Tutorials to restore old photos

[vpkumar]

Dear Sirs,

I have been using AF V2.0  to restore many old Black and white photo that I have. I  would like to have a general guideline tutorial for what all I should do for this.

Most of the old photos will be damaged and low resolution. SO naturally I must get a higher resolution scan. Then try to sharpen, denoise etc.  So what I need is a general set of rules or guidelines to the restoration along with some good tutorials. 

Can anyone guide me. Thanks.

[GarryP]

It would be tricky for someone to come up with a “general guideline” tutorial for restoring old photos because each individual photo will probably be damaged in different ways and therefore the restoration process(es) needed for each photo will be different.

For example, has the photo been damaged because of water, or sunlight, or chemicals, or misuse, or were there problems with the card/materials, or the original processing procedure, etc. etc.

It’s a bit like asking for “general” advice on restoring a vintage car.

Some advice is universal – make sure your tools are clean and in working order, keep a record of everything you remove, and don’t scratch the paint – while some will be very specific to a particular job – i.e. Make sure that sprocket C6 which is 55mm to the left of flange plate F8 is aligned less than 10 degrees from the crangle bork (D1) on Models 1, 1A and 2 and 15 degrees for Models 2A, 2B and 3-5, unless the greeble wratchet (G4) was factory fitted, and if so, then… (I’ve made some of those words up but hopefully you get the idea).

There will be books/tutorials out there telling you what to do in certain circumstances but the more ‘general’ the advice the longer the book/tutorial and, as such, a “general” guide will, most probably, include many techniques which are irrelevant to the problems you have with your photos and you will end up reading about and learning things that are of no use to you at the moment.

A better solution might be to upload an example photo to get advice with that, then upload another to get advice on that, and so on, building up your own ‘toolbox’ of techniques to choose from as necessary.

[vpkumar]

Dear Garry,

 

Thanks for your advice. At present when I have a problem, I look up YouTube for videos relating to the problem I am facing and then try to solve it. 

I do know the basics of scratch removal, cleaning up spots etc, then   brightening or darkening parts of the picture. 

I thought if there were a set of tutorials which specifically deal with restoration of damaged, low res photos, I could use them. But as you say this may be difficult. 

Just for example I am uploading one old photo which is not badly damaged, but low res and some parts are faded. I am not interested in the background, but only the person, his trousers and the chair and the music album he is holding.

This is just one of the example. In case you can give me some advice, it would be highly appreciated.

 

 

 

[Dan C]

I'd recommend checking out the below threads / Youtube videos where multiple different methods are discussed -

I hope this helps

[jmwellborn]

@GarryP  what do you mean, made up?  I use a greeble wrachet every single day to get started!😬

[Granddaddy]

To go beyond simple tutorials you might want to purchase some books dedicated to digital restoration. Ultimately you have to learn to wallow in confusion and experiment until meaning emerges.

Adapting books (and tutorials) written for Photoshop for use with Affinity Photo is a necessity and quite easy. I own, and have even partially studied, each of the following:

The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration & Retouching Book
https://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Elements-Restoration-Retouching-Book/dp/0321481658/

Digital Restoration from Start to Finish by Ctein
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Restoration-Start-Finish-Photographs/dp/1138940259/

Photoshop Restoration and Retouching by Katrin Eismann
https://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Restoration-Retouching-Voices-Matter/dp/0321701011/

A few years ago I restored a friend's photo of a resort he and his wife dearly loved when they were young. My amateur result is illustrated below with smaller, low-resolution versions just to give an idea of how a little work can bring joy to friends. The originals are 5 to 6 thousand pixels wide. As I recall the original was an 8x10 that I scanned at 600 dpi.

[GarryP]

17 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

I use a greeble wrachet every single day to get started!

Many of us bless the day that greeble wratchets were invented.
Greeble wratchets for the win! (As the kids say, I presume.)