How to remove yellow color on photo

[satimis]

Hi all,

I have old color photos captured on film and printed as paper photo by photo shop. Some of photos become yellow in color (please see attached photos). Now I have converted them to digital images. Please advise what will be an easy way to restore them to their original color.

I don't expect running PhotoShop (Windows) and GIMP (Linux). It will take lengthy time to finish restoring one photo. I have >1,000 old photos to be converted to digial.

I work on both Windows and Linux systems, possessing technique converting analogue photos and analogue video to digital files.

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Regards

 

[smoke665]

I feel your pain, I have several from the 70's, 80's that are fading away fast. I always saved my negatives, so in some cases they are in better shape than the prints. I've been able to scan them and convert.

There may be other ways out there, but I use the auto color tool in a curves layer in Photoshop. Because every image will likely have slight differences I don't know that you can use a one fix for all, but you can create an action that gets you started then tweak from there.

 

[satimis]

I feel your pain, I have several from the 70's, 80's that are fading away fast. I always saved my negatives, so in some cases they are in better shape than the prints. I've been able to scan them and convert.

There may be other ways out there, but I use the auto color tool in a curves layer in Photoshop. Because every image will likely have slight differences I don't know that you can use a one fix for all, but you can create an action that gets you started then tweak from there.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

I have all negatives well packed in box. But it would be difficult for me to find the negatives of a faded photo.

I'll try your advice on PhotoShop if I find it on Windows here. All Windows here are running as VM of Oracle VirtualBox but not all of them having PhotoShop installed. I have GIMP, the alternative of PhotoShop on Linux, here installed on all Ubuntu Linux VMs, Maybe I wourd try your advice on GIMP.

Some of those old photos can be restored on online website, FREE, but not all. I attached a restored photo here.

Regards

 

[satimis]

I feel your pain, I have several from the 70's, 80's that are fading away fast. I always saved my negatives, so in some cases they are in better shape than the prints. I've been able to scan them and convert.

There may be other ways out there, but I use the auto color tool in a curves layer in Photoshop. Because every image will likely have slight differences I don't know that you can use a one fix for all, but you can create an action that gets you started then tweak from there.

Hi smoke665.

Again. I tried your suggestion on GIMP, adjusting input and output. It works but time consuming.

I attach the photos, before and after editing.

Regards

 

[smoke665]

You can only do so much with a seriously degraded photo. There isn't any data left to work with. I did a quick Photoshop edit on the 1st photo in your post. It's better but still could use work. In this one I tried both curves and levels, the Level layer worked best on the auto. As I said earlier, there is no one click fits all, even on a photo that isn't degraded. The best you can hope for is to automate the process by saving actions in Photoshop.

 

[Rickbb]

Since you have the negatives, I'd scan them all in, or rather have a service do it for you. That can be automated, and you could then sort through them as thumbnails much faster than one at a time.

 

[satimis]

Since you have the negatives, I'd scan them all in, or rather have a service do it for you. That can be automated, and you could then sort through them as thumbnails much faster than one at a time.

Hi Rickbb,

Thanks for your advice.

I have no problem scanning negatives with following setup:-

Camera - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra mobile phone
Setup:
Remote access via Ubuntu 22.04 Linux desktop PC, capture activated on PC without touching the phone.
Light box - Samsung Notepad
Fixture holding negative frame - self-built

I have done it before. The problem is no marking on the negatives indicating where they were captured therefore I dump this idea.

I have more than 1,000 photos but not all of them are faded. I'm now searching an easy way to do the job rather than doing it on PhotoShop/GIMP. I'm sure I can get it done on PhotoShop/GIMP but it is time consuming

Regards

 

[Dikkie]

Again. I tried your suggestion on GIMP, adjusting input and output. It works but time consuming.

Your results look pretty good already.
You should write down your edits and put it into a macro.
It's not recordable like in Photoshop, but you can write them in a programming language, which has more benefits as your scripts can handle "if then else....or other structures", which a recorded macro can't.

I once made macros using Scheme, but you can also do so via Python.
There's aswel something more advanced like BIMP, that can maybe help:

BIMP. Batch Image Manipulation Plugin for GIMP. | Alessandro Francesconi

 

[satimis]

Your results look pretty good already.
You should write down your edits and put it into a macro.
It's not recordable like in Photoshop, but you can write them in a programming language, which has more benefits as your scripts can handle "if then else....or other structures", which a recorded macro can't.

I once made macros using Scheme, but you can also do so via Python.
There's aswel something more advanced like BIMP, that can maybe help:

BIMP. Batch Image Manipulation Plugin for GIMP. | Alessandro Francesconi

Thank for your advice.

Could you please guide me how to put the steps on a macro? Thanks.

I run both Photoshop and GIMP here. But most time I run GIMP because I'm working on a Ubuntu 22.04 (Linux) PC and GIMP is running on it. Photoshop is running on a Windows VM of VirtualBox

Regards

 

[Dikkie]

Thank for your advice.

Could you please guide me how to put the steps on a macro? Thanks.

I run both Photoshop and GIMP here. But most time I run GIMP because I'm working on a Ubuntu 22.04 (Linux) PC and GIMP is running on it. Photoshop is running on a Windows VM of VirtualBox

Regards

Here's a tutorial to get you started, it does a resize of your image, places white border, or signature:

[tutorial] gimp script to batch resize, add border, watermark or signature

Hi all ! Right here a brand new tutorial I made for you. Purpose: You need to batch lots of photos that need an automatic resize, or need a border, watermark/signature on it. Without Photoshop, but with free open source software and an easy script (like a macro or photoshop action). The...

www.sitepoint.com

And here you can find everything about Scheme:

Chapter 13. Scripting

So then you can build your own script.

 

[satimis]

Here's a tutorial to get you started, it does a resize of your image, places white border, or signature:

[tutorial] gimp script to batch resize, add border, watermark or signature

Hi all ! Right here a brand new tutorial I made for you. Purpose: You need to batch lots of photos that need an automatic resize, or need a border, watermark/signature on it. Without Photoshop, but with free open source software and an easy script (like a macro or photoshop action). The...

www.sitepoint.com

And here you can find everything about Scheme:

Chapter 13. Scripting

So then you can build your own script.

Hi@Dikkie,

Thanks for your advice.

On editing yellowish photos I run GUI operation. How can I know the back-end commands for filling the details in the script.

The example is for resizing, or adding a border, watermark/signature on photos, not relevant to my case.

Please advise. Thanks

Regards

 

[Dikkie]

The example is for resizing, or adding a border, watermark/signature on photos, not relevant to my case.

Yes I know, but it gives you an idea how to build up a script.

You can just copy that and omit the stuff for resizing or checking on aspect ratio, and then replace your code to change the hue-chroma or color corrections.
(begin
; put your stuff here
)

At the moment I don't have the time to figure it out and built it up here.
If I find the time later on, I could try.

Here are some more examples: plug-ins/script-fu/scripts · master · GNOME / GIMP · GitLab

( to set the color map: plug-ins/script-fu/scripts/script-fu-set-cmap.scm · master · GNOME / GIMP · GitLab)
Or for color temperature:

How to change the 'color temperature' in script-fu/scheme?

devs I'm working over a C# project and I execute gimp-console.exe to execute scripts and I put some paths (the input and the output image) as parameters to process some functions to this images. Pa...

stackoverflow.com

There used to be a good reference with all details about scheme online before, but can't find it directly anymore.
It was called "Mike Terry's black belt school of Script-Fu". Here's only some part online:

GUM v.1.0.0

Or perhaps more info on this forum:

Gimp Scripts and Plugins

Gimp Scripts and Plugins : Post all Gimp scripts and script writing questions here

gimpchat.com