Restoring Old Photos

Making Really Old Photos Look Like New

I recently took Katherine Weaver's online Photo Restoration class using Photoshop.

All I can say is, "Wow!" Katherine is part of the Scrap Girls team and, boy, does she know her stuff.

Look at the before and after shots of what I was able to accomplish after a one-hour class.

Our homework assignment was to dig out the most damaged, time-worn photo we could find and repair it. I should note that Katherine told us old photos of this period were actually black and white; but had yellowed over time due to the chemicals and papers used.

That was news to me because we are so accustomed to seeing vintage photos done in sepia tones. I may decide to make a sepia version of the restored photo later.

The most exciting part, for me personally, is that I didn't know who this little tyke was when I pulled the photo out. I even named my file, "Who Are You", and that got me humming the CSI theme song: "Who are you? Who, who? Who, who?" by (who else but?) The Who.

As I worked on restoring it and zoomed in real close on the face, I saw my dad staring back at me!

It was very exciting and a bit eerie. I am absolutely convinced that this is my dad at about age three in 1916.

It is by far the earliest photo we have of him. That is, unless I can unearth more "Who are You?" photos from the family archives to restore.

To confirm that this is a photo of my father, I dug out one of him as a young adult and did a comparison of facial features. I e-mailed everything to my sister and two brothers for their reactions.

None of us has any doubt that this is our dad at about age two or three (in 1915 or 1916). And of course everyone wants copies!

In the interim, I took Katherine's second class in photo restoration by. In class 2 we learned how to add density and tint. That was the easy part.

After finishing the restoration shown above, I felt like I had been laying bricks all day! To restore, or rather rebuild, the whitewashed brick background which was terribly faded and splotchy, I needed to find a decent teeny section and clone it seamlessly over the entire background.

It was pretty tedious but well worth the effort.

The layout below demonstrates the different tint variations I tried for the restored photo. I think I like the sepia best.

My Tint Proof Layout uses products by the following super-talented Scrap Girls designers: Brandy Murry, Jan Hicks, Valerie Randall, Angie Briggs, Brandy Hackman and Thao Cosgrove.

Visit our Digital Scrapbooking Index Page for more tips and techniques.