How to Restore Photographs With Adobe Photoshop

Old photos need help looking their best.

Some Photoshop users have dedicated their careers to image restoration; the subject is vast and can be complex and time consuming. For the novice who simply wants to repair some old family photos, the tools can be intimidating. Luckily, some of the most useful tools and techniques are also the easiest to use, and you can apply these to solve 90% of the problems found in old and damaged photographs. These problems include color casts, fading, dust, scratches, creases and tears.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop
• Digitally scanned photo showing signs of deterioration and damage

Instructions

Repairing Old Photographs

1. With the image open in Photoshop use the Variations command (Image > Adjustments > Variations...) to balance the color (skip this if working on black and white photos in grayscale mode). In the view presented, iteratively select incremental increases in the appropriate direction on the color wheel. Typically, as old color photos fade the colors shift in one or two directions. If, for example, the photo appears too yellow, then choose "More Blue"--which is the same as taking away yellow. Repeat, adding any necessary color components, until the image labeled "current pick" has no unpleasant color cast.

2. Create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast). Most often images, both color and black and white, lose contrast as they age. In the Adjustments Panel slowly move the Contrast slider to the right. The point is to add some vitality to the image by increasing the difference between dark and light areas of of the photo, while maintaining as much texture and detail in all areas as possible. After altering the contrast, experiment by slowly sliding the Brightness slider right and left. The image may require some brightening after increasing the contrast. Because this is an adjustment layer you can continue to adjust these iteratively until the image looks good and you have improved variation in tones across the image.

3. If restoring a color photo, create a Vibrance adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance). Identify an area of the scene that should be more colorful and view this while slowly shifting the Vibrance slider to the right in the adjustments panel. The effect may be subtle. If the scene includes people, keep an eye on their skin tones to make sure they do not become overly saturated.

4. Remove dust specks and short, thin scratches using the Spot Healing Brush. Adjust the brush size so that it is slightly larger than the spot and click on it. If the area to be repaired borders an area where color or contrast change then use the Healing Brush. Press the "Option/Alt" key to sample an area away from the spot that includes a portion of both sides of the bordered area. Release the Option/Alt key and click on the area with the spot. Doing this tells the tool to include both areas under the sample area in its smoothing calculation.

5. Repair creases, tears and small missing portions located in uniform areas of the photo using the Clone Stamp tool. Press the "Option/Alt" key and click on an undamaged area to identify the area to clone, then click and carefully drag along the damaged area. You will probably have to sample and re-sample new areas as you move along long narrow areas of damage. Often, it is best to make a first repair using this tool, and then go over the same area in an identical fashion using the Healing Brush tool to smooth out obvious areas of repair.

Tips & Warnings

• Every step of photo restoration and retouching takes immense patience because repairs must be done incrementally and iteratively. Oftentimes you will need to backup several steps and restart a repair.

• Keep the History Panel open and handy so that you can try some changes and then step back in history to compare before and after.

• Color photos, and black and white photos scanned in RGB mode need not be perfectly neutrally color balanced. Often, a carefully chosen color cast improves an image.

References

• "Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers"; Barry Huggins;2005