination of a HUE/SAT adjustment layer, using the same technique described above, and then some careful masking and touch-up with the healing brush should help a lot.
Best of luck.
Something like the suggestion in Message #4, Paul?!!
😉
Something like the suggestion in Message #4, Paul?!!
There was no mention of the technique as it would easily apply to B&W prints in message #4. As for re-stating that that technique could be used for color photos, I apologize to anyone who might be on their way to the doctor with complaints of deja vu.
No problem! And repeating something sometimes helps anyway. 🙂
Word to client: "I’m sorry, these prints are damaged by someone writing on them with red ink. It will cost "X-Amount" extra to restore these images, we cannot do the job at the quoted price until these images are fixed.
Leave it up to the client whether he/she wants to continue the job. There is no reason you should have to be put on the take to compensate for their error without being paid for it.
IMHO,
Ken
I know Ken, that’s why I said I wish I was getting paid by the hour.
It’s my employer’s project and the person providing us the prints is the subject of a video we’re creating to honor him.
Though it’s probably going to lessen the honor a bit when he sees what he’s done while trying to help us out.
Do what you can, and keep smiling.
How many images are there? If it is only a few dozen then it shouldn’t take too long to repair them in Photoshop. As far as the originals go, they are pretty much toasted.
Post-it notes are the best way to tag originals, writing on them first, then sticking them to the back of the pics. Too bad someone couldn’t have clued him in on that before he started marking on the actual prints.
