Lovin' Those Old Family Photos Again - Part 1
Yesterday, I was thumbing through our old family photos. I mean really old. Remembering my father who passed away in 1980 at the young age of 55, and reflecting on my family history. I wanted to preserve these memories and maybe see if I could restore some of these photos to their original glory. I ran upstairs with my laptop and a box full of old family photos and spent a few hours scanning them into my computer. That's the first thing you have to do before you restore anything, is scan the old pictures into your computer. Just place them face down on your printer/scanner and start scanning away. Next, open those wonderful pictures up in Photoshop. I use Photoshop CS3 and honestly, I don't know if this tutorial will work in Photoshop Elements because I am not familiar with it, but you can always try. Let's take a look at an old photo I found of my mother, father, and older brother, Mike, and see what I was able to do.
This picture was taken in 1947. My mother is now 84, and my brother Mike is now 60. Woooh. Hard to believe. This photo was colorized when it was created. When I looked at it, I noticed there were stains on Mom's blouse, and a blotch on Mike's forehead and Mom's arm. Other than that, it appeared to be okay. A little bright and overdone, but otherwise in pretty good condition.
So, the first thing I did was use the clone stamp tool to remove the blotches and spots. I even made some minor corrections to Dad's face and his suit that also had some ugly spots. Looking better already. I just love that clone stamp tool.
Now that the picture is looking really pretty and renewed, I had to decide what I wanted to achieve. I knew I wanted to wash it out a little bit, sorta like putting it through a washing machine, but still maintain the color effect. I wanted to lighten it up a bit, too. Make it perky. Make my mother's eyes sparkle again. So that is exactly what I did. I lightened it up a bit.
There you go. Can you tell the difference? Ever so slightly lightened and brighter.
Perkier! I'm so happy.
Now in this step I opened up Image, then Adjustments, then Hue and Saturation, and I played with it a bit until I was tickled pink. Can you feel the joy? I just love doing this. I think I've found a new purpose in life - restoring old photos to their original glory. It doesn't pay, though. Darn. Oh well, the best things in life are free. I like this photo just the way it is now. However, because I am scatter-brained at times and like to push buttons, I decided to try some other new trick.
Doesn't this make you Super Fun Happy? I thought so. Me too. Thanks to Totally Rad's Actions and his Super Fun Happy Action, I was able to put the stars in Mom's eyes, tone down that blush a bit, oh, and the yellow blouse too, and soften the edges. Of course, Mike's expression never changed. To tell you the truth, he still looks like this.
I can see the resemblance...
Can't you? Take a look at the original photo and the finished picture I like best:
