[The Cajun]

Enlarged, reduced contrast, increased brightness, sharpened.
?????

[TXnMA]

Thanks! But you started with the already-"stained" image, right? I've started with the "before" image, and, beginning with a black or dark gray oval with gaussian-blurred edges, am trying various mathematical options for making it transparent and reacting it with the background. So far, everthing I've tried that looks halfway right, increases the saturation of the underlying image (instead of "washing it out" as if it were covered in dark dust...

I expect I could do it by rendering the image from RGB to CMYK, and then mucking about with the "K" (black) channel. But it beats me as to why anyone would go to so much trouble just to post a hokey image on an obscure business site...