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B

brainfogbetty

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Since I just joined, I thought I'd make a short intro thread. I have hundreds of old
family photos that needed restoring and I saved the hardest ones for last. I know the basic tools in photoshop, but I'm having a hard time trying to fix the badly damaged photos. I am not sure where to start when a photo needs so much work.
Thought I would join this forum and ask for some help from some pros.

B.
 
Post an image and we'll try to help you along.
You can't link to an image right now, post the image directly by clinking on this button
insertimage.png
on the tool bar above.
 
G'day mate, pop it up and lets see whats your problem,but you got to do a version yourself fairs fair lol, (joke).
 
View attachment 9583

Here's the photo. This was scanned from a tin photo that was taken around 1913 or so. I have been working on it and I'll post what I've done, but it's not good. :sad:

There are a million tiny scratches and I can't find a good spot to clone anything.
 
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I think I posted the wrong one. I can't figure out how to edit my post, so I'm adding the untouched version.

I deleted this photo because it was the wrong one.
 
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Here is the one I'm working on. I don't like the dark background and I'm not sure I'm doing this right. I'm using the clone stamp tool.
 
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You can't edit your posts right now but don't worry about that.
That photo shouldn't be too tough once you sharpen your skills, it's in pretty good shape.

By your posts I'm not sure which is the original scan but you need to start out with a much higher quality scan. Minimum should be a 600 ppi grayscale scan.
BTW, you can post large files here.

What version of Photoshop are you using?
 
The second photo is the original. I thought I did scan it at 600 dpi. The original is very small and it is a tin photo. I'll go get the photo and rescan it. I'm using Photoshop 7.
 
I can't find the original photo. I must have given it back. I'll look again tomorrow. I know I played around with it while scanning and scanned it several times trying to find the best scan.
 
I found it! Wow...I had to look through hundreds of photos to find this.
Ok, this is scanned at 600 dpi in grayscale.

Chas and Erz scan.jpg
 
Welcome to PSG, brainfogbetty.

Sometimes replies can take a while . But don't worry... there'll be someone onhand to help you out.

I can't right now... no PS while on a break.... But I'll try and help you out with other stuff when I get back.
 
I'm showing 300ppi but it seems to be OK.
A Clone Stamp is your main tool, the way your doing it your making the background dead black.
You can put in a new background if you plan on cleaning up every little scratch but I would just try to clone the good background over the damaged area scratches and all.

What's important is the faces are in good shape for a simple cleanup of the photo.
If you want this image to look like it came out of the camera you'll need a higher rez scan.

Here's what I mean about the background.
ss.jpg
 
OK you're removing the images I was commenting on so it's tough to have a continuous conversation.
Your image in post 12 is a lot better then the previous image you were working on, that background was flat black.
 
I removed the bad scans. I scanned one last night at 600 dpi that I posted, but I just scanned it at 1200 dpi and that one looks a lot better. I haven't uploaded that one yet, but I will. Sorry for the confusion. Here is the 1200 dpi scan.
Erz and chas 1200dpi.jpg
Oh, my scanner can lighten it up, or should I just leave it as is?
 
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Not to worry but I was commenting on your edit in Post 6 which is now gone.
Your edit in Post 12 looked better until I opened in in PS and added contrast.

Anyway my point was unless you want this image to look like the day it was printed, don't worry to much about the scratches in the background, my personal opinion.
You can put in a graduated blur to the background, concentrate on the people.

Now with your new scan is the print really that dark?
If not you need to do it again and play with the brightness and contrast and get the scan to look as much like the original as possible.
 
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