A majority of the photos were taken with rather poor cameras. Our family camera was a Kodak instamatic from the late 60's/early 70's and others were taken using the 110 format. Not to mention that the inks are eaten away, scratches, dirt and dust and the dreaded color degradation. My work is indeed cut out for me to restore them to a usable condition.
Here is an example. This family photo was taken 44 years ago in 1968. Obviously at some stage my Mother was cut from the image as well as a whole number of different problems.
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| Scissor Effect. Original size is only 3.5"x3.5" |
A closer look reveals all the scratching, dust and dirt that almost forty five years have added to the original.
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| Years of neglect |
The original was scanned at a high resolution to allow me to treat the picture as though looking through a microscope. Then each spot and grain of dirt was removed. and blended. Next came the repairing of the tears and creases and then building up the third of the image that had been cut away. Obviously my Mother didn't make the cut in this one as it would have been ridiculous to try and re-create her for the shot. Many layers of cloning and blending later and it was time to dodge and sharpen certain areas to bring out the detail that was barely there to begin with. Finally a levels adjustment and the image could be re-composed and cropped.
Here is the finished photograph.
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| Dad, Kathryn, Helen and David 1968 |
Hugely satisfying and due to the resolution it can be printed at an 8x10 size without a loss of detail. One to be framed and hung on the wall I think!
