affinity photo Photo restoration

[Lovemonkey]

I've been working on restoring a photo of wife's late Nan.

I think I haven't done to bad a job with the photo, considering its size and how bad it's damage plus I'm an absolute noob at this.

I think I've reached the point where I can't really do anymore. Wish I could make her face a bit clearer. 

The photo is from round the mid to late 40's.

[Twolane]

You might want to have a look at one of Olivio Sarikas' videos on photo restoration. He uses a variety of techniques in Photo.

 

[Smee Again]

Start with converting to black and white by using the adjustment layer "Black and white". In that adjustment layer, adjust the red and yellow slider (because of the "sepia" type aging of the photo) until you get the level of black and white contrast you want. Then you'll see better how to repair the photo. If you just try to restore an old B&W photo without converting to B&W in Affinity, you'll make a lot more work than you need. Besides, if you like the sepia color, you can put it back when you're done.

Best practice for me is to use the patch tool on a pixel layer above the image you're repairing. Under "source" choose "current layer and below," That way, if a choice doesn't work, it is an easy fix.

That's your best starting point, other than making sure you have a good high resolution scan of the image.

This is the original photo

 

 

 

 

[Lovemonkey]

10 hours ago, Twolane said:

You might want to have a look at one of Olivio Sarikas' videos on photo restoration. He uses a variety of techniques in Photo.

 

I actually watch his videos and live stuff, never thought to see if had done a video on photo restoration :/

[Lovemonkey]

12 hours ago, Smee Again said:

Start with converting to black and white by using the adjustment layer "Black and white". In that adjustment layer, adjust the red and yellow slider (because of the "sepia" type aging of the photo) until you get the level of black and white contrast you want. Then you'll see better how to repair the photo. If you just try to restore an old B&W photo without converting to B&W in Affinity, you'll make a lot more work than you need. Besides, if you like the sepia color, you can put it back when you're done.

Best practice for me is to use the patch tool on a pixel layer above the image you're repairing. Under "source" choose "current layer and below," That way, if a choice doesn't work, it is an easy fix.

That's your best starting point, other than making sure you have a good high resolution scan of the image.

This is the original photo

 

 

 

 

Thank you, converting to B&W helped a lot more, the photo prints out really nice at 6x4.

 

[Smee Again]

What resolution did you use for your scan? If you have an original scan at high dpi (600 dpi or higher) I think your results will improve. Some older scanners default to as little as 72 dpi, and even the newer ones like to keep it to 200 / 300 dpi as default.

1. Get as many pixels as you can.

2. Before any effort to correct / repair the image, make your conversion to black and white, not after correcting.

[Lovemonkey]

I used 1200 DPI to scan it.