Use Photoshop Elements’ Clone Stamp tool to copy matching detail from near the tear and paint over the line, rebuilding what’s missing without inventing new content.
What you need
- The scanned photo, opened in Photoshop Elements
- A steady hand with the mouse or trackpad
- About fifteen to twenty minutes
Work on a duplicate layer
Work on a duplicate layer, not your only saved copy of the scan, so the original stays safe if a repair doesn’t work out.
How to smooth the tear
- Open the scan in Elements and go to Layer > Duplicate Layer.
- Select the Clone Stamp tool from the tool panel.
- Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) and click a clean area near the tear to set your source point.
- Paint along the tear line in short strokes, resetting your source point often so you’re not repeating the same patch of detail over and over.
- Zoom to 100% to check the repair, then save as a new file.
Check the repair blends in
At normal viewing size the tear line should be gone, and zoomed in, the repair should blend with the surrounding texture rather than looking like an obvious smudge or repeated pattern.
If the tear crosses a face
If the tear crosses a face or another important detail, be extra careful – cloning can rebuild a background convincingly, but it can’t reliably recreate a person’s features. It’s often better to leave that kind of damage and note it than risk misrepresenting someone. GIMP, which is free, has an equivalent Clone tool that works the same way.
Next step
If the same photo also has dust or light scratches, see Remove dust and scratches from a scanned negative.
Sources and date checked
Adobe Photoshop Elements Help, checked 22 September 2026.