School Blog : Healing and Repairing Photos

Techniques

Clone Stamp Tool - fixing small scratches and creases
The shot’s faded tones are very flat. To boost contrast, choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. Drag the black input level slider to the right to a value of 29. This darkens the shot’s faded grey shadows. Drag the white input levels slider to the left to a value of 215. This brightens the shot’s weak highlights. Drag the grey slider left to 1.24 to lighten the midtones. The shot now has more contrast.
Convert to a smart object. Choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. Click OK. This turns the layer into a Smart Object, enabling you to fine-tune filter settings at a later date. Choose Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches. Set Radius to 20 and Threshold to 15.
In the Layers Panel, click on the white Smart Filter layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert it.
Now grab the Brush tool from the Toolbox. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker. Set the Toolbox’s foreground color swatch to white. Click on the black Smart Filter to target it. Spray  white over the background’s black dust spots, fingerprints and thinnest white scratches to fill them in.
Grab the Patch tool. In the Options Bar, choose Content-Aware. Set Adaptation to Very Strict. Tick Sample All Layers. Click on transparent ‘Layer 1’. Draw a patch around sections of scratches.