Faded print restoration

stevetiler

stevetiler

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Steve
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Hi all,
My mum has a couple of prints on her mantelpiece that are quite faded and she's asked me if I can restore them to their former glory !
Wondered if anyone can point me in the direction of a good tutorial for this process, I have Affinity photo and PS elements (13) at my disposal and a HP scanner
Thanks
 
stevetiler said:
Hi all,
My mum has a couple of prints on her mantelpiece that are quite faded and she's asked me if I can restore them to their former glory !
Wondered if anyone can point me in the direction of a good tutorial for this process, I have Affinity photo and PS elements (13) at my disposal and a HP scanner
Thanks
Click to expand...

There's likely to be 2 key effects from fading: loss of contrast (whites becoming less white, darkers shades losing density) and colour shift as dyres degrade. I'd work to restore contrast and re-balance the colours as far as possible.

Never used either of those packages (I have affinity - the interface is completely unintuitive for me) so use what you know to work on them. You could also search youtube for 'how to' videos on restorting images.
 
Creative live have several courses, at the moment starting at 6 dollars each, one is from Dave Cross, who I think is a very good instructor

CreativeLive Home

www.creativelive.com www.creativelive.com
 
I wouldn't pay for a course! Off the top of my head, I'm going to suggest that you photograph the prints (remove the glass first!) with a digital camera and macro lens, judging the exposure well and being wary of reflections, and producing raw files. Then use Affinity's raw processor to tweak the tones and colours. It struck me that this could be the most efficient way to go, especially for the colour.
 
Photoshop 2021 would be my choice - why not ask on here if someone would be willing to give it a try and talk you through the process??

Les
 
I’m sure you can make thrm look better than they are, and also remember that for your mum, the base point is where they are now, not a perfect new photo, so anything you manage to do will be an improvement, i doubt you will be able to get them entirely back to their former glory.
Whenever I have dabbled in this kind of project, the biggest challenge has been if the fading is not consistent across the image, resulting in the need for masks in layers to vary the adjustments.

Affinity will be fine for this,
 
I am assuming we talking photographic prints have you tried to find the negatives or original files or is this someone else's work?
 
Pound Coin said:
Whenever I have dabbled in this kind of project, the biggest challenge has been if the fading is not consistent across the image, resulting in the need for masks in layers to vary the adjustments.
Click to expand...
This is the problem , there is almost a perfect line down the side caused by the frame
alfbranch said:
I am assuming we talking photographic prints have you tried to find the negatives or original files or is this someone else's work?
Click to expand...
No access to negatives as the were taken 30 odd years ago!

Thanks for all the advice guys!
 
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