How to Colorize, Enhance and Restore Photos
Colorizing, enhancing and restoring photos is a popular task with many computer users. Today's technology allows people who have different levels of computer skills to successfully alter photos. Learning the following steps will provide the skills necessary for a computer user (artist) to give the desired effect to any photo.
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Instructions
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Scan the photo. Today's technology requires the photograph to be converted into digital information. This is done by using an image scanner. If you do not have access to a scanner, digital photo services are available at local retail stores. Ideally, the image should be scanned at a resolution of 300-600 DPI and saved as a high-quality JPEG.
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Open the JPEG file in a photo-editing software program (see tips below). This type of software uses many tools and techniques. Tools and techniques used depend on the photo's condition. For example, to colorize an old black-and-white photo, change the mode to RGB or CMYK. Create layers, to prevent working on the original file, then experiment with selection tools, like the magic wand and lasso. Use the color palette to add color. Adjust the opacity and blending options (Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options) to lighten and darken the layer(s). Combining Quick Mask mode and curves are other methods for colorizing black-and-white or grayscale photos. (See references 1)
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Enhance your photo. Like colorizing, enhancing a photo can be done with a variety of tools and techniques. How you want to achieve a certain effect will determine which tools to select. The quickest and most efficient method to enhance a photo with effects is to apply filters. Filters, such as glow, soft focus and Gaussian blur, are built-in to Photoshop's filter menu. To learn more details about Photoshop's image-enhancing features see Reference 2.
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Restore your photos. Scratches, stains, cracking, torn edges, facial blemishes or any other defects seen in a photo can be fixed using photo-editing software such as Photoshop. The cloning and healing brush tools work well to fix facial blemishes, while despeckle and sharpen reduce noise (pixelation) and blur. (References 3)
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Consider other methods for restoration. Although digital photo-editing is the newest form of restoration, there are more traditional techniques. Chemical restoration involves bleaching and redeveloping an extremely faded image; physical restoration applies two procedures, called neutron activation and x-ray fluorescence; copy restoration is a method of duplicating the original using transparent material, such as negatives and positives; airbrush restoration is a technique used by professional artists, using a metal pen-shaped brush and compressed air. To learn more about these traditional methods see Resources 2.
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Tips & Warnings
Because Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard, and the most popular software for these purposes, this article uses terms associated with Photoshop. However, these terms are interchangeable with other software programs.
The higher a photo resolution scanned, the larger the file size.
If resizing the final print, consider using Genuine Fractals software to maintain high-quality photos.
Be careful not to overuse tools and techniques. This may cause important details to be removed from the photo.
Only professional photographic conservators should work on original photographs.
