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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Photograph Resources, Tips, Tutorials => Topic started by: nicdigby on Tuesday 09 February 21 22:31 GMT (UK)
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I have been lucky enough to be the recipient of some great touch-ups / restorations / colouration on this thread. I was wondering what programme you all use to do this, and whether it is difficult? Some of them are amazing.
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Hi, Nic.
There are usually quite a few reviews and comparisons online - but it is a bit of a minefield sorting out unbiased from biased and sensible from stupid. So…
I’d divide the programs into three tiers - free; middling cost; and top of the range - plus you can get extras for additional functionality.
I think the best free one is GIMP, it’s downside being that it is less user friendly than many. I think at least a couple of restorers on here use it. If you can live with its learning curve there would be no need to look elsewhere because it is quite powerful. (Don't be put off restoring if you don't like it; many others are easier to use.)
The bulk of programs cost roughly the price of a tank full of fuel - depending on fuel costs where you live and the size of your tank! I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) which is a cutdown version of Photoshop. I’ve tried others but, for me, PSE has the right combination of features and ease of use. I think at least a couple of other restorers on here use it.
Then there is the full blown Photoshop which is still the industry standard, but these days you use it on subscription, making it a little expensive if your hobby is only repairing photos. I think at least a couple of restorers on here use it - one current and one who now only pops in occasionally.
Then there are various plug-ins and stand-alones for when your main program just can’t quite do what you'd like to do.
I did my first restore four years now. I use PSE for 99% of what I do. It could be 100% but I like experimenting a little with different tools.
The last one I did https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=844219.0 (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=844219.0) probably took about six hours.
You need healthy eyes, patience, attention to fine detail, and a little artistic sensibility can help - I haven’t got much of that last one. When you’re learning, there are plenty of how-to online tutorials and books (e.g. “Dummies” series) for the better known programs.
Early in the piece, learn “Layers”. Learn what all the tools in your program can do. Use the archives on here to practice on, at the same time trying to see how others have achieved their results.
Good luck. And, beware, it becomes very addictive.
Peter
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If you are using Windows then you have a greater selection of apps / programs to choose from, from FREE to 'Paid Real Folding Money For' (OUCH!). The original Microsoft Windows shipped with Paint included, excellent but limited. Others took the idea and expanded it, one of the best is paint.net ( getpaint) and is a great Photo Restorers app but has limitations, but it's FREE.
GIMP is probably the equivalent and more of Adobe Photoshop and has extensive features and masses of extensions. It is also FREE. It takes a lot of learning but there are loads of tutorials on Youtube and yet it is still hard to learn even if you have messed about with these apps for years ... for the amount of study time needed to be competent at it I would expect to get some University Degree Credits.
I've just dumped Windows 10 and 7 and installed the Linux Distro called Peppermint 10 and unfortunately paint.net can't run on linux. GIMP can, and I've installed it and every now and again I'll use it just to slowly learn more of its non-intuitive tools.
I've searched the FREEly available apps for Linux and downloaded PIXELITOR.
Limited features but simple and straightforward to one used to paint.net but GREAT for Black and White photo restorers because damage repair is mostly done with the Clone Stamp or Healing tool.
Not perfect but to choose an area of pixels to be Copied and Pasted to replace a damaged area one only has to Right-click and repeatedly Paste over the damage and changing the Size of the area to be copied takes a split second Left-click.
The other Tools for adjusting Contrast, Brightness and Sharpness are all there as you would expect.
Adding colour is similar to paint.net whereby you only really need one extra Layer with a variety of Colours painted over the Original Photo. GIMP seems to require a separate Layer for each Colour, I might be wrong but I've never managed to successfully colourize a B&W photo with it.
The FREE online tools can produce Fabulous Results but are based on Images held in a Database of millions and can get the closest match to facial features but ignore everything else in the photo.
If you want to create a Cheat Sheet of Textures etc! you could download the childrens' app called TUXPAINT which is truly wonderful although it only saves files in its own format but you can Printscreen / Grab and store the file in your own folder.
The trick is then to Paste a Photo in your chosen Paint Program, Enlarge the Canvas, Add your chosen Texture sheet by Pasting next to the original, and you can then Clone (Copy & Paste) from it to the original.
How much time do you have to spend ?
I started using paint.net 10 years ago to correct Red-Eye in digital flash enhanced photos and for Cropping.
Happy hunting! Cheers, Ian
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I think I must be one of the two people on here who uses the full subscription version of Paintshop. I started using it in the 1990s when it first came out. I was in art school at the time, so it was free to use. It didn't have any layer facility so it was a bit like drawing on a flat piece of paper! I ended up teaching it to photography students as part of a creative photography course. I tried other packages - Paintshop Pro was one and was nearly as good and much cheaper. PS Elements is the next best thing.
There are other packages - Gimp is the best of the free ones. I've also read good reviews of Affinity (it's half price at the moment). There are quite a few plugins. I have Nik/DxO and Topaz as my go to plugins. A newish one that's used by some on here is Remini which seems to be OK for faces (but I find them OTT) but not much else so you still have to do the cleanup and restoration work. I have used it for cleaning up modern portraits for friends, but as part of a clean up and not on it's own.
You also need a good monitor. I do a lot these days on a tiny laptop as my large Mac is in a cold workroom! The results are not as good. I also have a Wacom drawing tablet with the Mac which is a must for me.
You will need to spend a lot of time practicing and patience and an eye for composition and drawing skills.
My eyes are not as good these days and I have to take a lot of breaks.
PS - and the most important thing is a good scan to begin with. When I did restoration and art work professionally, I always did my own scanning!
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Thank you all for taking the time to respond with the details of what packages you use. I’ll have a look into it. In the meantime, keep up the good work ;D
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Some really good advice here and I can only endorse what has already been suggested. I also use Adobe Photoshop version 14. to give its full name. Earlier versions can be picked quite cheaply on Amazon, I haven't tried the free Gimp software programme but have seen some very good results on here from people who have. My advice would be to try a free package and have fun with learning what the tools do, working on your own photos, but do remover to save your work as a copy, that way you won't overwrite the original.
Have fun and if you get stuck, ask a question on here. Or just google "How to.........
Carol
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I've also read good reviews of Affinity (it's half price at the moment).
Thanks for mentioning this - I bookmarked it a while ago as one to consider but never got any further. As well as it being half price at present, you can also get a 90 day free trial, so I'll be having a play with it later.
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I think I must be one of the two people on here who uses the full subscription version of Paintshop. I started using it in the 1990s when it first came out. I was in art school at the time, so it was free to use. It didn't have any layer facility so it was a bit like drawing on a flat piece of paper! I ended up teaching it to photography students as part of a creative photography course. I tried other packages - Paintshop Pro was one and was nearly as good and much cheaper. PS Elements is the next best thing.
I've just realised that I made a couple of errors -
1. I meant Photoshop CC (the subscription version) not Paintshop
2. Photoshop Elements (referred to by Carol as Photoshop 14) is the next best thing to the full blown Photoshop CC.
Let us know how you get on with Affinity, Arthur.
Gadget
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After a few days trying out some of the features in the Affinity Photo free trial, I've decided to pay and keep it long term. It has a lot more features than the free programs I've used until now, but I'll be keeping one or two of the free programs for quick and dirty edits. They also import images from a scanner, which Affinity doesn't.
Those who've read my ramblings before might remember that I did once use Photoshop Elements, in a fairly limited way, but I disliked its non-optional image organiser and the way it kept nudging you towards its Creative Cloud (subscription) service. Thankfully Affinity doesn't have anything like these.
As I wasn't a regular user of PS Elements I haven't had to adjust to a different interface etc, but it's going to take me a while to (re-)learn some of the standard techniques, and there are dozens of more advanced tools and settings that I'll probably never need.
The bottom line is that for someone like me who doesn't already have a paid-for program (and who dislikes some aspects of the Adobe offering), this seems a good and capable option - and even without the current 50% off, the one-off price seemed good value compared to its competitors. If you already have a paid-for program you might find it less useful, but with a 90 day free trial you might nevertheless want to take a look.
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A very useful review, Arthur :)