Adjust over-exposed streak in B&W negative

[David Scott Cowan]

I am digitising a number of B&W glass negatives dating from 1912.  Several of them have light leakage resulting in a bleached streak to the edge of the plate, and (as with this one) some gradation of exposure over the lower part.  I have Photoshop Elements 2020, and I am using Silverfast 8 with an Epson V800 scanner.  How best can I treat these areas to make them blend in better with the rest of the photograph? 

[Guest]

Moving to the Photoshop Elements forum from Photoshop

[hatstead · Accepted solution]

Try this:

Open the picture file

Duplicate the Background layer

Set the blending mode of the Background copy payer to Overlay

Prese CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E to open a stamp visible layer, combining the 2 lower layers.

Activate the Burn tool and swipe over the suboptimal areas.

I did this quickly. Try out the various tools, e.g.Burn, smudge.

Another trick I have used when working on projects like these is to use the Marquee tool to select a "good" area on a picture and place it over a defective area as a patch.

[David Scott Cowan]

Thank you so much for your very helpful tip - it is just the tool I have been looking for.  I have successfully improved several other negatives that show the same fault.