Sunday, February 17, 2013

Photo Restoration Service - Bringing Back Old Sentiments to Life!

Old sepia toned pictures are no longer out of sight, out of mind. There are now dusted off the attic and restored and revived digitally. Brand new old pictures are like vintage wine that mature and bring back memories alive and kicking as though they happened yesterday!

Restoration process has made photo editing companies so special. Now there is no need to part with the pictures. They can just be scanned and uploaded for the restoration work. The job of an editor doing a photo restoration service involves delicate work like cleaning the patches, blurs, yellowness, wrinkles and maybe stitching. The editor will try to interpret the way the process will be involved to solve the problem. The digital file is always the best way to send rather than risk the original piece. A picture that is yellowing can be made into a crisp B & W with the charm restored. The damage is usually very stark but at times the client may need some addition to the picture.  Ideally, an estimate is the first step that one needs-of time and money that the firm will charge for the post production. This will determine whether the client is willing to invest in the same.

Photoshop offers several tools to restore old photos and improve them. Some of the tools are crop tools, image adjustment tools, hue/saturation tool to remove color cast, clone tool and image transform tool. The process of digital photo restoration always begins with assessing the damages and making necessary corrective measures for the photo.


Which are the areas this service can be pressed into action?

A customer can give the original picture in any format-as a B & W, negative, slide or a damaged color photo. And the possibilities that can crop up are-damage via water, moisture or dew, fire, tears, ear folds, dust, wrinkles and scratch, fading and yellowness, patches and stains of all sorts. Even if the photo is scanned and uploaded, the editor will create another digital file, which will have the same in a new resolution. The maximum pixilated picture brings better results. The original image that is sent is kept as a reference point for the edit work. There are few editors who are masters of restoration. They have the patience to work on the images. Every photo studio has some experts who deal only in the restoration process. They often apply the clone and healing procedure. First the smaller work is done, like removal of the blemishes and stains. Even the starches can be eliminated via this process. Once the roughness is smoothened the picture can look like a beautiful painting. But care has to be taken to make it look realistic and not very portrait like!

Often when a group of photos are stuck together they tend to stick and create patches. There is also a color difference in the picture. Restoration work also involves uniformity of color tones. Then with the contrast, views, sharpness and brightness the other areas are processed. Sharpness is also achieved with the tools in the menu. Photoshop has enough tools in their software programs to bring the right results. Mildew appears on slides or negatives. These are also removed easily. Missing parts are recreated to match the original frame. Sometimes painting is also done as filler. In some cases the background is removed and a suitable one is applied. After editing the photos are ready to be framed or archived as required.

0 comments:

Post a Comment