damaged old photographs. Case in point – photograph sent to me by my beautiful/awesome sister-in-law, Julie. Julie – aka – Hoo-lee, Jules, Trophy Wife is married to my youngest brother Rusty. She’s a saint and one of the sweetest people on the face of the earth.
She wrote:
“Rusty said that you know how to fix pictures with your magic….do you think you can fix this photo that your darling nephew Luke cut in half?”
Said photo of my SIL, Julie (left) and Debbie. Circa 199?? and probably right after a Van Halen Concert. She’s a major VH Fan! Phoofie Bangs and Acid Washed Jeans. Man – that brings back so many memories.
So I opened the photo in Photoshop and made a duplicate layer copy of the original photo. This way I can check what the original photo looked like by hiding the new layer and making all the adjustments on the new layer copy. There are some really cool tools in Photoshop. I used the clone tool to repair the tear across the center. This has to be done carefully as it copies part of the picture to another to make it appear like part of the original photograph. I also removed white spots using the same tool. I removed Hoo-lee’s red eyes and added back natural flash reflection in her eyes. Then, I went to work on Debbie’s side. Notice Debbie had Flash Washout. Well – I had to correct that side of the photo without making that side of the photo too dark. And, fixing the tear on that jacket was a little more time consuming. But, all in all I think it turned out okay.
With older photos, you don’t want to tweak them too much. Repair damaged areas and color correct (if possible). If you have an old photo you’d like for me to tweak out water spots, creases, tears, or color correct – scan it and e-mail it to me at starwoodgal@live.com. I’ll see what I can do.
