fixing photos

CE
Posted By
carlos_e_fernandez
Oct 9, 2003
Views
258
Replies
13
Status
Closed
have an old picture that i’m trying to fix,but for some reason it’s not working.it’s bended,and in black and white,and old.could somebody help me?thank you.i just want to know,step by step,how i would fix it.

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

MR
Mark_Reibman
Oct 9, 2003
Have you tried using your ‘How to’ menu? Select Restore photos and work with some of the steps there.

Otherwise your question is too general. To use Elements on a project as you mention will take some learning and practice. If you’re more specific about your difficulties it will be easier to help you on the forum.
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 9, 2003
carlos, I’ve been thinking about your question now for a couple of hours. The problem is that there’s no "recipe" for working on a photo no one has seen. Also, most of these old photos have a number of things about them that need to be corrected. I think the best thing to do is focus on one particular problem in the picture and learn techniques that work on that. For example, you say the picture is bent. Usually the Clone tool is your best bet for touching up this kind of damage. It requires experimentation, though, because no single brush style, brush size, or opacity will work on all parts. I suggest you make a copy of the picture you’ve scanned and spend some time "playing" with the Clone tool.

I also did a couple of searches on Google to see if I could find a tutorial. You might want to do the same thing. I didn’t find one that did a good job of covering every problem you might run in to, but there are a number of good ones on cloning and adjusting for extremely faded pictures. Do a Google search under the key words "Photoshop restore tutorials" You’ll find a bunch of stuff that could be helpful. You’re the only one who really knows what your picture looks like, so you might find something very similar to what you’re looking at on your monitor.

I don’t know how much you’ve used Elements, but if you’re a new user, you might have to spend some time just learning about the basic tools available before you tackle this particular image.

If you can post back with some more specific questions, it’s more likely you’ll get a more detailed answer.

Good luck!
PA
Patti_Anderson
Oct 10, 2003
Adobe has a downloadable pdf tutorial on fixing old photos in Photoshop. After a quick read, the majority can be done in Elements as well: <http://www.adobe.com/web/tips/psmagazine/main.html>

There is also an excellent tutorial at scantips.com for using the clone tool to fixing old photos. The sample photo has a nice "crease" so you may find it helpful: <http://www.scantips.com/restore.html>

Patti
CS
carl_sutherland
Oct 13, 2003
Hi Carlos,

I’ve just received my new Microtek 6800 scanner with the ICE software that is supposed to take care of scratches and folds in old pictures. If those are your problems and you can not resolve them with the techniques listed in earlier messages on this thread, if you would send the image to me I would see what I could do with this software.

Carl
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Oct 13, 2003
Have you tried it yet, Carl? How does it work?
CS
carl_sutherland
Oct 15, 2003
Hi Barbara,

Have a look at my first try. Here < http://homepage.mac.com/csut2/Microtek_Scanner/PhotoAlbum9.h tml> it is.

Do you know a forum where I can find others using this technology? Microtek does not have one I know of?
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 15, 2003
You know, Carl – there’s just one in every crowd, and I’m usually it. Are you photos labeled backwards, or does that software really add creases? 🙂 Assuming the one with the crease was the "before", I’d say it did a good job.

Tell me more about that scanner, please, because I’ll be getting a new one before too long. As much as I love my old UMAX, it’s just getting too outdated. 🙁
CS
carl_sutherland
Oct 15, 2003
Beth,

Thanks for pointing that our. BLUSH. Am I red faced or what!

Carl
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 15, 2003
Yup, your cheeks are really, really red! Your nose, too. 🙂

So tell me about the scanner. Please.
CS
carl_sutherland
Oct 16, 2003
Hi Beth,

My nose and cheeks have calmed down enough I can now see past them. I didn’t know how to edit the page once its been posted, so I deleted it and constructed a new one here < http://homepage.mac.com/csut2/Microtek_Scanner/PhotoAlbum10. html> .

I am interested in technology that will simplify photo restoration. To my knowledge, Microtek is the only scanner using this digital ICE software for such purposes. I thought I saw a reference to another at one point, and it may exist, but I currently know only the Microtek. The scanner has several color modes up to true 48-bit color and both 8-bit and 16-bit gray modes for B&W. It has an optical resolution of 4800×2400 dpi(that’s what it says folks-dpi). Its both Windows and Mac compatible and can be connected by USB 2.0 or firewire. It comes bundled with quite a bit of software including PSE 2 with a coupon good for upgrade to photoshop up to 50% savings (whatever that means) at the Adobe store thru June 30, 2004. The basic function of scanning is OS X compatible and I do not know yet about the OCR, email, copy,and web functions. I downloaded the latest driver from the Microtek web site and installation could not have gone easier. It worked on my first photo I scanned and I put up at the URL above the second photo I scanned and first I scanned with the ICE software. The interface seems pretty straightforward and simple. There is an initial window for routine scanning I found easy to use. You click on a button in it to take you to a far more complicated window for complex scanning. It looks like there is a lot of digital imaging technology like we have in PSE 2 here so some of it may be reduplication that may or may not prove useful. I bought it thru Amazon for $359.00. Maybe I could have gotten a better deal elsewhere, but I have been so happy with Amazon and so unhappy with the other etailers I’ve used that I just use Amazon anymore.

I don’t know of anything else to say right now. I’ve just opened it up and started. I’m happy to share this with you and further as I get experience.

Carl
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 16, 2003
Thank you Carl! That was a nice review. I’ll keep it on my short list of scanners to consider. There’s not a huge selection of them that work well with Jaguar, and the release of Panther might present some new challenges. I like the sound of the scanning software itself, because I’ve had good and I’ve had bad, and I like using the good better! Does it happen to have a slide/negative adapter?
CS
carl_sutherland
Oct 16, 2003
Hi Beth,

Thank you. The 6800 scanning function seems to work great with Jaguar. I know nothing about Panther and won’t fiddle with it until Barbara tells us its safe to test the water (or jungle I guess in this case). I believe it does have capability of both negative and slide scanning and does have the adapter and does have the light in the top for that purpose, but I have not used it yet. There are instructions for 35mm slides, 35mm filmstrips, 6×9 cm film, and 4×5" film. I believe 4×5" is the max size for scanning these types of materials.

Do you know of any scanning forum where others with this software may hang out? We haven’t heard from Barbara yet. I suspect it is like about everything else-there is a learning curve with it that could be greatly reduced with access to others with this technology. I would love it if you and/or others on this forum would get it but I am not going to advocate it in case it doesn’t work out.

Did you have some photos with moire or something like that? From what I read I’m not too optimistic as the technology seems more where there are sharp contrasts between good image and white background. I will try one if you wish. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly.

Carl
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 16, 2003
First answer: No I don’t know of any forums for this scanner/software. We’re really lucky to have this one for Elements, but not all software makers are as nice. Have you tried looking at scantips.com? He has a list of scanning software that he kind of reviews. I haven’t looked at it lately, but you might get some tips there.

The photos you’re thinking of that I was so frustrated with are ones with silvering in them. According to everything I’ve read so far, the effect is exacerbated using flatbed scanners, because of the light source. The lamp shines directly on them from below and creates a reflection wherever the light hits the silvering, and it’s that reflection that’s so hard to remove. If you think there is anything in that software you’re using that tries to correct for this, I’ll see if I can find a duplicate photo and just mail it to you. The only way a test could be done is if the original picture was placed on the glass. We’re leaving in a couple of hours for a short trip. I’ll try to play catchup next Tuesday and also look for an old photo.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections