How to Restore Old Photos by Hand

Discovering a cache of old photographs can be like finding hidden treasure, and bringing them back to life is even more of a thrill. Pictures of family members or friends can degrade over time and lose much of their brilliance and detail. The ability to restore those old photos by hand is a skill very few people have. Here are some tips on how to do it.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Archival tape
• Image scanner
• Image editing software

1. Identify which photos are in the most need of restoration. Many photos are in such bad shape that trying to restore them is simply not possible. Perform a bit of triage, and choose the ones best suited for saving.

2. Set aside any color photos and work with the black and white prints first as they are the easiest to work with. Having only two colors to manipulate is much easier than thousands.

3. Collect all of the pieces of torn photos. Torn photos need special attention as they are the first get lost or discarded. Line up the tear with its opposite and try to overlap the images until they appear to match perfectly. Secure the two sides on the opposite side with archival tape.

4. Scan the old photo with a photo scanner set to 300dpi. This setting appears on most scanners as a good high quality resolution for restoration of photos.

5. Bring the scanned old photos into an image manipulating software application. Adobe Photoshop is a program commonly used to restore old photos. By implementing the heal, blend and blur tools, restoring old photos can become easier.

Tips & Warnings

• Use repetitive brush strokes in the editing software. When copying areas or filling in missing areas, proceed in small steps to better gauge progress.
• Utilize the "Dust and Scratches" filter on many image editors. This is wonderful tool to smooth out rough areas of the old photo.
• Adjust the "Sharpness" filter to bring out greater details.

Resources

• Here is a wonderful old photo restoration technique.
• Find a small photo restoration article here.
• Read about the many ways to retouch old photos.