[vanillasky43]

My parents are sorting through my grandmothers photos and we have found some that are in a really bad way. I fixed one that my uncle wants, but my question is, how do they store the photos? I've recommended acid free photo albums (currently they are using envelopes (shudder, shudder)) but what about the photos that are already degrading? Is there a special spray or something that can stop the fading and other nasty things or will storing them in albums do that?

Lots of questions.
Leanne

Attached File(s)

•  GGGma_Uncle_Ken.jpg (1.71MB)
  Number of downloads: 43
•  image.jpg (422.2K)
  Number of downloads: 32

[catvinnat]

Fraid I don't know of any way you can stop pictures getting worse other than storing them correctly.

The only way to preserve them as they are now is by scanning them and using photshop as a tool to correct them. Acid free albums are 1 way but if they are not in albums it can be a pretty expensive excercise. Acid free photo boxes are another way and considerably cheaper - I know a lot of scrapgirls use photoboxes from seeing previous comments on here.

Good luck with your heritage pics

[elibar]

Since I've been scanning my heritage photos and making digital layouts with them, and putting those in an album for display, I don't see that it's worth the hassle or expense to put the photos in separate albums just to store them. I thought about keeping them in the acid-free photo boxes, but those are hard to look through when I'm looking for a specific photo that I haven't scrapped and I don't feel they offer the best protection for fragile photos.

My solution has been to purchase acid free page protectors, some full size, some divided specifically for 5x7's, 4x6, and such. I can slip the photos into them and just keep them in an inexpensive 3-ring binder. I keep separate binders labeled for each family. That way each photo is protected individually and I can flip through the binder to find what I'm looking for. I can also make a label with my label maker and stick it on the outside of the page protector identifying the photo.

[catvinnat]

what a great idea Elisha, had never thought of that

[elibar]

Oh, Leanne, I forgot to say you did a great job restoring that photo!

[vanillasky43]

Thanks for those suggestions, at the very least photo boxes would be much better protection for their pics than the envelopes. I loose page protector idea, I think that especially for the really old photos that is the best option.

Thanks again

Leanne

[elibar]

happy to help, Leanne! I hope you find a solution that works best for you.

[PBarnes]

Great job on the restoration Leanne!

Thanks for the suggestion Elisha. I've got a lot of really odd shaped heritage photos but I could probably find acid free sleeves to put them in, even if they aren't perfect fits.

[April Showers]

Your photo looks great! I scan them as I can and store them in a file cabinet. They've been in one for about 40 years (maybe longer) already and are in pretty good condition. Who knows how great aunt May stored them before that.

[SandyFeet]

PBarnes, on May 12 2009, 09:14 PM, said:

Great job on the restoration Leanne!

Leanne,

Can you share the steps you took to restore the photo once you scanned it into photoshop?

I am impressed by how much improvement you accomplished and would love to know how to do the same for my heritage photos.

Thanks.

[sheilaj]

Even if stored correctly, some of them will fade and the ink will change. I have some very red photos(they didn't start out that way!) from the seventies that needed colour rebalancing (in PSP) to be at all identifiable. I have some photos of my Mother when she was a child 80 years ago that are stuck firmly into an album that is itself falling apart. I plan to scan the photos and then wrap the album in acid free tissue but not do anything more invasive.

[vanillasky43]

SandyFeet, on May 13 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

PBarnes, on May 12 2009, 09:14 PM, said:

Great job on the restoration Leanne!

Leanne,

Can you share the steps you took to restore the photo once you scanned it into photoshop?

I am impressed by how much improvement you accomplished and would love to know how to do the same for my heritage photos.

Thanks.

My goodness the steps I took......the steps I took.... hmmmm I didn't actually follow a set procedure and quite possibly broke every rule that there is and I doubled back any number of times and tweeked to my hearts content (I'm very particular, very much a perfectionist....its sad really) but I'll try and remember. I've only ever restored 2 or 3 photos so there is a lot of trial and error (lots of error).

I used Photoshop Elements 7 and scanned the photo as a RGB picture (even though it was black and white I read somewhere that scanning all photos as RGB opens up a whole array of grey scale that would other wise be lost, especially important for old photos as they generally are either Sepia or have a tint of some sort) and 600dpi (takes longer and is a much bigger file, but when a photo is faded and damaged I figure it needs all the detail it can get!)

I duplicated the original photo and used the copy to do all my restoring.

I then Enhance, Convert to Black and White and used the Newspaper option (use whatever looks smoother and you are happy with) and tweeked the Contrast a little (I tweek a lot!!). In this case I used Newspaper as it brightened the photo more than Portrait or any other option.

I then played with the lighting controls, Shadows/Highlights, Brightness/Contrast and the Levels until I was happy with the look of the people, I try not to focus on the background too much when I'm adjusting the lighting as some photos are faded in different areas and getting a level of overall sameness in the background that I'm happy with can often lead to poor language and much gnashing of teeth! I sometimes use the Marquee tool to copy and paste areas of background to other places on a photo if i really can't stand the way it looks. But I try to accept that it is an old photo and a varied background adds to the overall effect (I tell myself this a lot)

I cropped as much of the damage out at the edges that I could without loosing too much detail and straightened the photo.

I then decided to tackle the larger areas of damage first and used the Clone Tool to cover the hole in the bottom right hand corner.

I then choose the Healing Brush, and with a soft brush slightly larger than the area that I was 'healing' I repaired the creased and folded areas. I did a lot of clicking. I also used the Clone Tool as sometimes the Healing Brush grabbed the wrong pixels.

I then let the perfectionist side of me reign free and 'Spot Healed' the little specks that were on my GGGma and Guncle's clothing. I was very particular and zoomed right in and clicked on every minute irregularity that I could find, I'm not sure if that's 'normal' but if you can stand the bleeding retinas at the end, its worth the effect.

I got rid of the chair at the left hand edge as cropping had got rid of most of it and what was left was more distracting than anything else. I did this with a combination of Healing, Clone and a bit of copy paste Marqueeing.

I then had a play with the Reduce Noise filter, with Remove JPEG artifact checked to get rid of some of the grainess, then used Enhance, Adjust Sharpness, to add a bit of sharpness, I used 22% with a 3.8 pixel radius. I used 'undo' a lot!! I guess you could do this at the start, but I only read about it part way thru so did it at the end.

I then used the Dodge tool to lighten up the left side of GGGma's face and shoulders, I also used the Dodge tool and worked on the shadows under and around her eyes. - Dodge tool was set at 'shadows' and '20%' with a small soft brush, don't over lighten as it looks a bit odd if you overdo it - less is definately more with the Dodge tool!

Then I decided that the Background was very spotty and uneven, due in part to the restoration and also the original background of the photo, so I used the Blur tool to try and soften and smooth out it all out. I used a soft tip brush, set at Normal and around 25% and blurred the background zooming in so as not to Blur GGGma or GUncle, I wanted them to be a bit Sharper so as to retain as much detail as I could. Blurring the background, achieved a much smoother look and also had the added advantage of hiding the difference in the colour and lighting in the background and also made the Healing Brush 'marks' invisible. I then selected a much smaller brush and used the Blur tool again, on about 15% and blurred their faces too, the photo was very grainy and the blur tool added some smoothness to their faces, took years off GGGma ;o).

I could have added a tint or converted it to Sepia at this point, but I liked the way it looked and left it at that.

I'm guessing I could have used layers to do some of the restoration, but I'm not confident with using Layers like that, so kept with what I knew.
I used the 'undo' button very very often and saved every time I was happy with a particular section!

I hope that helps and wasn't too confusing. I did warn you that it was a bit of a convoluted method. But I was very happy with the end result, just hadn't planned on telling anyone!!

If someone else knows of an easier method, please jump right on in.

Leanne

[catvinnat]

really interested in how you did this, it turned out fantastic which totally justifies all your painstaking work
I tend to use layers as its so much easier to go back a step, also you can switch the layers on and off to easilly check the progress or difference and without the risk of loosing any aspects of the work you like

[vanillasky43]

catvinnat, on May 16 2009, 12:34 AM, said:

really interested in how you did this, it turned out fantastic which totally justifies all your painstaking work
I tend to use layers as its so much easier to go back a step, also you can switch the layers on and off to easilly check the progress or difference and without the risk of loosing any aspects of the work you like

My mum has lots more photos so I'll have to try using layers.

Leanne

[SandyFeet]

Thank you, so much Leanne! You put a lot of effort into your restoration, and a lot of effort into explaining your method. I really appreciate this. I had no idea where to start with a box of family heritage photos. With this I can at least play around with your ideas and see what works for me.

[vanillasky43]

SandyFeet, on May 16 2009, 02:08 PM, said:

Thank you, so much Leanne! You put a lot of effort into your restoration, and a lot of effort into explaining your method. I really appreciate this. I had no idea where to start with a box of family heritage photos. With this I can at least play around with your ideas and see what works for me.

Good luck with the restorations. Don't forget to share your finished photos. Just wanted to show one other photo I restored and then used in a LO.

http://scrapgirls.com.ipbhost.com/index.ph...i&img=81191

Leanne

Attached File(s)

•  image_8.jpg (234.9K)
  Number of downloads: 8

[kimmybutton]

Amazing restoration and, even more, amazing patience, Leanne! I will admit, I, too, have suffered from bleeding retinas from spot healing minute areas on clothing.

[glassbird]

I do a great deal of photo restoration, as I have become the official image archivist for both sides of my family. I was reading thru the directions, mumbling to myself "Yup, I do that. Uh, huh, yup, that works." etc. Then I ran right across the line about "bleeding retinas being worthwhile", and nearly snorted a mouthful of coffee out of my nose!

Thanks for the laugh!

Cathy T.

[Wazzy]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm in the middle "bleeding retinas" and it's nice to know I'm not alone. Muttering to myself that there has to be an easier way, I now realize that nope this is the easier way. I'm in good company.