Correcting Colored Scratches in a Scanned Photo

[Bruce.Olsen]

Hi - thanks for setting up this terrific resource.

I have a 30-40 year old image of my wife's late Dad that I'd like to clean up and give to her. It has what appear to be multiple (thousands, actually) places where the emulsion has come off, to expose a greenish background. I'd like to understand how to correct those scratches.

I have no trouble selecting by color and isolating only the pixels I want to alter, but I'm not sure what to do then. I'm assuming that I'd want to somehow configure the clone tool to clone only unselected pixels and apply them only to selected pixels. I think that would be ideal but I'm stuck there.

I considered don't see how bucket fill would work since there are thousands of little areas that need fixing. Maybe paint would work but I'd have to change color all the time (the attached is a very small part of a very large scan, and the image has many different colors and shapes in it).

Thanks,
Bruce

[ofnuts]

Try some de-noise software first. Then, the clone tool (or likely better, the heal tool) is your friend. And a graphic tablet. And lots of time. But results may be worth it. If salvaged a picture of my parents that way. Fixing my (then young) mother's face at the tip of the tablet stylus was an interesting experience. Come to think of it, teach some Gimp to your wife and give her the picture and the tablet. She might love it.