Restoring an old tintype photo

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Posted By
Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
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325
Replies
8
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Closed
Well, I can’t really say I’m disappointed in my new Katrin Eismann book on restoration and retouching, but I sure could give her some new challenges. Everything in there looks like a piece of cake to me. 🙂 I picked up some new ideas, but I bet she’d develop some new techniques if she took a look at my pile of old pictures!

I’m working on one that dates from April, 1880. It’s described in one book I have as a "gem type" – a tiny tintype mounted behind a cardboard cutout. After almost 125 years of poor storage, the face of the tintype is scratched, and the cardboard is very fragile, yellowed, spotted (probably from mildew), and torn. The tintype itself is so dark you can barely make out the image.

I’ve managed to correct for most of this stuff in various ways, but I’ve wound up with an image that’s pretty "flat." Has anybody else worked on something like this and discovered any tools that will give back just a little bit of depth, or texture, or something?! I experimented with adding a little Noise. That helped, but I’m open for more suggestions.
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I
imacgirl
Sep 12, 2003
Beth,

You may want to try Filter>Render>Lighting Effects… and play around with the various Lighting Styles and Texture Channel settings. The great thing is you can ‘Save’ the effect, there are so many options in that filter! 😉

Hope this works for you.

Barb
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Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
Gee whiz, Barb, I hate to be so dumb about this, but there’s a trick to accessing it, isn’t there?! I duplicated my image (I wanted to play on something safe!), simplified, went to Filter>Render, and Lighting Effects is grayed out. OK, this is simple, and I’m missing it!

Edit: Never mind! I forgot I’d changed this copy to grayscale. The filter is accessible in RGB. Duh. Maybe I’ve been working on this too long. Now I’ll try it and see how it looks! Thanks.
CS
Chuck Snyder
Sep 12, 2003
Beth, are you using the first or second edition of Katrin Eismann’s book? I have both, but haven’t had time to look to see if there are some new ideas in the section on old damaged photos.

Chuck
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Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
Well, #$%&*, I must have the first edition, although it was the only one I found listed on Amazon. And it just came day before yesterday. The back cover says it was issued August, 2000. I don’t think I wanted to know this Chuck! Well, yes I did, I guess. 🙂 🙁
CS
Chuck Snyder
Sep 12, 2003
Well, Beth, I won’t tell you that there are a bunch of additional pages in the "Essential Restoration, Repairing, and Rebuilding Techniques" part of the second edition, which had its first printing in July 2003 (135 pages in second edition vs. 107 in the first). I just won’t do that….

Seriously, I’ll go through it and see if there are some new techniques you can use. As you know, some of the techniques are full Photoshop only, but many are broadly applicable.

Chuck
I
imacgirl
Sep 12, 2003
Beth,

Sorry I wasn’t around to help you…I thought I was subscribed via e-mail, I guess I wasn’t. 🙁

One other filter you may want to try is Filter>Stylize>Emboss. Try a setting of Angle 0, Height 6, Amount 89%…although I’m sure it’ll vary with the image itself. You can put this layer at a lower opacity over the one you edited to add some dimension to it. I’m not sure if this will simplify your image too much, but it’s worth a try.

Hope you have the success you’re looking for…if you need any help just yell.

Barb
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Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
Thanks, friends! I’m still sitting here playing. I did a grayscale, and now I’m fiddling with an RGB.

Anybody wanna buy a lightly used copy of "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching", first edition?!

I guess I’m going to have to drag myself to the bookstore. I’m not getting around too well, so I thought I could get buy with ordering online. Not. That’s the way it goes.
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Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
I’m not getting around too well, so I thought I could get buy with ordering online.

Beth, is your leg bothering you again?

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