It’s hard to say without seeing the image. Here’s one way that works for many images (though certainly not all) and while not terribly scientific, is quick and easy.
(Of course, any areas in you image that are completely "clear," are toast – no magic can restore detail that’s completely gone.)
First, make sure you are working on a COPY of the image!
Next, get rid of the red tint.
– Enhance->Adjust Brightness/Contrast->Levels
– Choose "Red" from the Channel dropdown
– Make sure the Preview box is checked
– Drag the center slider under the histogram until the red is gone
Then build up the image density
– Layer->Duplicate Layer
– In the Layer palette, change the blending mode for the copied layer (it will be selected by default) to "Multiply" (use the dropdown in the palette – it will say "Normal" by default)
– If the image is too dark, with the Multiply later selected, drag the Opacity slider in the Layers palette to the left
– If the image is still too light, duplicate the Multiply layer you just added – make sure it is selected in the Layers palette and again do Layer->Duplicate Layer – and adjust opacity as needed
I know it sounds too good to be true, but when I had to reproduce several about 35 year old colour images with a red/magenta tint, I tried auto contrast and auto colour and to my surprise I suddenly was very close to a good result. Don’t know if this works on other images as well, but it saved me quite some time.
I do use auto levels quite often, just only to see what might be possible. It is pretty surprising how many times I am very close to the desired result.
Leen
I too usually try auto contrast and auto colour first and as Leen said they can produce great results. Another thing I sometimes try is colour cast:
Enhance>Adjust Colour>Colour Cast
Wendy
To Stu , and all who posted answers,
I tried Stu’s fix first, and the results are PERFECT!!!!! I can’t believe how great they came. I only had to adjust the histogram under enhance->brightness/contrast/levels/red. I thought they were forever lost. I used my new Epson to scan the slides, and moved them to Elements to edit them, like crop/turn. Epson has a color restore for slides, but I think they only scan to a Printer. ( I have to look into that)
Thank you Wendy and Lean for your input, and a special thanks to Stu who had the right answer, for me.
Glad you’re happy with the results.
Any credit due should go to Michael Kieran (Photoshop Color Correction) and Katrin Eismann (Photoshop Restoration and Retouching ). Everything I know that’s worth knowing I learned from them.
