Help with splattered photo please

[ldsharp]

Hello,

I'm new to the group and working on what appeared to be a simple restore...
Here's the original



I corrected the color (with the great Dave Cross method) and minutely straightened and removed all the specs.  Looking pretty good until I started to yellow stains on his shoulder, etc.  I planned to use the standard clone, healing and patch tools to repair those areas.  What I then noticed when zooming in to repair was that after brightening the midtones and dark areas to work better, that I couldn't find a single area to sample that wasn't splattered with this yellow looking stain.  Here's a better view:



I have tried various channel techniques, blend modes, calculations, inversed luminance masks, and about everything I can think of to separate the splatter from the photo, but haven't been very successful.  I was able to get rid of all the yellow color of the stain (except on his shoulder) using the opposite color with a luminance mask, but the luminance problem of the stain is still there.

By using a couple of 'multiply blended' copies, the image looks "better", but that blotchy-looking mess is still there if you brighten the clothing any at all.  I've tried various blurs but that seems to soften the clothing definition too much.



On a secondary note, I haven't started messing with the text at the bottom.  There is a green stain that shouldn't be a problem, but the violet streaks "under" the text are pretty well obliterated and I could use some suggestions about tackling that also.



Thanks in advance!
Larry

[Bambi]

I recently worked on a project with a lot of pictures like this. There are any number of ways to approach any issue in Photoshop, but this is what I did. Filter>Reduce Noise 2px. If it needs a little more, I apply a 0.5 Gaussian blur. After each step, check to be sure you haven't lost detail in the faces. If so, go back, select the faces and Refine Edge to about 20 px larger than the faces. Select the inverse and repeat the Reduce Noise and Blur. Then repair the faces separately.

I would use the clone tool for the purple streak.

Bambi

[kiska]

The color correction seems a little blue and magenta to me. This is the levels and curves method in our tutorials with a color layer added to even out the yellow stains. A quickie.

[Jonas.Wendorf]

Hi Larry,

I agree with Kiska that the color correction looks a little on the blue side.
When the "automated" methods to isolate an area fail like in this example, it's always possible to create a manual selection to lower the luminosity. In this case I'd create a new "Soft Light" layer, pick a small, soft brush with low flow and paint with black over the areas that need to be darkened and white over those, that need lightening.

[Bambi]

Kiska is right about the color correction. And Jonas' technique is something you can use on almost very restoration.

Bambi