Old Photo Restoration: How To

Old photos are very important to everyone, especially to grandparents and seniors. Photos capture special moments and bring back precious memories. For seniors and older adults, this help reminds them of their youth, events, family, and friends. 

However, due to years of exposure or improper storage, old pictures can fade or get damaged. To ensure important pictures and memories don’t fade away, restoring and digitizing old photos is necessary. Digitizing photos makes them accessible for all family members and endure the test of time. 

But how can you restore and digitize old photos? Here’s how. 

How To Restore Old Photos

Restoring old photos is not complicated. With the right application and tools with a little of your time, you can restore and digitalize important photos of your grandparents and parents. This step-by-step guide includes detailed instructions on how to restore old pictures using Adobe Photoshop.

Scan Old Photos

The first step in photo restoration is scanning and digitizing them. The digital copy of the photos lasts longer and makes it accessible to other viewers like family and friends. Also, you can open the digital copy on your computer or laptop and edit it using Adobe Photoshop.

To create a digital copy of an old photo, you can use a normal photo scanner, use a scanning application on the phone, or take a picture with a camera or phone.

Make sure the digital copy is high-quality, clear, and large. This makes editing easier and quicker. 

Open Scanned Image In Photoshop

Open the digital copy in Photoshop. The #1 rule in editing photos is to create a second copy of the original. This ensures you have a fallback when something goes wrong with your editing. Also, the original can be used as a reference and guide for your photo editing.

To create a second copy, follow these steps:

Choose a layer in the Layer Panel.

Select the Duplicate Layer on the Layers Menu.

Rename the duplicated layer.

Adjust And Edit The Image

Before you start adjusting and editing the photo, don’t forget to click the eye icon on the duplicated layer. This ensures you’re editing the duplicate layer and not the original one.

Rotate, straighten, and crop the digital copy to get a properly oriented photo. 

To rotate a photo in Photoshop, you can use the Image Rotation Option. Here’s how:

Select Image located in the taskbar.

Choose Image Rotation.

Click the preferred rotation. 

If there are unwanted spaces, misaligned corners, or the photo is a little crooked, just crop them out. You can either use the Crop Menu or Crop Icon to adjust the image’s aspect ratios proportionally. 

Review and check the details of your photo. If there are necessary adjustments or edits, especially color, brightness, tone, and contrast adjustments. 

Old pictures, especially grandparents’ photos, are usually faded. That’s why it’s a must to edit and improve the overall look of the digital photo to bring it back to life. There are auto functions available in Photoshop like Auto Color, Auto Tone, and Auto Contrast. Try playing with them to get the right look and color of the photos. For more detailed edits and adjustments, you can use different settings and functions from the Menu Option, such as Exposure, Brightness, and Contrast.

If you’re familiar with Photoshop, it is easier to edit the digital copy of your grandparents’ old photos. It’s best to familiarize yourself with the settings and available options in Photoshop. There are also a lot of tutorials online to help you edit your photos. Remember, clear, high-quality, and large pictures are required when commissioning a grandparents painting from Memorialize Art.

Apply A Filter

When scanning old family pictures, dust and scratches will also be captured. You can remove scratches and dust on the digital copy using the Filter Function. 

Click Filter located in the taskbar.

Choose Convert to Smart Filters. 

In the Filter tab, select Noise then click Dust & Scratches.

A pop-up window will appear at the sides. Adjust the Radius pixels to take a closer look at the photos. Increase the Threshold levels until you’re satisfied with the photo.

Click OK.

Select Noise in the Filter Menu.

Choose the Reduce Noise function and adjust the photo. 

Save And Print

Lastly, save the edited copy. Rename the file and print. You can also save the digital copy in the cloud and let other family members view them. 

Why Restore Old Grandparents Photos

Photos capture special memories in the grandparents’ life. However, printed photos will fade and get damaged as time passes. To preserve important milestones, events, and memories of your grandparents or family members, photographs must be restored and digitized. However, doing this takes a lot of time and effort, especially if you’re doing it yourself. That’s why you must choose the old photos you want to digitalize.

If you can’t digitize old photos yourself, you can work with professionals to help you out. And if you want a custom painting based on the digital copy of your grandparents’ photos, don’t hesitate to contact Memorialize Art. They have a team of professionals that will help turn them into a masterpiece.

When you’re looking for a way to preserve and restore old family photos, digitizing them and storing them in computers or the cloud is a great idea.