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Sequence of Edits for Old Photo?


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Welcome to the forum @Regdorf

Is this a scan from a negative or a photo?

If from a photo, are those horses blown out like that in the original photo or can you see some detail in the white horses you can't see in this scan?

Blown out means no detail in the highlights, pure white.

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I'd scan again so it's not so hot. The histogram shows a lot of the shadows are wasted and the highlights are burnt out. The closer you can get with the scanning software, the easier the retouching  will beInsert other media

Histogram.png

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1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Welcome to the forum @Regdorf

Is this a scan from a negative or a photo?

If from a photo, are those horses blown out like that in the original photo or can you see some detail in the white horses you can't see in this scan?

Blown out means no detail in the highlights, pure white.

Hi firstdefence,

thanks for the clarifying questions. I agree with you, and also David in Ruislip (sorry for the misspelling), that I need to start with the best scan possible. For reference, the actual photo is 3x5 inches, so I scanned the photo (not a negative) in color, 1200 dpi, and saved it as tiff format. I plan to print an 8x10-inch or 11x14-inch print and frame it using the wood i salvaged from that barn. 

The horses are blown out on the photo, as you see them in the scanned image. :( Maybe I leave that area as-is for "artistic effect?"

Per David in Ruislip's comments, I'll try rescanning to eliminate the wasted area of the histogram. SUPER idea, David. :)

Anyway, once i have a good scan to start from, I'd like to know if there is a suggested order of editing steps I should perform?

Sincere thanks!!!

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I wouldn't actually edit it too much as it looks "authentic" as it is, maybe a slight levels or curves tweak but nothing much more. Sharpening would like spoil the look and making it look a bit more contrasty would remove the charm of the image.

 

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White horse on far left is too far gone (blown) to recover. Cropping it out lessens the blown-out part of the image and also centralises the men in the image.

Shadows and highlights filter will help recover the top of the barn protrusion (a vent?).

Could just leave it at that or if hanging on my wall I would use an AI to colourise it.  I have no love for black & white photos, sorry!

 

barnfin3.jpg

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