Cheryl,
Unfortunately, if you want to do it right, you’ll do it by cloning. There is no silver bullet – In this case – In exchange for quality. But with my limited experience – and the help of a few good people on this forum – I was able to make what seemed almost impossible a reality. But then, as you do it – And even though it takes a lot of elbow grease, dexterity, & patience – You’ll find that there’s quite a bit of satisfaction that comes with it – To the same degree as what you put into it – And then some. And as you do it, you’ll get more & more adept at it, & just remember that after you finish that first tough one, everything else will be easier for you. Also, when you start spinning your wheels, there are a lot of people here who will help you with it – If you decide to & don’t mind someone assisting you. Lastly, as far as B&W photos are concerned, there is no better printer – In my experience – than the HP 7960 – Because of it’s extra gray ink tank, etc. I’ve tried Canon, but there’s no comparison when it comes to B&W. I found my HP at Costco for around $140 after the coupon. My HP does guzzle ink a bit, so I try to use my older printer for just text, and it makes a big difference in usage. I’m saving up my money for a Canon i960 – With it’s individual ink tanks – for great text & color to use with my new HP. Hope I haven’t rambled too much. Lastly, you’ve come to the right place for help.
Cheryl,
Like Les said, the Clone tool is probably the best all-around fixer-upper for defects. Make sure you use a soft brush to hide the transition between the original and cloned parts. Also, the Dust and Scratches Filter (Filter -> Noise -> Dust & Scratches) is good for removing tiny speckles which often appear from a scan.
Mark
Cheryl,
When you use the clone tool … sample frequently and take it slowly. So if you have a round stain keep sampling all round the edge and gently work your way into the centre. If the stain is on something like a sky then you can use the lasso set to new selection, outline the stain then move the lasso into the centre of the selection. The cursor will change and you will be able to move the selection to a new area where you can do copy then paste. Using the move tool you can then move the "patch" over the stain. Finally flatten the two layers and clone around the edge to blend the patch in.
Wendy
Les, Mark, and Wendy,
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate the suggestions! Guess I will need to play around with it more.
Thanks Again,
Cheryl
"I had to use photo merge on to get all of the photo as an 8×10".
I did that too; a rather time consuming way of working. Until a colleague asked me why I didnot use my digital camera instead of a scanner. I couldnot understand why I had been so stupid not to think about this simple way of reproducing.
Leen
