About the Photo Restoration
Some unique family photos had been damaged by improper storage and age. Crinkled, lost emulsion, faded and bubbled images, etc.
These 1936 photos held double value. First, we have had only one other snapshot showing my parents together prior to their marriage - this set had 4 images of them. And, we have very few pre-WWII pictures of the family cabin.
It's actually two projects - the one shown here of the cabin, and another (still being done) to get a 'close up' of my parents.
Software and Techniques Used
I scanned the 5 available photos at ultra-high resolution, then used Photoshop Elements 6 to merge the two 'best condition' photos to have one complete view of the cabin - our only one from this era.
I am also zooming in on my parents for an acceptable "close up" of them. I need to copy small areas of one photo to my project for filling damaged areas, and am using the Clone Stamp tool to fill nearby damaged portions of background.
Finally, I have used portions from each of the 5 photos for skin tones, shadows, texture and hue in a pixel-by-pixel reconstruction of portions of the faces. The goal is an "acceptable" 8x10 closeup of them.
All in all, I had 25 "steps" in merging the two large photos of the cabin ... and saving each successive one in order.
For the closeup of my parents, I made about 70 saves, along with notations, of each step and effort.
Advice
- Time and patience - on something such as this, there just aren't many available shortcuts. Hurrying the effort increases frustration.
- Keep a written log of the effort. For each of the successive 'steps' in merging the two cabin photos, for example, I had nearly 5 pages of notes for what had been done in each step. That was invaluable when I realized I needed to back up a couple steps to correct something which had not been noticed at the time. Notes from the effort on a closeup of my parents now takes up nearly 25 pages.
What graphics software do you use on a regular basis?
Photoshop Elements 6, current version of Windows Paint (now Windows 7), and Ulead Graphics 10.5.
How long have you been working with graphics software?
About 25 years. I had worked with rudimentary mapping software in the mid-1980's, converting aerial photos to maps. I was involved with a "paperless" office project in 1987-88 for a large financial services firm. Since the 1990's, there have been successive Apple and PC graphics applications.
How is graphics software used in your daily activities?
It's my hobby, in conjunction with genealogy.
Tell us about yourself (experience, web site, etc.)
I'm a retired jack of many trades. From sales and marketing I evolved into a technical computer operations manager, overseeing 1000's of computers nationwide. I use a reasonably powerful PC as part of my daily regimen of interests and activities.
