Lovin' Those Old Family Photos Again - Part 2

If you'd like to read Part 1 of this series of restoring old family photos, click here

I'm still diggin' through the old family photos and scanning them into my computer, and I've spent a good part of today, between loads of laundry, restoring the photos.  What Fun!  So lets restore some old photos together. 

Isn't she beautiful?  This is my mother's high school portrait.  I just love this picture.  Mom looks so happy here.  As you can see, there are rips and bends and marks on the original photograph.

Of course, with Photoshop's clone stamp, that can all be gone in minutes and the digital image of the original portrait looks as good as new.  Now, I can leave it like this, which actually looks really good, or I can play a little.  I like to play with Photoshop.  It is so time consuming being right-brained.  Creative energy takes up way too much time.

Let's talk Actions here.  I'm in love with Totally Rad Actions and enjoy seeing what they do - alone and together with other Actions.  In this image I used the Troy Action.  Love it, just love it.

In this image I started with the photo that I had corrected with the clone stamp and I used Totally Rad Action's Smooth-o-Matic Action which is really great for eliminating the noise in an image. 

And with this image, I used the Crush Action after the Smooth-o-Matic Action.

Here is the original image side-by-side with the Troy Action image.

And here is the original image side-by side with the Smooth-o-Matic & Crush Actions image.  See the difference?  Her blush is rosier in the second image too. 

How about one more.  Some picture, don't you think?  This is my father in the days when he thought he was a somthin' somethin'.  This original picture had a discoloration on the right and it is totally messed up on top from being taped and then pulled out of a photo album.

The first step I did was to use Totally Rad Action's Awesome B&W to help this image look more consistent.

Then I used the clone stamp to fix the right side and the top of the image.  Pretty cool.  I should be in Photoshop sales.  Adobe should give me a job selling and marketing Photoshop.  And, I'm in love with Totally Rad Actions.  They are the best.  The very best. 

And here is the original image side-by-side with the final restored image.  I'm having so much fun.  After you complete your restoration edits, you can print them off on your photo printer, or you can take them to a place like Ritz or Wolf Camera and print them off on professional photo paper.  Your old family photos are like new again.  Yay!

Have fun with your photos!