How to fix light leaks on black and white film in Photoshop?

Question

I have some banding of light leaks on my b/w film. Some are totally white (overexposed), some may be recoverable (hopefully).How can I fix these in Photoshop or Lightroom?

Answer 1

Light leaks are a bane to most restorers because there is no 1-size-fits-all solution and every restorer does it differently because every light leak is different. Light leaks are unique to film prints and show up on the digitized copies as pale streaks or fading emanating from the EDGE of the image. They happen most on mid-century modern images because the technology that creates them did not exist in the early years of photography (1830s onward), because celluloid film did not yet exist. I have yet to find a good tutorial on this much-needed repair/ restoration topic for digital restorers. What causes them? Typically one of three causes: (1) the operator did not rewind the film into the canister completely so that when he opened the camera to remove the film, light reacted with the remaining exposed film; (2) the camera itself was compromised somewhere and light leaked in, and (3) the film was accidently exposed by a technician in the processing lab. Light leaks are a PAIN to remove, typically involving a muti step process in a good full-feature photo editing software like Photoshop. LRC is too limited. Peace.

Answer 2

If your light leaks aren't completely blow out then fixing them is a matter of making a selection and correcting the exposure. Adjustment layers are very helpful for this kind of fix. You can find adjustment layers at the bottom of your layer panel by clicking the half-filled circle icon. Exposure, Levels, and Curves are all potentially useful for fixing your light leak. You can add a layer mask to the adjustment layer (the icon to the left of the adjustment layer icon in your Layers panel - it's a white square with a black circle in it) and then select just the light leak so the exposure change only affects that small area.

If your light leak is totally overexposed then there's no detail that can be recovered. In order to fix this you'll need to use some of the healing tools. Depending on how complex your picture is, the easiest way to do this is to make a selection around your light leak (using the rectangle marquee tool is best if it's a thin line) and then go to Edit > Fill and choose the Content Aware option. If Content Aware Fill doesn't do the trick, then you'll need to try experimenting with the clone stamp or healing brush tools.

I hope this helps, and you can always set up a session with me if you need more help with any of the tools I mentioned!