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Posted by sapphire-blu on 04-Apr-2011 03:48 Report
Photo touching
Can anyone answer two questions for me.
1.Is it possible to sharpen up an photograph when the negatives r not available?
2.We have a large sepia photograph of my husband's grandmother.Unfortunately the surface got scratched.The print is not actually damaged as in the surface being broken,it's the kind of scratch you would get from a blunt smooth item being pulled across the surface.unfortunately the damage crosses the face.
Can this be rescued?It is a beautiful portrait picture & if possible we would like to restore it and then get it behind glass.
Thank you
 
Replied by blackduck on 04-Apr-2011 05:47 (Ref 2282357) Report
Yes it is possible.  You would probably have to see a professional photographer to have it done.  My family have just had one done of my Grand Parents wedding and it was water marked and moth eaten from being in storage.  The end result is very good.
Replied by richbartim on 04-Apr-2011 09:20 (Ref 2282388) Report
you could try it yourself. scan the photo.. use one of the many photo programs out there like picsa or any free one. that way you are not damaging your original if it does not work you are only touching up the copy.
With the original I would take to an expert.
Replied by memories-2-make on 04-Apr-2011 10:42 (Ref 2282414) Report
You can try what richbartim (above) has suggested. I found i could scan and touch up successfully smaller photos, but for the larger photos I took them to a professional to restore. You get your original photo back and a restored photo to frame.
Replied by blacknwhite on 04-Apr-2011 11:17 (Ref 2282419) Report
Photoshop
Replied by ripperspares on 08-Apr-2011 12:34 (Ref 2283243) Report

The best program I've seen for photo restorations is Retouch Pilot. There's a free version which is just missing one minor feature, it's call "Retouch Pilot Lite".

Their web site isn't working at the moment, but was a few days ago. I hope they haven't gone bust.
If you get a copy and need some tips, let me know. It's really easy though.
Replied by sapphire-blu on 08-Apr-2011 14:00 (Ref 2283247) Report
Thanks ripperspares.Just out of idle curiosity which element is missing?
Replied by ripperspares on 08-Apr-2011 15:26 (Ref 2283256) Report

I've only ever used the free version, but on the web site it shows what looks like a cloning tool that the paid version has. It may be more useful than I realise, but even without it the program is incredible. If I want cloning I have other programs which can do that.

What I find great is the way it lets you instantly remove spots from pictures, and with some patience you can get scratches and cracks to disappear. You can easily zoom in to rediculous levels to get all the detail possible. It handles huge files (I've done some which were around 150mb) and it saves in a few formats including Tiff which preserves image quality so much better than the more common Jpeg.

Scan your photo at the highest resolution you can (6" x 4" or smaller I usually scan at 1200dpi, for bigger originals I can only do at 600dpi), make a copy to work on, and file the first scan in case you want to do something different with it later (crop, rotate, etc).

Can you tell I'm a little obsessive about old photos :-)

EDIT
I just had a look and the web site is working again. They now have a second tool which is only available with the paid version. The cloning one is called "Smart Patch" and the new one is called "Elastic".
They show a black and white photo of a young girl as a sample of a restoration. It would take some time, but it is a genuine sample of what the program is capable of.
Replied by sapphire-blu on 08-Apr-2011 16:34 (Ref 2283270) Report
Thanks ripper.It's very interesting.I am an infinately patient person so that part of the process won't worry me.It's great that you hav a 'thing' about old photos.Thank goodness today's technology allows us to 'rescue' all these poor old pictures.
Thanks so much for all you help.It would be good if I could keep you in mind if I run into problems?
Replied by ripperspares on 09-Apr-2011 10:37 (Ref 2283433) Report

The technology is great, finding the time to use it can be the challenge :-)

I borrowed all the old family photos I could get from uncles and aunts and cousins and scanned them. It took ages, but at least it's done now. I shared copies around the family, plus I put them all on Picasaweb, so hopefully they'll be saved for a while now. I made the really old ones visible to the public online, and because of that a distant cousin contacted me about our family tree.

As for retouching them, I've done quite a few of the special ones, but if they're really damaged they take a long time to fix. The worst I've found are my parents slides (like their wedding photos) which all have mould spots all over them :-(

If you run into problems maybe just explain them here. That way others may be helped too.
You can PM me if you think that would be better.
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