Post by Angie on Aug 14, 2006 18:56:18 GMT -5
This tutorial is for some general photo repair things. I will soon post another tutorial for the more time consuming tasks (such as removing spots, lines, and cracks).
* First, make sure you have the largest copy of the photo as possible; if you work on it while it's big, the results look better if you need to scale it down later.
* Now remove any white or bent edges from the photo by using the crop (scalpel) tool.
* If you need to rotate it slightly, go to Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation.
* If your photo is yellowed and has dark spots, go to Layer > Colors > Desaturate to see if the spots are a mere different in color or a difference in shade. Edit > Undo when you're done if the photo wasn't originally black and white or sepia.
* This step should be done only if there aren't any cracks, lines, or spots you plan on removing later. This is for photos who have a grainy or unusually rough texture to them. Merge all layers you may have. Duplicate the resulting layer. On the top one, go to Filters > Blur > Selective Gaussian Blur, and lower the radius to 1. Repeat if it's a large photo. Lower the opacity (there's a slider in the layers dialog) if you need to. If there are areas which were made too blurry, go to Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask, and paint with a fuzzy brush in black on the layer mask where you don't want the blur.
* To give a photo a silvery or platinum or sepia tone, follow this tutorial (ask me if you have any questions about it). If you want your photo to be totally black and white, I suggest going to Filters > Colors > Map > Sample Colorize, and just click "Apply" without clicking "Get Sample Colors"; this tends to give better results than Image > Mode > Grayscale or Layer > Colors > Desaturate. Also, if the platinum/sepia/etc. toning you get from the filter is too strong, duplicate the layer, make the top one black and white with the above instructions, and lower the opacity of it until it looks right to you.
* To add a clean white border, go to Image > Canvas Size. Click on the chain at the top binding the height and width numbers. Add ten or whatever to both fields. Go down to X and Y offset, and bring both of them up to half of whatever you just added to the height and width. Click OK. Layer > New Layer. Right click the bottom layer in the layers dialog, and click "Add Alpha Channel". Drag the new transparent layer to the bottom of the stack. Fill it with white. Merge all your photo layers other than the white one, and go to the photo layer. Layer > Layer to Image Size. Right click and Alpha to Selection. Select > Shrink by 5 (or more or less, depending on the size of the photo). Select > Feather by 3. Select > Invert. Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur by 1.
* To add a dreamy glow (this does not work well on all photos), merge all photo layers and duplicate. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur of 5-10. Lower the opacity to about 15-25. You may or may not choose to change the layer mode (screen, hard light, overlay, multiply, grain merge, etc.) and raise/lower the opacity accordingly.
Here is an old photo I retouched for my great aunt a while back, and I applied some of these effects to it.
Before:
After:
As I already stated, I will make a tutorial on how to remove blemishes from old photos soon.
* First, make sure you have the largest copy of the photo as possible; if you work on it while it's big, the results look better if you need to scale it down later.
* Now remove any white or bent edges from the photo by using the crop (scalpel) tool.
* If you need to rotate it slightly, go to Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation.
* If your photo is yellowed and has dark spots, go to Layer > Colors > Desaturate to see if the spots are a mere different in color or a difference in shade. Edit > Undo when you're done if the photo wasn't originally black and white or sepia.
* This step should be done only if there aren't any cracks, lines, or spots you plan on removing later. This is for photos who have a grainy or unusually rough texture to them. Merge all layers you may have. Duplicate the resulting layer. On the top one, go to Filters > Blur > Selective Gaussian Blur, and lower the radius to 1. Repeat if it's a large photo. Lower the opacity (there's a slider in the layers dialog) if you need to. If there are areas which were made too blurry, go to Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask, and paint with a fuzzy brush in black on the layer mask where you don't want the blur.
* To give a photo a silvery or platinum or sepia tone, follow this tutorial (ask me if you have any questions about it). If you want your photo to be totally black and white, I suggest going to Filters > Colors > Map > Sample Colorize, and just click "Apply" without clicking "Get Sample Colors"; this tends to give better results than Image > Mode > Grayscale or Layer > Colors > Desaturate. Also, if the platinum/sepia/etc. toning you get from the filter is too strong, duplicate the layer, make the top one black and white with the above instructions, and lower the opacity of it until it looks right to you.
* To add a clean white border, go to Image > Canvas Size. Click on the chain at the top binding the height and width numbers. Add ten or whatever to both fields. Go down to X and Y offset, and bring both of them up to half of whatever you just added to the height and width. Click OK. Layer > New Layer. Right click the bottom layer in the layers dialog, and click "Add Alpha Channel". Drag the new transparent layer to the bottom of the stack. Fill it with white. Merge all your photo layers other than the white one, and go to the photo layer. Layer > Layer to Image Size. Right click and Alpha to Selection. Select > Shrink by 5 (or more or less, depending on the size of the photo). Select > Feather by 3. Select > Invert. Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur by 1.
* To add a dreamy glow (this does not work well on all photos), merge all photo layers and duplicate. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur of 5-10. Lower the opacity to about 15-25. You may or may not choose to change the layer mode (screen, hard light, overlay, multiply, grain merge, etc.) and raise/lower the opacity accordingly.
Here is an old photo I retouched for my great aunt a while back, and I applied some of these effects to it.
Before:
After:
As I already stated, I will make a tutorial on how to remove blemishes from old photos soon.