Photoshop to the Rescue

My interest in learning Photoshop began about seven years ago. I wanted to see if it was possible to salvage some old photos which were in less than perfect condition. Here's an example:

It's quite discolored from age, has a tear in the top right corner, and has many creases, some of which are very visible. After some Photoshop magic, here's an edited version of the image:

The original image is about 4.5 x 2.5 inches. I cropped some of the background out to better focus on the subject; plus, cropping eliminated the torn corner very easily. The photo still isn't perfect by any means. Removing every single crease individually is just about impossible. I blurred the background slightly to soften the creases instead of trying to clone them out. The trade-off is that those parts of the photo have now lost some detail, but I didn't think that they were as vital as, say, someone's face. Unfortunately, because the original photo is on the small side, there isn't much that can be done to zoom in on the subject without causing pixelation.

Depending on the sentimental value of the photo, though, sometimes a slightly fuzzy background is a small price to pay as opposed to the picture falling further into a state of disrepair.