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Hello @JamesSwanson and welcome to the forums.

I use VueScan for scanning my old photos. It can save the images as 16-bit tiffs. I would recommend scanning in colour, then using Afinity Photo for post-processing and retouching.

Photo can convert your image to black-and-white (greyscale). It can also enhance the contrast. It is better to leave any sharpening or clarity adjustments to near the end.

Use the dust and scratch removal tool for small imperfections.

Use the clone tool or the inpainting brush for larger imperfections.

I would suggest you try it out and, if you run into trouble, post your image here for us to see.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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8 hours ago, JamesSwanson said:

Hello everybody!
Recently I found an old album of my great-grandmother from the beginning of the last century, but the photos there faded and cracked.
I want to scan them and fix them.
Please tell me the software for these purposes.

Just a couple of cents worth of advice:

Old pictures need care when scanning. The light from the scanner can cause fading so choose a real boring photo (one you won't worry about potentially losing) to do your testing with. Once you have the right idea about how to scan you can then go through all the old photos and archive them.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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Affinity Photo should do what you want. The learning curve is steep if you have not done photo editing before. It's among the most complex things anyone ever does on a computer, so don't be easily discouraged.

Obviously Affinity Photo's competitors will also do the job. They might even be easier to use at first glance. Some even have automated features (that I've found don't work satisfactorily despite advertising hype).

However, if you strive to be a serious craftsman then Affinity Photo's emphasis on non-destructive editing is an enormous help in this kind of work. You can repair physical damage on the photo without making physical changes to the pixels of the scan. If you make an error, nothing is lost except time and nothing is ruined.

See my simple example at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/77763-recovering-memories-gifting-friends/

If you have not done much scanning, read Wayne Fulton's classic work "A Few Scanning Tips"
https://www.scantips.com

including this page about old photos
https://www.scantips.com/restore.html

I also use VueScan for scanning photos as it gives more control than the software that came with my scanner. It includes some photo restoration functions that are best applied during scanning rather than later in an editor. If you are not satisfied with your scans, then you might give it a try.
https://www.hamrick.com

Again, the learning curve can be steep. Restoration is a combination of technical and artistic skills informed by experience. 

 

 

 

Affinity Photo 2.4.0 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2.
Dell XPS 8940, 16 GB Ram, Intel Core i7-11700K @ 3.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

Well, I think there are no easy answers because "easier" software is often just easier because it has fewer vital functions and actually makes the process of both restoring and learning slower and less productive. I know it has been a year, but still, I think you can find a lot of useful information about how to do it in this article about how photo restoration work.

They use mainly 2 tools to make restore their photos:
1. Photoshop or its free analog called Photopea
2. Gimp

If you don’t want to use any of these Photolab can be an option, but I don’t this it will be as good as PS or Photopea

I'd stay with a free tool that can be acessed from the browser, rather than paying $20 per month per Adobe Creative Cloud

Edited by Danzel
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Gravedigger

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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@R C-R

Why are you confused? The last entry was a year ago (for this the gravedigger). 😉

And the OP has found a solution. 
 

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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Just now, Komatös said:

Why are you confused?

Because in English usage, a gravedigger is a person who digs graves. I do not think that applies to the last poster, either literally or figuratively. That person is not trying to bury anything, just add a comment some might find useful or interesting.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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In German, one speaks of a gravedigger when someone "digs up" an old posting.

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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2 minutes ago, Komatös said:

In German, one speaks of a gravedigger when someone "digs up" an old posting.

In English we would perhaps use the term Necro from the greek for corpse. A la Dr. Frankenstein.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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3 minutes ago, Komatös said:

In German, one speaks of a gravedigger when someone "digs up" an old posting.

Pretty much the opposite in English usage. "Grave robber" might be more apt, I think....

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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16 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

In English we would perhaps use the term Necro from the greek for corpse. A la Dr. Frankenstein.

Agreed, I've seen "necromancing" as term for replying to long dead threads in several fora.

»A designer's job is to improve the general quality of life. In fact, it's the only reason for our existence.«
Paul Rand (1914-1996)

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