Many of us have those thick albums or even boxes full of old grayscale pictures at home. It’s lovely to look through them with your loved ones and remember good old times. But time is not still and the pictures age too – they fade out, get scratched and torn. Some people address an old damaged photo restoration service to save their precious memories, while others make all the needed corrections on their own. Let’s see how you can restore old photos by yourself. Read further and learn 3 ways to do it.
Manual Restoration
If your pictures are glued together, have dust or stains on them then you need to go with the manual restoration first. There are several ways to do it.
First, let’s see how to remove dirt from the pictures. You can soak the photo in luke-warm water, then gently remove the dirt with a cloth or a soft brush and let the picture dry on a flat surface. If a bunch of photos is glued together then you need to soak them in distilled water for half an hour. After that, separate them by hand or by using a spatula. Lay the pictures on a towel face up and let them dry.
If your images are torn you will need acid-free tape. Just cut out a small piece of tape and stick it to the back of the photo to mend it. Acid-free paper and acid-free glue will also do the trick.
Now, that you have mended your picture manually, let’s move to other ways of photo restoration.
Digital Restoration
Your pictures are clean, and there is no need for manual restoration, but still, there are scratches, torn edges, and blur on them? Well, then it’s time for a digital restoration.
First, you will have to digitize your images. There are two ways to do it – use a flat-bed scanner or simply take a picture with a camera or your phone. Just keep in mind that you need a good quality image, so you can zoom in on it later and work more precisely.
Digital Restoration in PhotoGlory
Now that you have a digital version of your photo, all you need is the right software and a bit of time. We suggest PhotoGlory, an old photo restoration software. It is a rather user-friendly program loaded with AI tools.
Run the software and open your digitized image in it. If your photo is slightly damaged – use the Restore Old Photo option. Just hit the button and the software will automatically fix the defects. You can crop the torn edges away by using the Crop Tool under the Retouch Tab. Pick the free aspect ratio, adjust the grid and cut away the damaged edges.
If there are still some imperfections left, then switch to the Retouch tab and use either a Healing Brush tool or a Clone Stamp tool depending on the size of the spot that you need to fix. Now you can bring back colors to your grayscale picture. There are two ways to do it – by applying automatic color correction or manual. Pick the first option to colorize your picture in a mouse click. And if you still want to make some adjustments – go with manual color correction and modify the colors to your liking.
Digital Restoration in Photoshop
If you are a pro at photo-editing you’ll probably want to go with much more complicated software, like Photoshop. This program is jammed with powerful tools, yet it takes time to learn how to use them all to your advantage. Let’s see what steps you need to take to restore an old photograph in PS.
First, open your image. Now you need to create a duplicate – either make a copy of your photo and save it or make a duplicate layer. This will keep the original image untouched and safe in case you made any mistakes. Go to the Taskbar, select Layer, and choose Duplicate Layer. Then cut away the torn edges by using the Crop tool.
There are several tools with which you can improve the damaged areas. Fix the small scratches and imperfections with the Healing Brush tool. And for the bigger ones, there is the Clone Stamp tool and the Patch tool. The easiest way to colorize a grayscale photo is to use Curves. Look for the right color by adjusting different types of curves and then paint over your image with the brush. Don’t forget to create a new layer for every color.
Now you know several ways to bring back to life your old pictures. It’s time to put your knowledge into action! Fix your old family photos and don’t let the memories fade away.