Old Faded Photo

[janderson31972]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum, and relatively new to Photoshop and editing. But, I'm scanning in literally thousands of old family photos, and I am glad to have found this online resource.

I've been able to retouch and/or repair most of my photos so far, but this attached picture has me completely stumped. I've tried quite a few Photoshop techniques so far, but nothing has really improved the image.

Any ideas on how to correct this photo? Any help and assistance would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jay

[0lBaldy]

Re: Old Faded Photo

Jay, Welcome to RetouchPRO
Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.
Poke around, have fun!

The picture you posted seems very pixelated.. You might have better luck with a much higher resolution scan.

I threw a lot at this image.. started out with Auto everything (Tone, Contrast , Color) .. then Image>Adjustments>Equalize... followed by tweaking the following adjustment layers.. Color Balance layer, Hue/Saturation layer, Levels layer, Curves layer, Exposure layer, and a Selective color layer .. masking them when necessary.. The light marks and specks I got rid of using Polaroid (free) dust and scratch filter then the Patch tool for the road and a few other stubborn spots..

Hope your better scan turns out better than mine... Good Luck and just keep plugging in different numbers and tweaking till your satisfied !!

[Cameraken]

Re: Old Faded Photo

Hi

Nice job OlBaldy

The main problem with this image is that the blue channel has become damaged and has actually inverted.
Inverting the blue channel and adjusting levels gives an instant improvement.

Regards

Ken

[genf]

Re: Old Faded Photo

The main problem with this image is that the blue channel has become damaged and has actually inverted.
Inverting the blue channel and adjusting levels gives an instant improvement.

I tried my best with this picture, but couldn't get a satisfactory result.
Your version is astounding, so I tried to reproduce it following your explanation.
Still I can't get reasonable color.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "adjusting levels"? Inverting the blue channel I can do, but then I'm lost.

[grannysdc]

Re: Old Faded Photo

I think a better scan is needed !

Wow, Ken Fantastic!!

Here is my feeble attempt and one just for fun

[Cameraken]

Re: Old Faded Photo

Hi Genf

Thanks for your comments.
Please see here for a tutorial on how I adjusted the levels

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=255

These are the settings I used. (After the blue channel had been inverted)

Red 84 1.00 213
Green 40 1.00 162
Blue 222 1.95 255

These settings left the image too light so I also made an overall adjustment to RGB

RGB 0 0.41 255

You will notice that this has still left the road and border too yellow so I added a selective colour adjustment layer and adjusted the yellows

Yellows - Yellow -100%
You may also wish to remove some yellow from the Greens.

I have attached an image to show how it should look after these adjustments. Obviously I have made a few more tweaks to the picture I used the steps above for the colour only. The luminosity was made from the red channel only, sharpened and then combined with the colour. I also used a noise remover on the sky and several layers set to colour to finish the picture

Hope this helps.

Nice job Grannysdc

Ken

[genf]

Re: Old Faded Photo

Thanks Ken!

[ukwildcatsare1]

Re: Old Faded Photo

I think a better scan is needed !

Wow, Ken Fantastic!!

Here is my feeble attempt and one just for fun

blue lightning tv, youtube?