Restoring sun bleached image

[Daoud323]

I scanned a 5x7 image at 16bit/600 dpi. It has been faded by the sun but there is a 1/4 border where the image was under the matting that has the original color. Is there a way to pull the color profile from the unfaded border that could help me restore it? I’ve searched Google, YouTube etc but found no answer. Not sure there is one and this may a stupid question. Hope the description of my issue makes sense. Any direction to a site, advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I’d like to do this myself, I have Photoshop and am so,e what well versed with the application. Thank you in advance.

[Dollactica]

I'm having the same problem

[JoReam]

Hi Daoud323.
It is always useful to put up a reduced version of that photo that you are wanting help with on as this will help others learn and allow a more detailed response to your particular issue. There are many different methods of colour restoration and it is often a case of trailing each different method or combination of methods to get the best results. Also its useful to get information from the photo owner as to what they know about the colours in the photo as I am guessing not all of this information will be in the area of the photo that has not faded.
What you describe is a fairly typical colour fading issue - the main part of the photo has faded and that part that was protected from the light still retains its colour. Having part of the photograph that has retained its original colour is a great reference for any restoration and I would normally mask that area off before applying any non destructive adjustment layers to the remainder of the photo. You can use any number of different adjustment layers to restore colour - curves, levels, hue and saturation, colour balance etc. Start by playing with any of these and see what you come up with - if you are lucky you may, through a global ajustment, be able to bring back the colour.You can use the colours in the area that you have masked off (the edge) to see whether your adjustments are correct or not. Sometimes adjustments show up further damage - colour spoitting that might need to be removed by other methods. Sometimes you have to use a combination of these methods and sometimes you just have to paint in layers of colour. If you are looking for specific "how to" examples you can search this site - use the terms "colour restoration" as there have been many colour damaged photos submitted to this site over the years to which people have responded with suggestions. Alternatively using your favourite search engine search "photo colour restoration" Hope this helps. As a thank you it would be really nice if you can to post your before and after results