repair old photos

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author: Xtro
introduction:
Perhaps one of the most useful uses for photoshop has got to be repairing all those old photos that are slowly rotting up there in your attic. You now have the chance, not just to maintain alive a piece of history (which by itself is important enough), but also to learn more about your old, old folks, and let me tell you, you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn from one repaired old photograph.
requirements:
Adobe Photoshop 6 or higher
target result:

step 1
To start we need to get the photo into the PC. Easy enough, shove it in the scanner and away you go. I have used a resolution of 300, which is plenty. Any higher and you'll get a bigger file size without any more digital information in the image.


step 2
But it's wonky! Yes, yes. It doesn't matter. Just shove it in like I said. I want to show you a great photoshop trick. One of my favorties.


step 3
See that eyedropper tool just on top of the magnifying glass? Well click and hold it. After what seems to be 36 minutes you'll get a drop down menu coming out with the Color Sampler Tool and the Measure Tool. We want the Measure Tool! Now very carefully click the down left corner of our photo and drag to the down right corner. Make sure you do it as accurately as you can. Now for the magic. Click Image->Rotate Canvas->Arbitrary. You'll get a pop up window. Here mine gives an angle of 2,64.


step 4
Click ok and be prepared to be amazed!


step 5
A perfectly straight photo. I told you it was a great trick. Now click Image->Rotate Canvas-> 90ยบ CCW (counter clockwise):


step 6
Now for the crop. Why did they used to have that horrible white border? Let's get rid. Drag the rulers at the top and left of the screen and position the guides at the edge of our photo. That done press C on the keyboard to activate the crop tool. Make sure snap is enabled (View->Snap) and drag the crop tool from corner to corner:


step 7
When you're happy with it, tap Enter:


step 8
View->Clear guides. Right, on to the good stuff. SHIFT+CRTL+U to desaturate. Now CRTL+L to open up the Levels window:


step 9
What we are after is making the shadows darker and the midtones a little lighter:


step 10
Right, let's start repairing. Zoom right in on the top right corner. We'll be using the clone tool mostly. Alt click just under the bad part in the corner then draw. Use a soft edged brush and short strokes:


step 11
Zoom out.


step 12
Fixed! Get the idea? My grandfather's face is going to be a little more tricky, though (trust him to make things harder for everybody). Zoom in:


step 13
Choose a smaller brush and Alt click somewhere next to that big white line that's slashing through his face. Take it slowly and don't forget CRTL+Z to undo your last action:


step 14
When you've finished cloning one part just go over it a little with the Blur Tool (R). Use a soft brush and about half strength. Don't forget: Cloning takes LOTS of practise to get it right, so don't give up. Carry on zooming in and cloning/blurring each part. TAKE YOUR TIME! This isn't a competition. Here's what I ended up with after an HOUR:


step 15
Now copy the layer by dragging the background layer to the 'New Layer' icon, change the blending mode to hard light and we're done!




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