Get out those old family photos and learn how to restore damaged pictures in Photoshop. If you have a favorite picture that is old or damaged, learn how to restore it so you can print a new picture.
Restoring Damaged Pictures In Photoshop
Here's your chance to take all those old family photographs out of your drawer, restore and print them just in time for the holidays. Old family photographs make great Christmas gifts, especially to moms. Old photographs are moments in time captured and saved for the future. Unfortunately, photographs deteriorate with time and exposure to the elements.
This tutorial will walk you through a simple technique using the History Palette. For old color images and images with extensive damage, look for an in-depth look at photographic restorations.
Scan Your Image
The first step is to get a high-quality, high-resolution scan. This article assumes you already have the image scanned. If you are unsure how to scan, take a look at one of Bright Hub's tutorials on scanning tips for the beginner.
Scan your image at 300 dpi and make sure the image is in RGB. If it is not, choose Image > Mode > RGB from the Menu bar. If your scanning software doesn't automatically open in Photoshop, open the image in Photoshop and save as a copy from the dialog box. (Figures 1 & 2) Save your image as a TIFF file.
Now you are ready to start restoring the image.
Working With Channels
In the Channels' Palette, take a look at all the channels and see which one has the most information. Make a note of the best channel. You will need this information later on.
Next, in the Layers' Palette, click the New Fill Button at the bottom of the palette (Figure 3) and choose Channel Mixer. In the dialog box select Monochrome. The Red Source Channel will be at 100. Now, take the channel that had the best tonal information and move the slider so that it has the highest number. You will need to move the other sliders and work with the image till you get the best overall improvement in your image and the numbers add up to 100. (Figure 4) Click OK.
Next, click the Snapshot icon on the bottom of the History Palette. Rename your layer Grayscale. Or right click the last layer (Channel Mixer layer) of the History Palette and select Merged Layers from the pop up menu, click OK. This saves the grayscale image for later. (Figures 5, 6 & 7)
