Repair Old Photos – Fix Scratches, Spots And Tears

Flipping through vintage portraits of your great-great someone makes for an exciting trip down memory lane. Sharing these pictures on social media with loved ones is even more rewarding; as you connect with each other over fond memories of the past. It is important to preserve and repair old photos by digitizing them and then using powerful software such as Photoshop or Picasa to restore the photos to their former glory. Another alternative is to send your copies to photo retouching services for better results; however, doing it yourself is ultimately more satisfying.

For this guide, we will be using Picasa. Advanced photo retouching services may use Adobe Photoshop instead.

Repair Old Photos – Fixing Spots

Spots and other blemishes follow after water damage. In some cases, the image layer gradually flakes off.

1. Go to Basic Fixes and use the cropping tool to remove portions of the picture that are less important. This will save you some editing time.
2. Next, focus on the damaged portion of the picture. A good trick is to take cues from the background color. If the surrounding area has solid colors, you can use the Retouch Tool to borrow colors from the background and paste them over the damaged portion.
3. To remove white specks on your photograph, use the same tool with a smaller brush size and repeat pasting colors of the surrounding background to the faded specks. Now click over Basic Effects to imbue the picture with a sepia tint.

Repair Old Photos – Fixing Scratches and Tears

The most common flaw with vintage pictures is wear and tear over time, especially when you’re too fond of the picture, causing damage to the texture. If you fear damaging your photo, it is advisable to take it to a Professional photo digitizing service instead.

• Working with texture and shadows isn’t easy. But to make the process a little easier, use the zooming tool to magnify the damaged area. Now choose an appropriate brush size for the Retouch Tool, this is important for more sensitive shading. Hover over the area that has tears on it and then highlight it with the Retouch brush.
• Now move the brush around a similarly colored background that is a rough approximation of the color and texture of the torn portion. Click over the selected part to fill out the portion you highlighted with the Retouch brush.
• Now select as many tears as to remove you want and repeat the above process. It is important to take your time with the retouching tool.

Using Apps on Your Smartphones to Fix Blemishes

There are many apps on Android and iOS that can fix blemishes on your images. These apps are particularly useful if you used your phone’s camera to make digital copies of vintage pictures. The most popular app on Android is TouchRetouch, which will cost $1.99 on Googles Play Store.

iOS has its own app called Unfade Pro, although it is a little more costly at $6.99. In many cases, you’ll get the same results as you would if you used a photo digitizing service.

Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

OwnerSmooth Photo Scanning Services

My father has been in the document scanning industry for as long as I can remember. I worked for his company Smooth Solutions, Inc. during summer breaks growing up and for a couple years after college. Wanting to venture off on my own, I gained experience in several careers including wholesale seafood sales as well as owning and operating a bakery for several years. When my father approached me with the opportunity to expand upon his already successful business by providing high quality, professional scanning services to the general public, I jumped on board. From personal experience, I recognize how important it is for most people to have their family memorabilia preserved for future generations and I want to be a part of helping others do that.