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Like an old photo. Retouching an old photo

From April 12, 2015 to early June, there were many posts based on these photos. Dmitry himself was carried away by this process, he acquired a good scanner that allows you to digitize images from any media in a very short time. high resolution and took up restoration. Moreover, his approach differs from most restorers and retouchers from Photoshop. The main goal is to recreate the original image, not a quick result. The examples below fully illustrate what has been said.
Personally, I have my own selfish interest in Dmitry's venture - what if something local history from the family bins pops up!))) If someone deems it appropriate to distribute this post, we will be very grateful!)))
Dmitry leads a group on Odnoklassniki https://ok.ru/profile/570398517042, connect!)))
Original taken from g_decor Restoration of old and damaged photographs.

We have got the new kind services for the restoration of old and damaged photographs, color and black-and-white negatives, slides and archival photographic documents. The quality of the copy is significantly superior to the quality of the original material.

Time does its job: photographs on paper and film deteriorate over time, begin to fade, fade, become covered with small cracks and scratches. You can restore them to their original appearance with the help of photo restoration.

Modern methods of restoration allow extensive work on image correction:

1. Remove scratches, cracks, bruises, folds, dust effects and small interferences.

2. Increase sharpness to a certain limit on fuzzy and blurry photos.

3. "Glue" torn photos, while the place of "gluing" parts of the photo becomes invisible.

4. Restore lost parts of the image.

5. Adjust the brightness, contrast of the image, perform color correction.

6. If necessary, replace the background with a uniform one to highlight a specific object or person in a group photo.

It should be noted that the concepts of retouching and restoration differ from each other and have different tasks.

In the case of retouching - it is necessary to issue the maximum beautiful photo, hide flaws and show the image more spectacular than it really is. Similar photos can be seen in glossy magazines. There is an effect of a certain artificiality. There is an element of fiction in each photo. Such work, basically, is connected with the ability to use graphic programs and is purely technical.

In the case of restoration, the main thing is the impeccable preservation of the information of the original image, its historical authenticity. This is much more difficult to achieve. It is necessary to remove only the interference that interferes with the perception of the original. In the case of restoration, it is not enough to master the graphic editor, you must have the skills of an artist. A person without training and a certain experience of such work is not able to achieve a good result. The restoration of each photo requires a lot of time, painstaking work and care.

It is possible to scan historical photos in extremely high resolution, allowing you to see the smallest details of the source without loss of quality.

Here are more examples of photos, "before" and "after" their restoration. Look.

Preserve your family archive for posterity. Only those who remember their "roots" have a future.

I would be grateful for the dissemination of information. Contact phone: 89139788415

Original entry and comments on

Today we will take a look at one of the most interesting topics in photo editing with Photoshop - photo retouching. Retouching in general is a very exciting activity. It is damn interesting and pleasant when, it would seem, something real and tangible is obtained from a completely worthless, spoiled photograph, a past era, people and destinies appear.

Just recently, one of my acquaintances asked to restore an old family photograph he had found almost a century ago. Her condition, you know, was very far from perfect. Once again, one has to be convinced of the advantage of digital over film, at least in terms of the safety of photographic materials ...

So let's start r retouching photo. The first step is to scan our "old lady". As a rule, almost all old photographs have “scars” on their body - kinks, lack of fragments (for example, lost corners when torn out of albums), just fading and much more. this work possessed all of the above "merits". Photo scanned at 600 dpi. In principle, 300 dpi is quite enough for such work when printing, but for retouching it is desirable to have a higher resolution to reduce distortion. The output file is TIFF format and highly desirable 12 or 16 bits. The contrast during scanning needs to be reduced, then, in the process of processing the photo, we will restore it. It is desirable to scan in RGB mode, even if the photo is black and white. Then choose one of the three channels with the least damage, removing the rest. Generally, the noisiest channel is usually blue. Thus, we get the original monochrome image. Since the file size for a monochrome image is significantly smaller, this greatly speeds up its processing. I highlight two methods of approach to retouching complex photographs.

At first we do the simplest operations, gradually moving to the most problematic areas. At the same time (especially if you rarely do this, from time to time) you “fill your hand” in simple operations, approaching complex areas with more experience. And as the simple retouching progresses, the photo begins to improve before our eyes, which is very inspiring for further work. Or we start with the most difficult (more suitable for very experienced users), leaving the trifle “for later”.

Let's focus on the first option retouching photo. Let's try to draw up for ourselves some approximate retouching work plan, so as not to run around the photo from corner to corner in search of defects. Since there is nowhere else to crop our work, it is necessary to restore the edges of our canvas, eliminate creases and large scratches, try to restore the man’s “torn off” leg, retouch the woman’s face (the most difficult), clean up the remaining trifle, and also need a general exposure correction and final toning.

Of course, you can use different methods of processing photos to restore the edges of the canvas. In this case, I did the following. As you remember, we scanned a photo with a very low contrast, now it will come in handy. The inner cover of the scanner usually has a black backing. If this is not the case, then cover the photo with a black sheet of paper and, if possible, press it more tightly against the glass to even out the creases.
Now the black level on your work will match exactly the scanner substrate when scanning, as you can see in the photo above. Make a copy of the layer (Ctrl + J), then right-click (pen) select Color Range (color range) and select our black outline, where there was no photo. In this case, the Fuzziness slider determines the selection range. Then, selecting a drawing tool, for example a brush, with the B key, pressing the Alt key, select the tone of the drawing tool with an eyedropper on the picture itself. First, select a tone in the floor area (lighter) and paint over the selected black area opposite the floor with it. Then choose a medium tone for the rest of the edge (darker) and paint over the rest of the selected black area. Why do we need such complexity - for the correct operation of our miracle tool Patch (patch).

Select the tool with the J key. This function contains three tools: Patch, Healing Brush and Replace Color, which are switched between themselves with the Shift + J keys. Why is this photo editing tool so good? It allows you to replace the texture of the selected area while maintaining its brightness and color components. I will show this on the example of an enlarged fragment of the floor near the woman's leg.
Let's select with a pen the area that we are going to "treat", this will be the edge of the photo, which we painted over with a tone taken as a sample from the border area of the picture. The main thing is not to rush, following the rule - less is better. Since we need to restore the texture of the floor, we move the selected area with the pen to the area where we will take the texture sample, observing the alignment of the sample with respect to the selected area (in this case, along the gap between the boards). After alignment, raise the pen (release the left mouse button). The result is amazing - no traces of stitching fragments. Similarly, we process the entire area. It should be added that the tool has several modes of operation. Source (source) - in this mode, we select the area that we are treating. Destination (target) - in this mode, we highlight the area that we are treating (sampling texture). When the Transpa-rent (transparency) checkbox is checked, the texture sample affects the transparency of the replaced fragment (it is used quite rarely). I consider the Source mode to be the most optimal and convenient.

The photo processing result shown below was obtained in eight steps. If we had not aligned our missing edge of the photo with the previous selection and tone-on-tone operations with the photo itself, then the brightness of the replaced fragment would change from foreground to black. That is, our photo would have a blurry black border, which is unacceptable. The more accurately you match the tone on the missing edges, the better the final result will be. To get back to some of the "fateful" stages of retouching, I highly recommend creating a Snapshot of these stages. After that, you can safely clear the History palette (history) to free up RAM if you do not have enough of it.

Similarly, we work with the entire edge. The work is painstaking, but the result is worth it! Creases and large scratches are eliminated in the same way, using the Patch and Stamp tools. Small dots and scratches are easier and faster to remove using the Healing Brush tool (healing brush). The work of the tool is absolutely similar to the previous one and is very similar to the work of the Stamp tool (stamp), familiar to you. The only difference is that the Healing Brush takes only the texture from the sample, and the brightness and color from the “repaired” area. Some features of its application should be taken into account. The Patch and Healing Brush tools have some blurring of the borders relative to the selection outline, so they cannot be used on the borders of sharp brightness transitions - the result of photo processing will not be very successful.
Thus, attempts to remove “on the forehead” damage near the woman’s head using Patch lead to a blurring of the boundaries and a violation of the uniformity of the tone of the replaced fragment. To prevent such results when processing photos on problem areas of sharp tonal transitions, you can first apply the Stamp tool with adjustable border hardness (for more accurate overlay). It is used to separate (expand) the boundaries of transitions, if the fragment being replaced is large enough. If the fragment is small, then you can simply paint over it with the Stamp tool, and then apply Patch in the same place for alignment.

As you can see, the result retouching photo completely different. If you clearly understand the principle of operation of these tools, then success is guaranteed to you!
The next step in processing the photo is to “make” the man’s missing leg (oh, if it were possible in real life…). Before this crucial operation, you need to straighten the background in place of the missing leg, then it will be more difficult to do. We do this with the Patch tool. Now we select his right leg almost to the knee (slightly higher than the missing part and with an allowance around the perimeter). Next, execute the command Feather (feathering) with a radius of about 10 pixels. Copy Ctrl+C and paste on a new layer Ctrl+V. Hold down the Ctrl key (or, more conveniently, the bottom button of our wonderful Wacom pen) and drag the new leg into place, flipping it horizontally so that it becomes the left one! Next, use the levels (but not the transparency of the layer) to adjust the brightness and contrast of the leg so that the transition point becomes invisible. It turned out like this.
Next, with an eraser, with a transparency of 50%, with light pen movements, we erase our allowance along the contour of the new leg to the background and in the places of the folds on the trousers. You can feel like a magician.
Now we take on the most difficult and delicate thing in photo processing - the restoration of a woman's face. Here everything is somewhat more complicated, but not hopeless. The most difficult thing is to restore the eyes and nose area. We will then make the forehead with the usual tools. You can try to "just" draw the eyes, but I'm clearly not an artist, so we won't even try. You can only finish the small details, but no more. It remains to borrow eyes elsewhere, no matter how blasphemous it may sound.
Having carefully studied all the characters in the photograph, I found that her daughter's eyes, in principle, are very similar. This means that our daughter will be a “donor”. Turn on the lasso with the L key, select the area of the eyes and nose on the daughter’s face (again with a small allowance), do a feathering of about 10 pixels, copy, paste on a new layer and drag the fragment to a new place. First you need to compare the distance between the eyes with the original. Naturally, in a child it is somewhat less. Therefore, we transform the fragment to the desired size. For accuracy, turn on the grid (Ctrl + "). Then we put our eyes in place.
It remains to work a little with an eraser over the eyebrows and the eyes can be considered finished. The seemingly most difficult operation in photo processing was given to us quite easily. Naturally, in the absence of a "donor" in the original image, you can use another suitable photograph. Everything is in the power of your imagination, the main thing is not to give in to difficulties. Then we act according to the old scenario: “no noise, no dust ...”, that is, we eliminate the remaining minor minor defects.

After we have eliminated all (well, almost all) defects in the image, we need to bring it to good view: raise contrast, tone.
To begin with, we will bring its histogram back to normal using the Levels adjustment layer (levels). In order to produce toning (if necessary), the image must be converted to RGB mode. After that, in the adjustment layer Hue / Saturation we carry out toning. The transparency of this layer can be varied by changing the strength of the toning. We will address the issue of toning in more detail in one of the following issues of the magazine.

The result that you see below took about two hours of working time. I will say right away that my friend was very pleased with the result! .. and brought a bunch of old photos.
In conclusion, I want to say: be as careful as possible about the features of the past. Try, if possible, to bring less new to old photographs, otherwise you will get a “remake”. We have now deliberately considered a rather complicated situation when we had to restore the missing elements. But, by doing so, we only once again studied the possibilities of Photoshop tools in photo processing. Before undertaking such work, especially if you are not doing it for yourself, be sure to discuss with the customer the possible consequences of such a deep restoration. Sometimes it is better to leave some moments as they are, rather than distort or add from yourself - after all, this is history!

Photographs on paper have the unpleasant property of fading, fading, becoming covered with small cracks and scratches over time. Almost every person in the house has old black and white photographs from the family archive, damaged by time. However, they are dear to the heart and can be restored if you use a computer and the appropriate software.

Photo recovery methods using modern technologies lots of. Consider one of the methods - restoring a photo using Adobe Photoshop. In any of them, the use of the following tools can be noted: Clone Stamp Tool, Healing Brush Tool and Patch Tool. What you need: A computer with the appropriate software and a scanner to scan images. Here is the simplest and most common way to restore an image:

1. Photo scanning

The photograph must be scanned. Before scanning, do not forget to wipe off fingerprints and old dust from the photo.

In the scanner settings, you need to set the highest resolution - at least 300 - 600 dpi. A lower resolution will not allow you to print the restored photo.

Black and white photographs should be scanned in "color" mode (RGB) rather than black and white, as color mode allows more detail to be preserved. Scanning in grayscale mode may result in poorer quality and more noise.

2. Image analysis and cropping

In the process of scanning and converting a photograph from damaged paper into digital form, a lot of small cracks, scratches and dust particles appear, which are sometimes completely invisible in the original image. After scanning, it is important to analyze the image in terms of whether it is necessary to remove dust, which parts of the photo require restoration, and which can serve as donors for lost areas.

3. Remove scratches and dust

To remove dust, the Dust&Scratches filter is used, followed by applying a layer mask and restoring areas undamaged by dust. Dust is always more visible in the shadows and, accordingly, it will be much easier to remove it automatically there. When removing dust, work at 100 percent zoom to get a clean, restored photo afterwards that won't leave any scratches or specks of dust that go unnoticed.

To eliminate cracks, you will need to switch to the Lab Color mode, where you can correct the image both in relief and in color. Cracks and scratches are removed from the photo using the Clone Stamp Tool. You can also use the Healing Brush Tool for this purpose. When working with these tools, be especially careful when removing scratches and cracks from faces in a photo.

Hair, clothes, and some other details are often the only areas in an old photograph that can be called clear and detailed. Therefore, when working with them, you should also be extremely careful. If necessary, you can additionally remove bags under the eyes, wrinkles and other imperfections in the photo with the same Clone Stamp Tool and Healing Brush Tool.

4. Restoration of missing sections

Some areas of an old photo may be so damaged that they will have to be restored using other, similar areas in the picture. To restore missing or damaged sections, you need to use the Clone Stamp Tool. Here you only need to select an area in the photo from which you can copy some of the pixels and, thus, restore the damaged area with their help. The cursor pointer is placed on this area, after which you need to click the left mouse button by pressing the Alt key. Next, you need to move the cursor pointer to the damaged area of the photo and click the left mouse button again. You may need to create a new layer to correct each large part photographic images.

In order to close large damages, it is better to use the Patch Tool, which provides for the creation of a kind of patch with which you can cover the damaged fragment of the image. To restore symmetrical details of the face, use the Flip Horizontal function from the Transform group to flip the copied fragment horizontally. Then use the Warp command to transform the fragment so that it complements the photo. True, here it must be borne in mind that a person's face is very rarely symmetrical, as a result of which a face restored in this way may look unrealistic. So, you will probably have to perform additional correction and feathering of the restored fragment.

5. Color correction

Finally, download Adobe Photoshop. And the first task is to make black and white color, and again to make the lost color play with the original colors. To do this, just use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to call the dialog menu Levels (levels). First, you can use the button Auto (Auto) and look at the finished result of color correction. If the result is not satisfactory, you will have to adjust the tone manually.

Working with levels (Levels), the white and black point sliders will need to be moved to those points in the image where the histogram displays the beginning of areas with dark and light pixels. To increase the contrast and color saturation of the photo, you will also need to use the Match Color menu. Here you can increase the intensity of the color using the Color Intensity slider, while you will need to check the Neutralize box to neutralize the midtones that appear.

6. Minor corrections, sharpening and general photo correction

If the photo has shadowed areas, then they can be removed using the Shadow / Highlight option. To correct dark and bright areas it is necessary to select the settings correctly so as not to lose the detail of the image and not to “kill” the contrast art. To achieve a really high-quality result, it is recommended to use curves (Curves), with the help of which it will be possible to further work out the dark and light areas of the photo image.

To improve the clarity of the photo, use the Unsharp Mask tool. Don't get too hung up on eliminating noise when restoring photos. Grain in old photographs looks quite impressive, adding a peculiar spirit of the time to the image.

Finally, you can try to make the photo more interesting and colorful by additionally adjusting the contrast and color saturation of the image using the Hue / Saturation option, which is called by the Ctrl + U keyboard shortcut.

Printed photographs are fragile reminders of important points and past events. Often old photographs are in a single copy, so damage to the photograph can greatly sadden the owner. Paper has been exposed to moisture, water, sunlight and dust for years. Sometimes, if stored incorrectly, even new pictures can become inappropriate. Learn the basic ways to restore your photos, learn how to do them at home, and start storing your photos the right way to preserve memories for generations to come.

Steps

Digital restoration of minor damage

Use the correct equipment. To recover photos at home, you will need a quality scanner and image editing software for your computer. For example, you can purchase a photo editor like Photoshop and a scanner that allows you to scan photos in high resolution, which is measured in dots per square inch. The higher the resolution, the more detailed the scanned image will be. In most cases, a resolution of 300 dpi is recommended.

Scan a photo. Place your photo carefully in the scanner and choose to scan in high resolution to capture all the details of the photo. Subsequently, save the finished image as a TIFF instead of a JPEG. The TIFF format will increase the file size, but will provide high detail and image quality. Save the image and open it in a photo editor.

Crop the image. Use the appropriate tool to remove signs of damage from the edges of the photo. The edges of old photographs are often deformed by high humidity or contact with water. If the damage is located around the perimeter of the photo, then cropping will help to quickly solve the problem.

Remove scratches and traces of dust. The Dust and Scratches filter or the Spot Healing Brush tool in Photoshop, or similar tools in other photo editors, make the process of removing imperfections much easier. Zoom in on the image and remove the traces of damage with the mouse cursor. Take your time and zoom out periodically to control the result. The filter will also remove some details, so don't go overboard with this feature.

Open a new tab with a photo that fits the entire window to see the changes.

Repair tears and missing fragments. If the photo has tears, cuts, or missing fragments, use the Stamp tool to recreate parts of the image and damaged areas. Select a tool and select the part of the photo where you want to copy or use information on a mouse click. Move the cursor to the area you want to restore using the copied material.

Print the image. After restoration, print the photo using an inkjet or special photo printer on glossy photo paper.

Fix the tears with acid-free adhesive tape. Fix a tear or repair a torn photo with acid-free tape. Ordinary tape or duct tape contains an acidic adhesive that can damage the photo over time. Purchase archival tape or tape with an acrylic adhesive compound from the office supply department or specialty store. Cut off small strips of tape and fix the tears on the back of the picture.

Use patch tape. A torn photo can be repaired with paper tape and acid-free glue. Patch tape is available at art supply stores or office supply stores. Apply a small amount of glue to a strip of paper and press down on the torn area on the back of the photo. Gather up any excess glue with a cotton swab. Leave the photo to dry face down on a towel and press down with a small book to keep the edges from fraying.
Create a humidification chamber for photos with warped edges. If old photos are wrapped or deformed around the edges, then a homemade humidification chamber will help solve the problem. The camera will allow you to saturate a dry, fragile photograph with moisture so that the paper at the edges opens and straightens.
- Type water at room temperature 5-7 centimeters high into a plastic container for storage. Place a wire rack in the container and make sure the top is not submerged. Place the photograph on top of the grille and cover the camera with the lid. Leave for a few hours. Periodically examine the photo and wipe off any drops of water on the paper. When the edges straighten out, remove the photo and leave to dry face up on a towel. Cover the photograph with blotting paper or parchment and press down with a book.

Last week my grandma asked if I could restore an old, ruined childhood photo of my father. I said I'd try, but I'm not promising anything. I knew it was possible that the level of damage in the photo would be beyond my knowledge, or the technology I have. After I received the photo in the mail, my worst expectations were met; this turned out to be no easy task.

As you can see, the photo is so badly damaged that a large portion of the face is missing. This usually happens when a wet photo dries and sticks to another photo. I've compiled a list of tips for separating sticky photos:

Keep a close eye on those photographs whose negatives you do not have. Once a photo gets wet or moldy, it will be almost impossible to save it.
Handle wet or stuck photos carefully, their surface may be very fragile. Avoid touching the surface of the image.
If you see that the condition of old photos starts to deteriorate, it is better to redo them while you can. Take new photos from old ones after absorbing moisture (see below for moisture absorption).
Remove photos from frosted, glass or plastic frames as carefully as possible without causing any harm. Also, if the pasted photo is in good condition, it can be scanned with a frame, and sent a digital copy for restoration.
If you have stuck photos, they can be separated in warm water, if the water becomes dirty, it needs to be changed. It will take you about an hour to loosen them.
Wet photographs can be rinsed in clean water, if necessary, and sealed in a plastic container or ziplock bag.
A good way to preserve photographs is to place wax paper between the photographs.
If you have a freezer, freeze the photos. Later they can be thawed, separated and dried.
If you don't have access to a freezer or refrigerator, rinse damp photos in clean water and dry by laying them face up on a clean surface such as a table or towel.
You can reduce the growth of mold in a photo if you store it in a dry and ventilated place. Open windows, turn on fans, air conditioners and moisture separators.
Do not dry photos in direct sunlight.
To prevent photos from curling, you can add a sinker at the corners of the photo.

If the photo is already damaged and you need to fix it, here are a few tips and methods that I used. Remember that even if you have an artistic eye and you know what the missing parts of the face will look like, always work from a copy, not the original.

What You Will Need

Good scanner. If you do not have it, scan the photo in any other place.
Any version of Photoshop
It's not required, but I used a Photoshop plugin called Alien Skin Exposure

Step One: Scan

Make sure you are scanning your photo at the highest possible resolution. I recommend at least 300dpi. High resolution is required because you will be using other parts of the image as you work, and low resolution may produce unexpected results (remember that film has a much higher resolution and you will experience pixel loss. In small images , loss in pixels is not noticeable).

Make sure you remove dust and fingerprints from your pictures. Dust must be removed prior to scanning using compressed air, a soft brush, or an optical grade cleaning cloth.

Step Two: Color Correction

There are many ways to color correct in Photoshop. I most often use Threshold, which can be created with an additional layer.

To do this, create a duplicate layer with the photo, select the entire document (Ctrl+A), copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V), then click on the little yin-yang icon at the bottom of the layers panel and select Threshold. The Threshold window will open and everything will turn black and white.
Move the slider all the way to the left and slowly return to its place. The first black pixels to appear on the image are the darkest areas of the photo. Once you see them, click OK.
Zoom in on these pixels, select the Color Sampler Tool (I), and place a marker in the center of these black pixels.
Once you've set the marker, you can get rid of the layer's Threshold by moving it to the trash can icon in the layers panel, or by pressing Delete. The top layer will return to its previous appearance, and the marker will remain visible.
Next, create a new Threshold layer and repeat the same steps, with the only difference being that you drag the slider to the right. This will indicate the lightest areas in the photo.
Add another marker and delete the Threshold layer. It's time for color correction.
Click Image -> Adjustments -> Curve to open the Curves panel.
In the Curves panel, select the black tipped eyedropper and click on the first marker showing the darkest pixels. You may need to enlarge the images for a more accurate work.
Do the same for the lightest parts of the photo, but with a white tip eyedropper. These actions will determine the black and light areas and help in color correction.

Step Three: Recovery

Select the Clone Stamp Tool (S) and change the mode from Normal to Darken. This will help to clone pixels from one area to another, overexposed area. I used this tool for hair and face. For softer transitions, I used a soft brush of different sizes.

In my case, I focused on the face, because he was absent.

In this case, it is very important to have an artistic eye, because. missing areas must be drawn as accurately as possible; for example, you need to redraw the right side of the mouth and lips. It's very lucky that the left part remained intact, and you can copy it, flip it horizontally, change the angle, and place it in the right place. Next, use the Clone Stamp Tool to touch up the edges of the lips. Correcting the background in this case was not difficult, in addition, I decided to return the image to its original shape of a rectangle without a paper frame glued to the photo.

When cloning the missing areas with a soft brush, you will notice that they are more blurry than the rest of the image, because. it has a lot of noise. To fix this, I used Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise and checked the Monochrome box. Next, I adjusted the intensity of the noise until I brought the image to a single result.

At this stage, I was very pleased with the work done, but, despite this, there were areas of skin color in which it did not look natural. I used the Alien Skin Exposure plugin. With this plugin, I simulated a black and white photo and added sepia. To add sepia, you need to use the Sepia - Mid Band Split setting. I couldn't believe that I was done with the restoration of this photo. This is the first time I've come across photographs damaged to such an extent.

Step Four: Print

We have reached the simplest stage in the work, it remains only to print the restored photo. I wish you all good luck!