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Over time our old photos tend to tear, stain or develop dust marks. These can easily be remedied through Photoshop in a few simple steps. By utilizing the Patch Tool you can fine tune you selection and repair your photos.

Begin by scanning in your photos. Once you have your photo in Photoshop, choose the Patch Tool, it looks like a little patch on the toolbar. On the options bar, you will want to click Source.
Now, drag around the area in the photo that you want to repair. This is called the “Destination.” You can then make adjustments to the selection by choosing the feather command or another modification you want to make to the selected area.

Next, drag from the inside of the selection to the area that you want to sample from. This is the area that you will want the patch to look like. Most likely, this will be directly next to the destination selection in an area that is undamaged. When you drag from the inside and release the mouse, the patch will bounce back and sample the pixels in the area that it was drug to. This area will automatically be applied to your destination selection.

This tool can be used in conjunction with the Healing Brush. The healing brush has many uses, but it is generally only used in an area where you need to touch-up a single color. For example, if you wanted to remove acne on a person’s skin in a photo or fix red-eye. The healing brush can also be used to fix a paper crinkle in an old photo and blend it with the surrounding pixels. The main difference between the healing brush and the patch tool is that the patch tool requires you to select an entire area to fix. You can use the healing brush freehand and pick and choose where you need to change something in a photo. It is best used in small areas, while the patch tool allows you to modify large areas, such as a long crinkle or tear in a photo.

To use the healing brush, you simply choose it from your toolbox. It looks like a Band-Aid. You can choose your brush size on the options bar for a brush that is appropriate for the work you are doing. A small hard brush will give you the most control when you are doing detail work. If you want to preserve the grain and texture of your photo in the area you are repairing, you will want to select Replace form the Mode pop-up menu. This will ensure that your area looks like it is a part of the original photo. You will also want to choose Sampled as the Source on the Options bar and check Aligned so that you create a single, uninterrupted sampling from your source point. If you want repetitive samplings, you can uncheck Aligned. Alt-click to set your source point and begin dragging across the area you want to repair. When you release the mouse, the source texture will be applied to the target area and will then blend with the area surrounding it. Using these two tools will help you to make your old photos or damaged photos as good as new.

About the author: Valerie Melma is a freelance writer and owner of Words You Want

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