Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Photo Restoration

Photo Restoration by midgefrazel
Photo Restoration, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.
 Yellowed Photos?

For some reason, many of the snapshot photos taken in my childhood have turned yellow like the one on the left. Isn't it awful?

I really would like to restore them to the correct color, so I have been working on learning some new techniques.

My mother who was a very creative person, had trouble organizing. This is a problem with those of us who are talented in one area so much so that doing tasks that ordinary people find easy is almost impossible and very painful.

She tried to take all out family photographs and group them together by events or dates. I bought her a cardboard box with dividers to help her out. I was sure it would help her and keep her busy after she was a widow.

She took the photos and, much to my horror, stapled them together. Since she changed her mind frequently, she ripped the photos trying to change one photo from one group to another. She could have used a staple puller but I couldn't find one anywhere in my parents house.

So, in addition to the color problem, I have the rip at the top of the photo. I have been working on using the clone tool in an online photo site that I am investigating.

For a long time, I have used Picnik.com to do adequate fix-ups of my photos. Unfortunately, they are closing and being merged into Google. The paid version of this online tool had this handy collage feature which made quick work of demonstrating photos side by side.

They are letting anyone use their site until April so I guess, I'd better get cracking to get some collages made.

The shadow in this photo is my Dad taking the photo. Miss you, Daddy.

2 comments:

Celia said...

Hopefully someone will have a great idea for you on restoring your mangled photos! By the way, I love the shadow in your photo - some people try to crop the shadows out, but really, in my opinion, that's how the person taking a photo got "into" the photo too! Shadows of Daddy, indeed! Thanks for sharing.

Jim S said...

The restoration of the photo looks great. There's also a forum for photo restoration at www.rootschat.com. They do a great job and it's free.

Regards, Jim
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