These pictures date back to the 1800's. My mother ripped all of my dad's and her family pictures up before she died. They are important to me but I don't have tons of money. I could start to learn photo shop but as of now I know nothing about it. I'd love to get them out of the box and in order. Is there archival tape out there?
2007-09-28 05:14:03 · 5 answers · asked by sarcastichedgehog 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
I know Wal-Mart and I think Walgreen's do a photo restoration. You could try taking them in and talking to a photo employee to see if they could do anything for you. They might even know someone local in your town that could help.
Good luck and I hope you get them into good shape!!~~~~~~~~~~~~
2007-09-28 08:19:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Wow! I admire your determination to restore some of your family's history. So sad that your mother did that.
Unfortunately, there's no "cheapest/best" way to do this.
It's either cheap OR best.
Here's what I'd do. (First of all, be patient - this could take quite a while. And I mean months, maybe even years! But it's a labor of love ... and you're doing a VERY GOOD thing!)
Buy Photoshop Elements and learn the basics of image optimization BEFORE you start trying to do restorations.
Buy or borrow a decent flatbed scanner - it doesn't have to be expensive! - and learn the basics of that as well.
Put the pieces together on the scanner as best you can, and scan them at a decent target size, and at least 300 dpi.
Scan them in color - even though they may be in black & white. This will allow you more latitude in managing the subtleties of various tones.
Choose a couple of simple ones at first to get the hang of it. Learn the basics of using the Clone and Heal tools - they're your best friends when it comes to restoration.
I've been doing digital restorations professionally for more than ten years. It's NEVER EASY! But it's one of the most satisfying things you'll ever learn.
If you'll pick one or two images and get them scanned, I'd be happy to see what I can do with them - for free!
Contact me here when you're ready to send them:
jim@jimsdigitaldiary.com
I've also got a couple of detailed tutorials about scanning on my website. It's free
2007-09-28 06:04:30 · answer #2 · answered by Jim M 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Positioning pieces of the image on a scanner is NOT the way to do this.
You need to use a heavy paper or matte board and spray some positionable adhesive on it. The key is positionable - so you can move the pieces around as you assemble them.
You should do the best job you can to get all the pieces lined up AND the torn edges to overlap each other correctly. (torn edges of photos will have a top piece and a bottom piece.)
Once you have this put together you can either scan this or put a piece of glass on top of it to flatten the image and take a digital photo of it.
Then use Photoshop.
If you do not assemble this correctly then you will end up with distorted images regardless of how well you retouch them in Photoshop.
2007-09-29 20:19:45 · answer #3 · answered by vbmica 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The best way is to do it digitally, unless you mean restoring the originals. Otherwise you're better off scanning them and fixing them in photoshop or if you can't afford that get photohop elements. You'll be using the cloning and healing tools a lot.
2007-09-28 06:19:28 · answer #4 · answered by Michael M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would get a cheap scanner and some photo software. You can then scan them directly into the software and store them all on a CD. There is free software on Cnet.com. That or download it off of Limewire.
2007-09-28 05:22:24 · answer #5 · answered by L A 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋