Photo Restoration
Photo Restoration Specialists
If you have photos that have been damaged by time or the sun or like in my case, I was the kid who ripped up all the photos (sorry mom and dad!), take the time to go through all your photos and start salvaging them before its too late and there is nothing left to salvage.
There are many things you can do to restore your old family photos. One step is to clean them with a soft brush or an air blower. You should do this before scanning them, but it is important to do it regardless as dust and dirt will scratch your photos.
Once photos have been cleaned and dried, they should be stored flat and not touching each other. If they are placed in an album, the best practice is to not pull them out if they are stuck. This is because pulling the photo can damage it. If you do not want your photos in albums when storing them, try not to stack more than one face-down so that you can protect the photo from damage. Also, make sure to divide your photos evenly in between sheets of paper.
If your photos are ripped, do not use sticky tape to put them together. You can use Photoshop to restore the photo. Sticky tape is a poor option.
The easiest way to digitise your photos is to scan them using whatever home scanner you have and if the photo is too big to scan on your own scanner, try officeworks/teds etc. If you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera you can lay the photo flat on the ground (make sure no light is reflecting from it) and take a picture of your photo, make sure you do not use your mobile phone because that’s not an appropriate camera to use.
Scanning resolution is also going to depend on the photo size. If it is small, like the size of a passport photo, then you should scan it at a high dpi such as 1200 or more, in order to get all of the information but don’t go too crazy and scan at 4800dpi, the file size will be too big which will make editing slow.
If your photos are a standard size or even bigger than 600 dpi is perfect. But if you are going to be using a camera to photograph your photo I would prefer a full-frame and hi-res camera like the Sony a7R2 which is 42 megapixels that extra resolution will make a difference when it comes to restoring the photos.
Before we move on from scanning, You cannot overlook the importance of scanning properly. Second, to that, make sure you use better scanning software than what came with your scanner. I would suggest VueScan which has many functions to help you get the best scan possible from your scanner. I would also say spend some cash on a better scanner.
Ok, once you’re done scanning your photo, put it in a safe place so they don’t get more damaged. There is a chance that you might need to re-scan the photo/s if there’s an issue with the digital copy.
I use photoshop to do photo restoration. It has many options for editing and restoring old photos that would be hard to do without it. You can fix small, damaged areas with the “heal” tool or use the “clone” tool for more complicated ones.
If you can’t make the photo better yourself, don’t worry. Turn to Google, and search for “photo restoration” or “photo restoration specialist” or “photo restoration service” in your area. Try searching with terms like “photo restoration Melbourne” or “photo restoration services Melbourne.” This will bring up a local professional who can fix your photos for you.
If you are in Australia we are local to you and you can contact us to do your photo restorations.
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