Restoring Your Photos:
Do it Yourself

You’ve been unofficially named the family historian, inheriting boxes upon boxes of heirloom photos. Because of your stellar scrapping skills, your family expects you to turn these images into albums by your annual family reunion at the end of the summer!

Under normal circumstances you’d be excited by the challenge, but the degraded condition of some of the pictures is causing you stress, which you fear will also effect your pocketbook. Though the more recent pictures are still in relatively good condition, the elements have taken their toll on many others. Fingerprints, smudges, scratches, and spills have affected a few of the prints, while others are stuffed into not-so-safe magnetic albums. While you know that time is important, before you can possibly use some the pictures, restoration is necessary and you just can’t afford the $35 per picture to have the refurbishing done.

Never fear! Not all of the rescue and restoration process requires technical training or taking your photos to an expensive lab. With the right tools on hand, you can make many of the photos as good as new or at the very least useable. Here are some step-by-step guidelines for restoring and brushing up those heritage photos.

Removing Photos From Magnetic Albums

These albums, though very popular several years ago, are actually quite damaging. The glue and plastic film can leave photos brittle and discolored. Though it may seem like an impossibility to remove them, it can be usually done with a solution such as UnDu. This chemical can be applied directly to the photos without damaging them and works to temporarily neutralize the adhesive long enough to remove the photo. UnDu is also good for removing smudges from photos.

If you think more damage will come from trying to remove the photo from the album, you might consider simply having color copies made while the pictures are still in the albums, or cutting the backing around the photo edge and using it as is. Another method to try is prying with a thin spatula to lift the photo from the page or using a sawing motion with dental floss to break the bond between the glue and the back of the photo.

While you may be able to remove the picture, it will likely still require some TLC. For problems such as tears, scratches or discoloration, a bit of technology is the key. With a scanner, a photo editing program like Photoshop or Illustrator and a printer, you have all the tools you’ll need to do it yourself.

Restoring at Home

With all of the technology available to them, you may be surprised to find out that even the experts at Kodak use Adobe Photoshop to restore photos. Though you may not have quite the technical expertise that they do, you can probably perform many of the same restoration techniques at home without paying the price for an expert.

What Should Your Image Editing Software Have?

There are several features that your software may have. Knowing what exactly you want to fix in each photo will help you evaluate whether your program will allow you to do what you want. The chart below can help you figure out what you’ll need.

Scanning Your Photos

You can use your flatbed scanner to get the photos you need into your image editing software. Since you’re likely going to reprint the photos once you’ve restored them, you’ll want to be sure to scan at a resolution of 300 dpi or so. While you can go up to about 600 dpi if you need to preserve a lot of detail, it is not usually necessary. 300 dpi will allow you to perform the manipulation necessary to restore the photo and will provide you with a decent print quality.

You’ll also want to scan the image in color, even if the original is a black and white. This will give you the ability to make the quality of the image better by adjusting color settings to achieve the right balance. You can convert the image to grayscale at any time in the editing process, but once you’ve done it, you cannot get the color back.

Once you’ve scanned the picture, save two copies; one copy will be an original, the other the one you edit. This way if you want to start over, you won’t have to go to the trouble of rescanning.

Cropping

Be sure to crop the image when you get it into your image editor. Some scanners include a portion of the scanning bed as part of the image, adding extra data to the file. When you try to adjust the color balance of the image, the additional information will prevent the program from creating the best possible balance.

You may or may not choose to keep any mats or borders that are part of the original print, but you can choose to crop the photo further if you want to remove something or zoom in on a portion of the picture. This is another task that can wait until later, though, as what you remove, you won’t be able to recover if you change your mind.

Fixing Coloration

One of the first moves you’ll want to make is adjusting the levels of your photo to fine-tune the colors and lighting in your image. If your image editing software has an Instant Fix or Auto Levels option, this will probably be the easiest and most effective way to take care of this. This can generally be found under Adjust on the Image Menu.

You can also use the Curves setting to make some color adjustments to your photo. This setting will allow you to adjust the light in the image, and the brightness/contrast of certain areas of the photo.

If you’re just trying to adjust the lightness/darkness of the entire image, you can use the Brightness/Darkness setting. However, remember that levels and luminosity adjustments are not the same as brightness contrast. You should always try these luminosity adjustments prior to using the brightness/contrast settings to make changes. Adjusting the luminosity levels does impact the brightness/contrast, but using only the brightness/contrast controls actually eliminates information, where the luminosity controls will save it.

Eliminating Scratches, Spills, Fingerprints and Other Markings

You can use the cloning or rubber stamper tool to fix marks on the image. By placing the cursor in the area near the scratch or mark, and holding down the ALT key (PC) or Option key (Mac) and clicking, you can take a sample of what you want the scratched area to look like. You can then choose a brush size equal in width to the scratch, and place the tool over the problem area. By clicking and dragging the mouse, you’ll paint a copy of the sample area into the area of the scratch or mark.

You can repeat this process for problem areas until you are satisfied that the scratches or marks have been removed.

Fixing Focus Problems

Some of the most priceless moments are captured in pictures that turn out blurry. If you’ve got an heirloom photo that is just a touch out of focus, you may be able to fix it by using the sharpness or blurring options. First, try to sharpen the image by going to Sharpen, under the Filter menu. Try to sharpen a couple of times, and determine whether the image appears better or worse. If it doesn’t get better, select Gaussian Blur under the Filter/Blur menu. This feature allows you to select a certain number amount of pixels that it will blend together. You’ll most likely want to use small numbers from .1 to 1.0. Oftentimes using this feature, followed by sharpening, will produce a much clearer, better looking photo. Remember that you can always use your history palette to undo actions.

With a little know-how, a little patience and some ambition, you’re sure to turn those worn photos back into priceless pieces of history— without the expensive costs of taking them to a lab. The improved quality of the images will in turn greatly improve the superiority of your layouts, and your family will be proud that they selected you to preserve the cherished memories of generations. Beware, though, your role as historian is bound to stick if you come through with flying colors!