Photo Restoration

[slickhare]

so my family dug up some old photos. and i offered to try to restore them w/ ps (some of them are from the 1950's). so i was wondering what are some good techniques for restoration?

 

[terri]

so my family dug up some old photos. and i offered to try to restore them w/ ps (some of them are from the 1950's). so i was wondering what are some good techniques for restoration?

I used to do a lot of that, it was quite lucrative for a few years. Just scan them in a high res and save as TIFF files, since that's what you'll print from. Make a copy of the original scan and work on the copy, so if you screw up you'll still have the original scan.

Are they B&W or color? They can be a challenge depending on how much they've deteriorated. The oldest family photo I ever restored was circa 1900, in pretty ghastly shape. Be prepared for a lot of careful and time-consuming PS work. It can be a lot of fun, though. I liked it when my customers wanted color, then I could do the conversion in B&W, print it out and hand color it.

I'll move this thread to the tutorial forum, in case someone has explicit step by steps for you. Good luck!

 

[JohnMF]

i think with photo restoration a lot of it come down to your talent as an artist almost as much as your knowledge of PS.

You will probably find yourself using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush more than anything else, so maybe that would be a good place to start learning from

 

[Digital Matt]

As John said, you'll be cloning lots, so familiarize yourself with that tool. Restoration takes lots of patience.