Photo Restoration and Colourising.

[deadants]

The other day I read a post from a person who had a photograph that was in such bad repair that it was almost impossible to put it on a flat bed scanner without doing further damage. They also stated that their attempts at taking a photograph of the photo was a failure. in the end, they were going to take the photo to a professional photographer and get them to digitize it and if possable, repair it.

I recently did something similar. Although my photograph was in excellent condition, it was far to big for a flat bed scanner. so, I took the photo out of it's frame, took it outside and took a whole lot of photo's with a digital camera. Getting as much light as possible onto the subject is the secret to get the best results.


To reproduce a photo using digital cameras without getting distortion is a problem. So to avoid taking the photo from an angle, which you may have to do avoid reflection from a flash.  I found that if you place the camera on a flat surface on or near the ground, you can stand above the photo and get square over it. this will avoid perspective distortions.


The best thing about digital cameras is you can take as many photos as you like until you get the result your  after. Once you transfer the photos to the computer, It's just a matter of cropping the excess around the photo and adjusting the brightness, contrast and colour balance for best effect.


deadants

[tallted]

Great job Deadant,
Do you think the person you were chatting with could but pieces of the photo on the scanner, if so we could possibly reconstruct it.
Ted

[deadants]

Hi Ted,
     I sent a reply to vastrida with this link. Hopefully he will post the photo so we can have a look. He has certainly piqued my curiosity.

deadants

[tallted]

Hi d,
Great job on that photo of yours.  YOu went to a lot of work to make sure the perspective and integity of the original were right. 
Yes I am also interested in what can be done with v's photo, it should be a really interesting project for v to do..

Ted

[tallted]

Hi deadant,
How have you been keeping?  I am puzzled by the lack of response to this thread.  You would think that there would be more people in a genealogy "club" pocessing old photos needing restoration than the responses indicate. Maybe we need to get this on the Commong Page instead.  I did help one person and do a small restoration for her.  She had helped me with searching for lost relatives and I did it in return, but since then nothing.
Just a thought.
Keep well.
Ted

[deadants]

Hi Ted,
       Yeah you would think there would be a bit more intrest. You are probably correct about this thread being in the wrong place. Maybe we could get Trystan to move it to the common Room. Not everyone puts their nose inside the Technical Help unless they have a problem with their computers or the forum etc.
        I have been busy this week learning a new application for digital video. It has a fairly steep learning curve so my Genealogy has taken a back seat for the week. Hopefully a long awaited birth certificate should turn up  sometime this week which should open up some new avenues to explore., then the game will be afoot once again.

 cheers
deadants

[Keith Bateman]

Hi deadants,

We do take an interest you know - but got to show something - struggling to do anything like yours - but trying!!

Think about you tho - see my comments earlier on 

Deadants  - you would have liked the stand showing you what to do with old photos - must find that gamma button to improve the colour on old photos

Sure lots of people would like to try their hand - but finding like me it's a looooong learning curve.


Keep posting any comments.

Cheers

Keith

[deadants]

Hi Keith,
     while you were at the fair, did you get any photos of the event? I would love to have been there but just a tad to far to travel for the day
     what do you think about moving this thread to the common room!

deadants

[Paul E]

Hi Ted, Hi deadants

Keith's right - you've got a few fans watching this thread.  I'd love to take up digital photo processing sometime but at the moment its just another thing of my list of things I want to do.  But its great to see what you've been doing.

In fact, I have a great photgraph somewhere (ashamed to say I think its in my garden shed ) which I picked up in a charity shop maybe ten or twelve years ago.  Someday soon I'll get it scanned and let you see it, or maybe take a (probably very poor) photo: its a group shot of about 40 men, with one woman in the foreground.  Would love to see it 'tidied up', but just as importantly, I'd be interested to know if anyone can place it.

So - keep up the good work, both of you: you're an inspiration!

 

Paul