Photos of damaged paintings - how to make the damage disappear in photoshop

[Catherine284762306smk]

I am writing a book about a painter.  I have many of his works, but they are damaged. The damage is very evident in the photos I have taken. I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to "repair" the damage by retouching the photos. I'm on a Mac Mini running Sequoia and have a creative cloud subscription. My experience is limited, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[LAMY2017]

Catherine, your best chance at getting advice is to post a photo. It's a tedious and sometimes tricky task, involving several ways to fix a photo -- cloning (copying a similar, undamaged area, then pasting the borrowed part over the damage), and using a few seemingly magic tools like Healing brush. Also, you can search for tutorials about photo editing on the web. I'll look for a few to get you initiated into the art of photo repair.

A search of Adobe.com:

Retouch and repair photos

An auto-generated Adobe suggestion

[Generative AI overviews are experimental. Quality may vary. Overviews are not your Content] --

Repairing Photos Using Photoshop

To repair photos using Photoshop, you can utilize several tools designed for retouching and repairing images. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Open Your Image: Start by opening the image you want to repair in Photoshop.

2. Use the Spot Healing Brush Tool: This tool is ideal for quickly removing blemishes and imperfections. Select the Spot Healing Brush tool from the toolbar, adjust the brush size, and click or drag over the areas you want to fix.

   • For more precise control, you can use the Healing Brush tool, which allows you to sample pixels from another area of the image.

3. Clone Stamp Tool: If you need to duplicate parts of the image or cover up larger areas, use the Clone Stamp tool. Set a sampling point by holding Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) and clicking on the area you want to clone, then paint over the area you want to repair.

4. Patch Tool: For larger areas, the Patch tool can be very effective. Select the area you want to repair, then drag it to a clean area of the image to sample from.

5. Neural Filters: For advanced repairs, you can use Neural Filters. Go to Filter > Neural Filters and apply the Photo Restoration filter to enhance the clarity of your image.

6. Save Your Work: Once you are satisfied with the repairs, save your image in your desired format (JPG, PNG, TIFF, etc.).

These tools will help you effectively repair and enhance your photos in Photoshop. For more detailed instructions, you can refer to the Photoshop Retouch and Repair Photos guide.

[Catherine284762306smk]

Thank you - that is very kind of you. I have done some digging, but I think what I probably need is a way to replicate brush strokes. I have added a photo here. This one is probably the one with the worst damage. It is very clear to see where the problems are. I have been playing around with different tools, and I have tried using generative AI to see what that could do. It worked pretty well on some parts, but at one point it actually placed a bird into the painting - I had asked it to replicate the surrounding area - I am not quite sure what prompted it to insert a rust brown bird. I am still a PS novice, but working at it every day and slowly learning and improving.

[LAMY2017]

For sure, texture makes this job more difficult. The enormity of the task reduces my pride in my limited abilities. Look for tutorials on turning a photo into a oil painting; this will explore Ps' ability to emulate brush strokes and texture. Here is a tutorial I found via Ps>Help, searched for "paint color and texture," the second tutorial on the Discover interface. (I don't see a hyperlink to copy!)

 

[Catherine284762306smk]

I really appreciate this - I'll see what I can do and will follow up with the results.  Thank you so much!

[davescm]

I would use frequency separation. That splits your image into the fine textures (high frequency) and the general colours and tones (low frequency) allowing you to work on each separately. To set this up :

1. Make 2 duplicates of your image layer

Name the lower - "Low frequency"

Name the Higher - "High Frequency"

2. Select the Low frequency layer and use Filter Gaussian Blur (around 6.0)

3. Select the High frequency layer
Go to menu Image > Apply Image
Set the source layer to Low Frequency
Set the blending mode to Subtract
Set Scale to 2 *
Set offset to 128 *
Click OK

4. Change the blending mode of the high frequency layer to Linear Light

5. Now you can clone out the harsh edges of flaked paint on the high frequency layer and restore the colour on the low frequency frequency layer. Remember to set the source for cloning and brush sampling to current layer when working on those separate layers.





* Note - the above steps are for 8 bit/channel images. For 16 bit/channel step 3 changes slightly

3. Select the High frequency layer
Go to menu Image > Apply Image
Set the source layer to Low Frequency
Check "Invert" next to channel

Set the blending mode to Add
Set Scale to 2
Set Offset to 0
Click OK

Now carry on with step 4 above

A very quick and dirty example using that technique is below (it deserves much more time and care than this). I mainly cloned on the high frequency layer and brushed with a soft brush on the low frequency layer.

I hope that gets you started.

Dave

[Catherine284762306smk]

I am just getting to understand layers, so this will be an interesting trial for me. Thank you for the tips - very helpful indeed. I will give this a try as well. I really appreciate the detail you have shared.

[Conrad_C]

Generative Fill seemed to work OK if I repaired small sections, and it has the advantage of letting you choose variations. But if speed is a priority if you have to do a lot of these, have you tried the Remove tool? It seemed to work well enough repairing small areas where paint appeared to have flaked off, as in the demo below. Is this the type of damage you’re trying to repair, and have you been able to get results like those shown below?

Although Photoshop has several tools that can can quickly retouch photos, for an image like this with a distinct hand-painted style I think the Remove tool (which can use AI) might match up the surroundings more easily.

If you’ve had issues like the AI inserting random new birds, maybe change how an area is being selected. I’m not a generative AI expert, but I’ve seen YouTube videos where some have tips on how to better guide the generative AI tools. For example, there seem to be cases where selecting too little (e.g. not including an object’s shadow) or too much produces unwanted results or new objects. As you can see above, I try to paint the Remove tool over the flaked-off parts without including too much more.

Another Remove tool tip is that if the first attempt doesn’t quite do the kind of repair you wanted, it’s OK to paint over it again; the Remove tool will generate something slightly different in case that works better.

[Catherine284762306smk]

I had not thought of using that tool - thank you very much - and thank you for the demonstration. I will give it a try

[Trevor.Dennis]

Gen fill can be sensationally good, and sensationally bad, and I don't accept that failures are always user error caused by bad prompts.  One that nearly knocked me off my chair was replacing the original pallet fork with Dave's render.  The original fork was much heavier than Dave's, and obscured a good part of the balance spring.  I thought there was not a snowball's chance in hell, but tried it anyway, and it blew my socks off.  It's not perfect because it has too many coils, but if that was not pointed out to you, you'd be hard pressed to spot it.

I recently discovered that the four screws around the perifery of the balance wheel are used to adjust the timing.  Undo them a tiny bit, and the balance wheel has more inertia (I hope I have the user and term right) and will be slower.  Screw them in and it will be faster.  It's like an ice skater spin. Arms out to spin slowly. Arms tight in to spin faster.

Someone we know is becoming an expert on this stuff, but I will let that person decide whether they want to share. 🙂

[Trevor.Dennis]

@Catherine284762306smk  Sorry about heading off at a tangent there.

[Glenn 8675309]

Outstanding images- we tent to get alot of blurry images taken with phones.