How do I blend parts of one layer to another CS6

[terryfoster]

I have two copies of a photograph - one interpolated and the other without.

The images line up with one another in seperate layers but I want to copy/transfer/ blend parts of faces to the blurred one to enhance the quality of a final photo.

I am retouching an old photo with loads of tears and scratches and need assistance please.

Please can anyone offer tips and advice.

Beginner to intermediate level of knowledge

Thanks

Terry

[George_F]

The way I most often do this is to transfer something like a face from another layer is like this:

• Make a rectangle selection with the marquee tool larger than the face.
• Right Click > Layer Via Copy
• I usually line up the face with the new layer, but it sounds like it lines up already.
• And then mask out the extra space around the face, this allows me to feather in the selection in a sense and helps it to look more natural.

That's just one way of many though!  Let me know if I've misunderstood your dilemma.

[George_F]

A screenshot would also be helpful here 🙂

[terryfoster]

I attach the two files. AAA is the original, bbb is one which has had scratches removed.

I want to copy the good detail from aaa to bbb so that I have restored the picture.

I'm doing it for a contributor to one of the facebook group pages.

I'd also like to know if there are any tutorials on how to do this.

[George_F]

I'm going to directly answer your question, and then follow up a bit at the bottom.

Here's how to copy the details:

• Load both photos into Photoshop as layers.
• Place the photo you want to copy the details from on top
• Apply a black layer mask to the top photo by applying a mask and inverting or pressing Alt/Option when clicking the layer mask button.
• Paint white on the mask for the details you wish to recover.

There are plenty of YouTube videos for photo restoration tutorials.  I'll report back if I find one that fits this situation well.

This photo is a very challenging photo to restore that borders on impossible in my opinion.  At the least, it is a several hours' long process with perhaps looking for donor photos for some of the details.  There is just a lot that is missing that won't work with the usual techniques of cloning.  I'm not trying to dissuade you from trying, bit only to set realistic expectations about the outcome.

I hope it works out 🙂

[terryfoster]

Thank you George_F for your full feedback.

I have had some success with this and attach my attempts so far.

I also have Adobe Photoshop elements on another computer to the side of me and I was able to stitch sections of the photograph together and apply a healing brush between the two layers.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Attached: enhanced.jpg

[George_F]

Your edit came out better than I would have expected, so cheers to that!  I'm glad you got it sorted 🙂