Photo Retouching: New Edition

New Edition
This is an old photo of a friend when he was a young, new addition to the family. The original photo suffered from decay and peeling. It was also improperly exposed from the beginning (the left side was over exposed). The were coffee stains on portions of it as well.

First, I simply grayscaled the image to eliminate the color of the coffee stains. Next I very carefully using the healing tool to fix the decayed and peeling portions of the photo (this took a long time to get just right). I then converted the image into a series of layers so that I could attack the exposure problem in separate layers. Using contrast and brightness controls I worked on the left side of the image, working to fix it as well as keep it as closely in balance with the right side. Then I worked the contrast and brightness on the entire image to even things out. Finally I cropped the image to properly fit the frame.

I considered adding a sepia tone to the final image to give it that “old” look, but chose not to do because it seemed forced.