Genealogy Chat

any photo restoration work I do is done with coral paint shop pro 10 love the program and not too hard to get the hang of Paul

Hi all I have sent 26 photos to http://genealogyphotos0.tripod(.)com/index.html only one is mine, they follow from a thread of mine about finding photos at a car boot. The site has posted 2 photos so far under the No Details Known At All, was waiting till she posted some more before I resurfaced the thread but thought I would tag it on here since it has come up so quickly. Only one of the photos had an inscription and I have included one of my grandad at school.Ii hope the rest come up soon so you can all have a look and hopefully I can reunite some with their families Elaine

nudge

Thanks for all that information....I found it very interesting as I have a few old photos that need restoring Julie

I have had pretty good success in restoring old photographs - and I only use MS paint and Ulead photo express (free program, came with scanner....lol). Pixel by pixel is the only way to do it.... but you have to a pretty good eye - artistically speaking, I think. This is mainly because I simply cannot use adobe photoshop, or any of these other photo programs.... I'm just useless at them, can't figure them out at all! lol Anyway.... what I wanted to mention here is that several reports have suggested that scanning can damage old photogaphs.... if possible, scan them only ONCE on high resolution so that you won't have to keep scanning in the same photo and possibly causing damage.

Nudging so I can find this one again! Thanks everyone for the great tips. Lynne x P.S. Thanks Louise for bringing it to the top!! P.P.S. Hi Andy et al. Not sure if this is relevant to the query but if you are talking about restoring the actual original photo - depending on the amount of damage - it can be quite expensive. A cheaper alternative might be to make a new 'original' by scanning it onto the computer and then fixing the faults. Afterwards it can be printed out on photographic paper. Our scanner here at home is not too good so I took a couple of photos (the only two known to be in existence of my Great Grandmother) to a local shop that does photocopying, printing, and scanning. Their scanner is a lot better than ours. They did not charge for the scanning or the enhancing but only for the printing of a couple of black and white copies on A4 paper. The photos were not too badly damaged though I have to say mostly just faded. They then emailed me a copy of the new improved 'original' so we have a copy on our computer. All going well I hope to take it in on disk to our local photographic shop and have it printed out on photo quality paper (6 x 4) for about 40 pence per print. We live in a small (but pleasant!) town so there is not a lot of trekking around and the whole process to produce a new improved print would be less than £1.00. As mentioned though, it will depend on the amount of damage. Another suggestion would be to get it scanned in and see if there is anyone willing to fix it for you. You could email it and they could then email it back then you can get it printed. You would still have the option of getting the original fixed if the price is right. Hope that makes sense?! There is a photo storage and sharing site here: http://tinyurl(.)com/7q6u6 (remove brackets) Lynne x

I did a free download with Photfilter and had a go at trying to repair the old damaged photograph, it looks like it will take a while for me to get the hang of it but practice makes perfect so they say. Irene

Thanks for putting this thread up. I have quite a few photos which are damaged and I had no idea whether I could do it myself. Snappy Snaps gave me a quote for one photo which was much more than I could possibly afford at this time (or justify!). Many thanks. Louise

Last time I looked Photoshop elements was a Freebie There is a photoshop website that gives tons of advice on photo problem solving so don't be put off by the complexities. I'm a techno numpty and have managed lots of stuff including restoration. If you want a Xmas pressie there are books explaining what to do with Photoshop try the one by Tom Ang good snapping Dave

Sorry Andy I joined in your thread but it looks like we were both looking for some advice. I hope father christmas brings me a programme that will help me restore all the old torn and scratched family photographs. Thanks everyone for their kind advice. Regards Irene

I have had success with restoring photos with the very simple program that came with the scanner! You probably get even better results with the more sophisticated programs mentioned above but it could take a while to learn to use them! I found that the secret is to scan the original with a high resolution and then blow it up (magnify!!) very very large and work on a few pixels at a time. I have removed scratches and creases like this but had less success with one that needed the contrast/exposure altering. It is very satisfying and causes no change whatsoever to the original photo! Anne

Definetely Adobe Photoshop, preferably the CS2 version. Absolutely the last word in restoring old photo's. Mind, you need a decent scanner to get the pic onto the computer in the first place. Scan at 300DPI for the best results. Tip - look on ebay for Adobe CS2. Ian

There are quite a number of sites that allow you to have a gallery of photographs and either make available for anyone to see or give controlled access through password. I think of the well known sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN do this but there are others. Put them on one then post the URL somewhere relevent - local or surname message board perhaps. MB

On the general topic of old photos, this site may be of use: http://www.rogerco.freeserve.*co.uk/index.htm (remove *) Christine

A couple of months ago, a GR member from Canada recommended a photo editing program, Photofiltre, which can be downloaded for free from: http://channels.lockergnome(.)com/windows/archives/20050927_photofiltre_v615(.)phtml [remove brackets] It has all the tools for touching up old photos, such as paintbrush and clone, so may be worth a try. If its actual photos rather than scans, there are often ads in the Family Tree mags for photo restoration. You could always ask for prices before committing. One was trs at 550k.freeserve(.)co(.)uk Carol

Thanks Zoe that will go on my Christmas pressie list. Many thanks Irene

Irene the best programme for repairing old photos is Adobe Photoshop. I use the professional version of this in the office which is fairly expensive but I believe they have one called Photoshop Elements which is a scaled down version for those who don't need all the technical bits. I used photoshop on a PC for the first time today and am pleased to say that it runs almost as well as it does on the Apple Mac. Zoe

Sorry to tag on but I have been asked what I would like for xmas and I have loads of old family photo's that I want to repair any suggestions for the best programme that I can ask for my pressie. Irene

A photo editing program like photoshop elements can work well to restore old photos although it needs a bit of practice. As your not working on the original though this may not be what your after. Sue

Just a few questions: 1) Is there a site where I can share info on old photographs I have? I have some where I know most of the people but not others, is there any way of sharing this info so others might benefit from the image but also be able to shed light on the mystery people. 2) Can anybody recommend a good but not too expensive way of restoring damaged photographs? Thanks, Andy