How to Digitally Restore Old Photos

Old photos are family heirlooms passed down from one generation to the next. Even with the best of care, they sometimes become blemished, tattered and torn. It's possible to restore these old images digitally, however, and even make them better than they were in some cases. Here's how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flatbed or other media scanner that will accept the size photo you have
• Photo manipulation software

1. Scan photos using a flatbed scanner or other scanner that can accept whatever size you have.

2. Open photos with your photo manipulation software. You will need good photo editing software for this operation, such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Picture It or Printhouse. Download a shareware program with premium restore functions at Eusoftnet.com listed in the resources section below.

3. Crop images as needed to suit the purpose you have in mind. There's no need to work on areas of the photo you don't want to include in your final print.

4. Repair any large blemishes, scratches, water marks or other defects with a paint command or use a clone painting or rubber stamping tool. These tools can even be used to restore areas of images that are completely defaced or missing.

5. Use a despeckle, remove noise or smooth command to remove fine dust spots over the whole image. Your program may call this function a dust filter.

6. Adjust brightness, contrast and focus, if needed.

7. Correct the tint. You can make a black and white photo look really old by applying a sepia, or brown tone, or make it look like an old tin-type photo. Experiment with antiquing and metallic effects if your program has them.

8. Save and print your new "old" photo.

Tips & Warnings

• Handle old photos with care. They can be very fragile and are irreplaceable if destroyed before copying.

Resources

• Work through a tutorial on photo restoration at Photo Shop Champ.
• Download a shareware program for restoring old photos at Akvis Retoucher.