I corrected almost all the rips and deterioration in the photo but face has this blotches from being wet.
What would be a safe and effect away. That is not involve serious blurring. BLUR Bad most times. Only good when used wisely.
(http://homepage.mac.com/jsun2407/Before.jpg) (http://homepage.mac.com/jsun2407/after.jpg)
By the way Kenny thanks on the tipp of the vinigerette technique.
jsun, I don.t know if the photo is supposed to be sepia or is just discoloured, I converted it to B/W using Channel Mixer then pushed up the contrast a bit.
For the damage, I cloned out the dark area under her chin on the left side, with the prevailing lighting there should be almost no shadow there. On the face and neck I used the smudge tool at about 18% to even out the blotchiness, I find it can work well on B/W images, sometimes better than clone or healing brush.
I don't know what size your photo is, it is hard to make reasoned judgements on such a small image, hope this is helpful to you.
(http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2021/afterfe9.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Keep up the good work :)
Max