Thanks to our digital cameras and high capacity memory cards we can now document our family activities on a daily basis, without worrying about limiting our shots to rolls of expensive print film.

Our computer’s hard drive is likely to be packed full of pictures covering the development of our nearest and dearest.

Our high quality digital files are also free from the wear and tear that can afflict an analogue print 
that has been handled, scuffed and even scrawled on over the years.

Old prints can also suffer from loss of tone and detail thanks to ongoing chemical reactions, such as ‘silvering’.

Our original shot

You may have a cherished collection of analogue family prints that date back decades. It’s unlikely that you’ll have access to the negatives used to create these precious pictures, so it makes sense to archive them digitally using a scanner or a digital camera.

You can then spruce up the scanned prints using Photoshop’s powerful restoration tools.

In the following tutorial, we’ll show you how to use Adjustment Layers to counteract faded contrast and give an old print more punch. We’ll explore several ways to remove typical blemishes like dust, scratches and stains.

Our start image also suffers from scratches that obliterate key details such as eyes, so we’ll show you how to rebuild missing facial features by performing some digital plastic surgery. We’ll finish off by adding subtle washes of colour to our vintage photo’s subjects.

By using these photo restoration techniques you can rescue damaged photos and give them a new lease of life.

How to restore old photos: steps 1-9

01 Improve composition
Open your start image. Double-click on the locked Background layer’s thumbnail to make it editable. By cropping and straightening the photo at the start you can improve composition and avoid the hassle of restoring details around the border. Choose the Crop tool from the Tools Panel. In the Options Bar, choose Original Ratio to preserve the shot’s shape. Drag a corner control handle to crop the shot and lose some of the wall.

02 Rotate the shot
Place the cursor outside the crop box and it will change to a rotate icon. Now drag to rotate the photo by 1.6 degrees, so that the tilted horizontal lines run parallel with the overlay grid. Drag the 
photo so that you don’t crop out any more of the children’s legs. This will leave a transparent edge that you can replace later on. Click the tick or alternatively hit Enter to apply the crop. The children are now more prominent in the straightened frame.

03 Tweak contrast
The shot’s faded tones are very flat. To boost contrast, choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. Drag the black input level slider to the right to a value of 29. This darkens the shot’s faded grey shadows. Drag the white input levels slider to the left to a value of 215. This brightens the shot’s weak highlights. Drag the grey slider left to 1.24 to lighten the midtones. The shot now has more contrast.

04 Create Smart Object
Click on ‘Layer 0’ and press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. It’s worth keeping a copy of the scratchy image so that you can compare it with the cleaned up version. Click on ‘Layer 0 copy’ and choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. Click OK. This turns the layer into a Smart Object, enabling you to fine-tune filter settings at a later date. Choose Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches. Set Radius to 20 and Threshold to 15. Click OK.

05 Disable the filter
Many of the scratches and dust spots will become filled in, but you’re also losing key details on the subjects. In the Layers Panel, click on the white Smart Filter layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert it. The black pixels stop the filter from altering the attached image layer. In the next step you can paint white on the filter to choose which areas of the image will become filtered and which ones will stay sharp.

06 Dust busting
Use the Zoom tool to view the image at 100%. Now grab the Brush tool from the Toolbox. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker. Set the Toolbox’s foreground color swatch to white. Click on the black Smart Filter to target it. Spray 
white over the background’s black dust spots, fingerprints and thinnest white scratches to fill them in. Leave the children’s clothes and faces as they are for the moment.

07 Rough and ready
This selective Dust & Scratches filter technique will fill in thin scratches and specks in a rough and ready way, but it’s not sophisticated enough to remove artefacts that overlap delicate details like faces and clothing. It can’t deal with thicker scratches either. Go to Layer>New>Layer. Click OK. We’ll use this transparent layer to tackle some of the bigger background scratches.

08 Patch the scratch
Grab the Patch tool. In the Options Bar, choose Content-Aware. Set Adaptation to Very Strict. Tick Sample All Layers. Click on transparent ‘Layer 1’. Draw a patch around sections of scratches. Place the cursor inside the patch and drag upwards to select a clear bit of the wall. The sampled area will fill the original patch and blend seamlessly with its neighbouring pixels. A few small patches will work better than one large one.

09 Tidy with Clone Stamp tool
Use the Patch tool to select the scratch running across the girl’s patterned dress. Drag upwards to choose a clean dress section to patch over the scratch. Details such as her handbag strap may not be in the correct position. Grab the Clone Stamp tool. Set it to Sample Current & Below. Alt-click to sample the adjacent clean strap and spray to extend it over the patched area. Sample and spray clean flowers over scratched ones.

PAGE 1: How to restore old photos, steps 1-9
PAGE 2: How to restore old photos, steps 10-18
PAGE 3: How to restore old photos in Photoshop Elements

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The only suspected photograph taken of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic is due to be sold via RR Auction and is expected to fetch up to $10,000. The original 9.75 x 8 photograph affixed to a 13 x 11 mount is purportedly in good condition. Written on the front of the photograph is:

“Copyright. Blueberg taken by Captain W. F. Wood S. S. Etonian on 12/4/12 in Lat 41° 50 N Long 50° W. Titanic struck 14/4/12 and sank in three hours.”

The photographer was one Captain W. F. Wood, who was aboard a steamer called the S. S. Etonian and captured this picture two days prior to the sinking of the Titanic. If you’re wondering what ‘blueberg’ means, this refers to the tinting of an iceberg from the sun’s rays.

Although it has not been confirmed that this iceberg is in fact the one that caused the death of around 1,500 people abroad the Titanic, experts believe it to be the same for a number of reasons: the iceberg in the picture was taken at a location two to three days away from where the ship sank; the shape of the iceberg matched the sketches given by survivors of the incident; and lastly, its shape is similar to that of another photograph of an iceberg taken the day after the catastrophe from a ship called Prinz Adalbert, which was in the area.

Suspected to be the same iceberg as the one above, this picture was taken a day after the sinking of the Titanic, from the Prinz Adalbert

Although the shape of the iceberg in these two pictures does differ, RR Auction has stated that this could be “attributable to the angle of the photographer and the aftermath of the impact.”

The photograph is likely to fetch a high price, however it is by no means likely to be a recording-breaking sale; the most expensive photograph ever sold was ‘Rhine II’ by Andreas Gursky. The photograph sold for more than $4.3 million.

Source: RR Auction via PetaPixel

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Want to find out how to recreate an analogue film look for your digital photography? Follow the 6 easy steps of this Photoshop Elements tutorial that will show you how to distress your digital photo for a vintage antique look. Learn how to creatively alter an image’s colours and tones to make them stand out from the crowd. Before colour film was invented, many monochrome shots were hand-coloured. Find out how to use the Convert to Black and White command along with layer blends to mimic that distinctive retro technique and add a delicate wash of colour to your image. You can download the start image for this tutorial by clicking the link below.

1. Duplicate layer

Open AntiqueColour_Before.jpg (see download link above). Go to Window>Layers to open the Layers Palette. Double click the Background layer’s thumbnail. A New layer box will appear. Click OK to unlock the layer. Now drag Layer 0 onto the Create new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to duplicate it.

2. Convert to monochrome

Select the top layer (Layer 0 copy) by clicking its thumbnail. Go to Enhance > Convert to Black and White. Click the Urban/Snapshots style. Drag Contrast right to a value of +5. This creates a slightly solarised monochrome effect, which will help emphasise the image’s hand-painted look. Click OK.

3. Refine the colours

Drag the black and white Layer 0 copy layer bwlow Layer 0. Set Layer 0′s blending mode to Soft Light. Reduct its opacity to 67%. The combination of the layer blending mode and the opacity change creates a more delicate range of colours that mimics the retro hand-painted technique.

4. Go with the grain

Click the Layer Palette’s Create a new layer icon. Go to Edit>Fill Layer. Choose the 50% Gray option and click OK. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set Distribution to Gaussian and set Amount to 300%. Click OK. For organic looking clumps of grain, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 1.8

5. Add a sepia tint

Set Layer 1′s blending mode to Multiply and reduce its opacity to 42%. Click the Create new fill layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and choose Solid Color. Pick a vintage sepia colour (R: 188, G: 147, B:88). Set the Color Fill layer’s blending mode to Soft Light. Set the opacity to 74%.

6. Create a vignette

Choose Layer>Merge Visible. This creates a flattened version of the shot. Select the Burn tool from the Tools Palette. In the Options bar set Range to Shadows and set Exposure to 9%. Spray around the edge of the frame to gently darken the sepia tones, creating a soft and organic-looking vignette.

Once you’ve learned how to shoot and edit photographs, why not try experimenting with different creative techniques in Photoshop. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to add a cross-processed look which will help give your landscape shots an unusual edge. The effect replicates the skewed colours and contrasts film photographers used to get if they processed their film in the wrong chemicals. See the related links to find Part 1 of the video.

Once you’ve learned how to shoot and edit a traditional landscape shot, why not try something a little more creative? In this tutorial we’ll show you to replicate the look of traditional film, adding a cross-processed look to give your landscape shots an unusual twist – perfect for framing and displaying. Watch the video to find out how it’s done. See the related links for Part 2 of the video.

Most modern desktop scanners have the capability to scan negatives without any major issues. Here, we show you how to take those scans and improve them dramatically.

1. Straighten and crop

The image needs straightening, so choose the Straighten Tool and select Original Size from the Canvas Options. Click and drag the tool along the horizon line from one side to the other. Next, use the Crop Tool to crop away the areas of exposed canvas.

2. Colour cast removal

To correct any colour cast, go to Enhance>Adjust Colour>Remove Colour Cast. Click with the eyedropper in an area of the image that should be a neutral colour, such as the lighter areas within the sky. It may take a few attempts to get this right. Click OK when you’re happy.

3. Healing dust spots

Add a new Layer and choose the Spot Healing Brush. Choose a soft brush, check Proximity Match and All Layers. Zoom in to the image and use the brush at a small size to dab over all the small marks and dust spots.

4. Selective Levels adjustments

Use the Quick Selection Tool to select the sky. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer via Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Drag the White Point slider to the left to brighten the highlights and modify the midtones with the central (Gamma) slider.

5. More Adjustment Layers

Use other Levels Adjustment Layers to change the tones in other areas of the image. You can restrict the effect of the Adjustment Layer by filling it with black via Edit>Fill Layer. Paint over the area you want to show adjustment by using the Brush Tool with white as Foreground.

6. Fine adjustments

You can make fine tweaks to each Layer mask by painting into it with black and white. Remember, you can always adjust the settings by double-clicking the Adjustment Layer once you’ve painted the mask. When you’re happy, flatten the image via Layer>Flatten Image.