:eek: I would love to repair this 1800's photo of family. Have been working on it for ages in Elements 5, but have no idea how to deal with the faces to make them clearer and less blotchy. Did learn how to repair a tear which is no longer visible, have tried making changes in the RGB, but nothing seems to work. It's pretty obvious how new I am.

Would appreciate any advice
can get. Thanks

On retouching an old photo like this, the scan is where the work begins. A good scan would be between 600 and 1200 ppi. My guess is that you will have a lot of detail work to do on this print in addition to global corrections.

If there is any physical damage to the surface of the print that can be removed with a cleaner, that should also be considered.

dc

Thanks. I'll try rescanning it at a higer level. I can's see any surface damage

I tried scanning at 600...that's the highest I have, and the picture came out pretty black. Would appreciate more help...PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not an expert in scanning. Does your scanner have any image control settings? It would be helpful to indicate what type of scanner you are using.

dc

My scanner is a Canon LIDE 30.

Hi Charlyne,

I looked up your scanner, and it appears to be a very low end scanner. Also, 600 ppi max scan for a film scanner is pretty low. I don't see where it has any options for you to set. Try re-calibrating the scanner, and re scan and see if it look any better. You should be able to get a scan that looks very much like your photo. If it is considerably darker than the photo, then your scanner is not doing a good scan.

Could you post a link to your original scanned file, not compress to 80k jpg?

Can you tell me how I do that please.

You could use a free service like rapidshare.com, upload there, copy the download link & post it here.

I've been able to upload the photo on Shutterfly...how do I get it to you?

you can use my email see PM

I have sent the link to you. Thanks.