Fixing old B/W photos

SF
Posted By
Sue Flores
Feb 19, 2004
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549
Replies
12
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Closed
have a bunch of old b/w photos of my grandmother that my dad scanned onto a cd for me. can i "fix" these in elements? or do i need a stronger application? the pictures are grainy so they print looking really "pixilated."
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NS
Nancy_S
Feb 19, 2004
Sue,

Unless you already own full Photoshop, or want to part with about $650 US to purchase it, Elements IS the "stronger" application.

The program provides all the tools you will need to produce professional results, the skill level of the operator will be the determining factor for restoration success. However, even the most accomplished user can’t "make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear".

It is amazing what one can do in this program to improve old images.

I hope your Dad scanned the images at a real high resolution so that you have lots of pixels to work with.

Maybe the images are printing out pixelated because they are currently set at a resolution too low for quality printing. You would want your images to be between 200-300ppi for printing. Open one that you have printed and go to Image>Resize>Image Resize and see what resolution it was at.
BS
Bernard Saper
Feb 19, 2004
Sue
I agree with Nancy and would like to add one more thought. Old family photographs are a treasure and there is a vast store of information to help you when you work on them in Elements. An excellent book entitled Photoshop Restoration and Retouching by Katryn Eismann may be just the help you need. The book was written for the full Photoshop, but can easily be used with Elements as well.

wrote in message
Sue,

Unless you already own full Photoshop, or want to part with about $650 US
to purchase it, Elements IS the "stronger" application.
The program provides all the tools you will need to produce professional
results, the skill level of the operator will be the determining factor for restoration success. However, even the most accomplished user can’t "make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear".
It is amazing what one can do in this program to improve old images.
I hope your Dad scanned the images at a real high resolution so that you
have lots of pixels to work with.
Maybe the images are printing out pixelated because they are currently set
at a resolution too low for quality printing. You would want your images to be between 200-300ppi for printing. Open one that you have printed and go to Image>Resize>Image Resize and see what resolution it was at.
SF
Sue Flores
Feb 19, 2004
thanks, nancy. you confirmed one of my suspicions. my dad said he scanned at 300 dpi, but the cd shows all of them at 72. don’t know how he managed to do that except that he saved them that way without realizing it. time to scan them myself!
NS
Nancy_S
Feb 19, 2004
sue,

If your Dad told you that, I would believe him. The important question is, what are the sizes of the images in pixel dimensions? You may very well have huge physical size displayed as the file attributes with a resolution of 72. The res. of the images on the disk means nothing. Arbitrarily assigning a higher res. to an image has the effect of reducing the printed size, but making it suitable for a decent print within the 200-300 ppi range. What is important is how you process the image.

Look in Image>Resize>ImageSize. Don’t change anything yet, just post back with the dimensions and res. of a typical image. From these numbers, suggestions will be given (if requested) as to the best way to proceed. I am leaving town very shortly today, but there are many helpful and knowledgable people to run with the ball. The goal is to apply some PSE magic to your images to preserve your family heritage.

Nancy
SF
Sue Flores
Feb 19, 2004
nancy,

i’m learning so much from you already (obviously, i’m a novice). here is a sampling:

pic from 1929: 1144 x 1766 pixels (16 x 24") and 72 pixels/inch. pic from 1933: 349 x 548 pixels (5 x 7.5") and 72 pixels/inch.

like the 2 above, the dimensions vary. the 1933 pic is my favorite (i’m a dead ringer for grandma in this one) so i’d really like to know if that pic is workable. thanks!
MO
mat_of_the_mint
Feb 19, 2004
Sue, I would suggest scanning again, and at 300 or 400 ppi (dpi). Save the scans to your hard disk then transfer them to a CD if you wish. They should transfer as you scaned them (300 ppi or what ever). I do it quite often and the ppi is always the same. Your father’s scanning programme or the programme to put them on a CD must have ‘changed’ things round. And Elements will do just fine for repair, sizing, what ever else you want to do to them. The full Photoshop would be overkill.
O
OldnSenile
Feb 20, 2004
Sue,

As Nancy stated, you should print at 200 to 300 pixels per inch, to avoid "pixilation". This means that you should get satisfactory results if you print the image at the same size (or up to 1.5 times) the size of the prints that your dad scanned at 300 ppi. (This assumes that you do not significantly crop the images.) For example, the original scanned 1933 photo must have been :

349 / 300 = 1.16 inch high x 548 / 300 = 1.83 inch wide

If you print it at 200 ppi, it would be: 1.75 x 2.74 inches.

If you need a larger print, your dad may have to re-scan the originals at a higher resolution.

If you go back into Elements "Resize" and "un"- check "Resample Image", and then change the Resolution to 200 (or to 300), it will show the corresponding width and height of your printed image. The image size in pixels will not change.

You may be able to increase the image size a bit, by checking "Resample" in the table, and then changing the "Height" or "Width". (Keep "Constrain Proportions" checked.) This adds pixels by interpolation (estimation) which is likely to distort the image if done excessively.

Just a reminder, as you will see often in this forum, it is recommended that you work with copies, (should not be a problem since your originals are on a CD), and while editing, you should work with "lossless" formats like tif or psd, because jpg files may lose additional image detail after each editing session, due to the new compression process during the save.

Also, you may find a problem in modifying a file copied from a CD, if the file is set as "Read Only". This can be changed for the copied file by un-checking "Read-Only" after "right-click" / "Properties" (on
Windows systems).

OldnSenile
SF
Sue Flores
Feb 20, 2004
thanks for all the info, everyone! i’ve learned lots. thanks for the tip about editing formats. my dad e-mailed me the original scans which helped (he had cropped a lot). i’ve been playing around with the photos and have already had some success. thanks again!
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
Feb 20, 2004
Sue,
For purpose of scanning in the future, you may find this to be helpful: <http://www.image-access.net/calc/index.html>
Ken
JR
Jean_Reazer
Feb 23, 2004
I am trying to scan in and improve some old black and white photos using Elements 2.0. Most of the people in the photos have faces in shadow but when I try to apply Fill Flash there is no effect. The other features in Quick Fix work fine, including auto contrast and brightness and they are some help but Fill Flash is what I really need. I have scanned the photos using 300 pixels and saved them in a jpg format.

Can anyone tell me what I need to do to get Fill Flash to work?

Thanks,
Jean
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 23, 2004
Jean,

If the faces are in shadow then:

Select the shadowed part of the face (I use the lasso or magic wand) Then do Enhance>Adjust Brightness/Contrast>Levels and play around with the slider adjustments.

There are other ways of doing this but try this one first.

Wendy
JL
Jim Lloyd
Feb 23, 2004
wrote in message
I am trying to scan in and improve some old black and white photos using
Elements 2.0. Most of the people in the photos have faces in shadow but when I try to apply Fill Flash there is no effect. The other features in Quick Fix work fine, including auto contrast and brightness and they are some help but Fill Flash is what I really need. I have scanned the photos using 300 pixels and saved them in a jpg format.
Can anyone tell me what I need to do to get Fill Flash to work?
Thanks,
Jean

Try using LEVELS. Slide the center pointer a bit to the left. This should lighten the shadows without effecting the rest of the photo very much.

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