Tutorial for restoring old damaged photos?

[Ron Hunter]

I am assembling a video interview of my parents that will include old and damaged photos. Can someone recommend a good tutorial to help me improve the quality of these old black & white images? I've already been through the tutorials on Muvipix but they don't cover this topic.

Thanks!

[Steve Grisetti]

Well, this isn't technically a tutorial, but it's got some nice how-to information.
http://www.evisibility.com/blog/repair- ... -pictures/

Meantime, you've inspired me to create a tutorial on doing it! I don't know if you've got a week or so for me to work on it -- but it's definitely something Muvipix needs.

[Bobby]

I don't know of a tutorial either and I also do not use Elements so I am probably not going to be a lot of help here!

But there are two main areas to work on. First you need to adjust the dynamic range of the photo to get your blacks black and whites white. In full Photoshop you would use the Levels function. You don't gain any information, but the results can look dramatically better. Once this is done, you can then tweak the brightness/contrast/gamma to suit.

The next step involves repair of tears or damage from water, etc. Most of this work, if it can be done at all, is done with a tool like the Clone brush. You pick an area of the photo that is OK and then "paint" it onto or over the damaged area. In Photoshop there are a number of different clone brushes to use, especially the content aware clone. I remember once repairing the wheel of a bicycle that way - lots of work.

Good luck - ask questions!

[Chuck Engels]

Here are a few good ones to keep you busy until Steve finishes his
http://www.cyberinkdesign.com/photo_repair.htm
http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo ... -workflow/
http://www.photoshopwebsite.com/photosh ... ed-photos/
http://vimeo.com/4007534

[Jayell]

Wow! Some great stuff there, Chuck!

[Ron Hunter]

Thanks for the help! I bet those tutorials will get me where I need to be. And thanks for the tip on making the blacks black and the whites white, I didn't think about that but it makes sense. Thanks to the Muvipix PSE tutorials, I DO know how to do that.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

There is an excellent book "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching" by Katrin Eissmann. The copy that I have (and have found invaluable in learning the ropes) is focused on Photoshop CS2 but still has applicability in CS5.

The intro to the book refers to PSE and points out the features missing that are in Photoshop but not in PSE. A quote from the intro section:-

A reader wrote to me regarding my book and Photoshop Elements. "I am using your book with Photoshop Elements. What your book does that others don't is discuss the reasons for making certain adjustments, and the theory behind making certain adjustments, so I think that it is applicable to Photoshop Elements...."

Here is a link to the book on Amazon US:-

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-R ... 552&sr=1-1

Don't forget to order via the Muvipix link to Amazon.

[momoffduty]

Lots of resources! Bookmarked, thanks!