How to Fix Photos With Bad Images
- 1). Soften wrinkles and shadows by opening a new photo and making a duplicate layer of it in the "layer" toolbox. This can be done in "layers" by dragging the layer of the image over the icon "create new layer." On the top layer, use the "patch" tool in the toolbar to draw around each crease, wrinkle and shadowed area. Drag the selected area over a similar color but without the wrinkles, release the mouse button, and the wrinkle will disappear to become a more uniform color. After every blemish has been removed, scale back the opacity in the "layers" box so that the layer below the top one shows through. The shadows and wrinkles will be visible, but softer and less stark.
- 2). Remove scratches, dust, inappropriate words or other bad images from a photo by using the "patch" tool and "heal" tool. Select an area with the patch tool by outlining it. Then drag that area over another area to find the same color and texture you want. Release the mouse and the blemished area will take on a similar look to the area you dragged it over. To heal, click the "heal" tool and then option-click an area similar to the damaged area. Return to the damaged area, color over it, and the mouse will pull the color and texturing from the other area you option-clicked.
- 3). Adjust the brightness and contrast of a photo that was taken in bad lighting. If you don't want to wash out the entire photo, but have parts of it that need to be adjusted, select those with the "select" tool or, for a more refined selection, go to "Select," then "color range" in the menu. Use the eye dropper or fuzziness meter to pull out the area of color that you want to fix. When you hit "ok," that area will now be selected in your image. Then go to "Image," "Adjustments" and "Brightness/Contrast" to set the appropriate levels to balance out the photo.
- 4). Fix a photo that is saturated with too much red or green by going to "Image," "Adjustments," then "Variations" and choosing different colors from the options available to add back more cyan or whatever is needed to normalize the color. There are also many other ways to fix the color by using the gradient map or color mixer.
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