[...]... How to correct color using Auto Color options 190 How to correct color with DIGITAL ROC 191 How to use layers to correct color and luminosity separately 193 xi xii How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How How -To s to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to... Why Restore Digitally? I love reviving old photographs I get almost as much pleasure from saving someone’s cherished, but presumably lost, photograph as from printing a brand new one of my own I enjoy it so much that I have even started a second business (http://photo-repair.com) just for doing digital photo restoration Digital photo restoration is no more magical nor mysterious than ordinary photographic... beautiful photographs digitally, something that is often impossible with physical restoration If restoring the image, not the original photograph, is what’s important, then digital restoration is the safest and the best way to resurrect a photograph Digital restoration has one other significant advantage over physical restoration: The results are theoretically permanent A physical 1 2 Introduction restoration. .. categories of photographs you’re most often asked to restore, roughly in order of commonness A Modest Taxonomy of Restoration A Modest Taxonomy of Restoration Prints Amateur snapshots, mid-20th century to present B&W Color Commercial and school portraits, mid-20th century to present B&W Color Polaroid B&W Color Peel-apart style SX-70-style Old photographs (pre-1930s) Professional photographs Slides... is especially valuable for the restorer I devote the fourth chapter to the subject of converting the photograph to digital form because extracting the maximum useful amount of data from the photograph is the key to achieving a good restoration The heart of the restoration process (and of this book) is the digital techniques and tools that actually work the magic of restoration Chapters 5 through 9 will... (http:/ /ctein. com) and Digital Photo Restoration by Ctein (http://photo-repair.com) Photo-repair.com has a “hidden” page devoted to this book at the URL http://photo-repair.com/photobook.htm that contains corrections and updates before they appear in new paper editions of this book That page also has sample image fi les from this book for you to work with The folks who provided their personal photographs for... think it’s impor- About This Book tant to understand the entire job of creating a digital restoration from start to fi nish The core of restoration is the magic you perform digitally in your favorite image processing program, but that core means little if you don’t have a good grasp of the complete work path from getting the deteriorated photograph into the computer to preserving the restored image for... photograph beyond making a high-quality scan All the restorative work takes place in the computer, not on the original photograph, which means there is much less risk of damage to the original than with conventional physical photo restoration Digital restoration can work wonders; it usually produces much greater improvements in image quality than conventional physical restoration It is possible to re-create... in a restoration, and aim for that I may take a restoration job from A to Z, but you may feel that stopping at K is entirely satisfactory My obsession shouldn’t drive you It’s possible to spend unlimited amounts of time playing with a digital photograph, trying to make it absolutely pixel-perfect If that’s what tickles your fancy (it does mine), that’s great But if you’re doing professional restorations... Restoring tone • Restoring color • Fine-detail repairs and cleanup • Major damage repairs • Repairing uneven damage Restoring Tone Photographs in need of restoration usually don’t have very good tonality Fading and staining will wash out blacks and make whites dingy and dark A severely faded photograph will have a very narrow tonal range A big part of restoration is expanding that compressed set of tones . blank Digital Restoration from Start to Finish This page intentionally left blank Digital Restoration from Start to Finish How to Repair Old and Damaged Photographs Ctein AMSTERDAM · BOSTON · . (http:/ /ctein. com) and Digital Photo Restoration by Ctein (http://photo-repair.com). Photo-repair.com has a “hidden” page devoted to this book at the URL http://photo-repair.com/photobook.htm that. printer (and restorer), but it’s not a secret art. Anyone can learn to restore photographs, just as anyone can learn to print. Digital restoration recovers and restores a photograph to its proper