How can I restore a damaged, old photograph before re-framing it?

To the question how to restore a damaged old photograph we believe that there are essentially three ways. The first is to give your photo to an art restorer and pay this skilled professional to physically touch up and re-paint with ink, gouache and watercolour your original photograph. Many people prefer this method. However it can be risky as the restorer must handle and work on the original, it is without guarantees, it is time-consuming and expensive. The second is to give your original photo to a digital restorer and pay this skilled   professional to scan a copy of the original photo and edit or touch up the scanned copy digitally. This is less expensive than the first method, it poses no risk to the original, it is faster and is therefore more popular. The third is to try and do it yourself, digitally.

It is with fewer risks,  as only you handle the original, it won't cost you anything for you to restore your damaged old photograph yourself, other than perhaps printing the copy on a good quality paper, but it can be quite time-consuming. But if you have the time, here are some tips on how to go about it. First you will need to de-frame or take out of its picture frame or photo frame your original photograph. Make sure it isn't sticking to the glass or you'll risk further damage.

It you find that it is stuck to the glass, get some expert advice for an art restorer, art conservator or qualified professional. In some cases, they may be able to place the stuck photo in a humid chamber and slowly de-laminate or de-liquefy the emulsion so as to obtain partial or total surface release. That said, once you have your original photograph off its picture frame, give it a very gently brush with a feather duster. Do not blow on it as most people tend to do, as our breath can be laden with moisture.

Once satisfied that there's no dust or grime covering the emulsion (the part of the photograph that you actually see) then you are ready for the 1st step to restore your damaged old photograph, and that is to scan it.  Ideally you should have your own scanner but if you haven't, places like Officeworks will do it for you for a small fee. You're going to "digitally restore" your old, damaged photo. Digital restoration is however a misnomer because you're not actually going to restore, repair or retouch your original art.

What you will do is scan your original, save the scanned copy file, put the original away and digitally manipulate the saved file until you're happy with it. You'd then print the touched up or restored file, and put that printed copy in a picture frame. But let's now start the scanning process. You should have access to the average flatbed scanner. These nowadays come with reasonably sophisticated software.

Begin by ensuring that the scanner's resolution is set to at least between 500 to 600 DPI (Dots Per Inch) This setting should be enough to obfuscate the grain or noise present in the original. Do experiment with different settings, saving each file with its own unique file name, say test-01.jpg, test-02jpg, and so on. Check each scan result on your computer screen. Build up a bank of these files you can go back to should the need arise. The next setting is the precision bits setting.

Select one as high as possible, the higher the bits the more information your scan file holds. Set it for 16 bits x channel at least, or 48 bits in total for the 3 R.G.B. channels if possible. The more bits you have the bigger the file will be but you will also be able to do more manipulations before you posterize (colours, unblend, colour zones become distinct) too much. Next is the colour mode should it be colour or grayscale (black-and-white)?

Colour scanning is always of superior quality (more information is captured and held) because extraneous colours such as insect scats or water stains are more easily identifiable, but it can result in huge files of hundreds of megabytes (MBs). Saving as file type is also quite important. Your scanning software's TWAIN will most likely interface with your photos, images or graphics editor. And the de-facto industry editor is Adobe Photoshop though not everyone can afford it.

But, no fear, there are free alternative, such as GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Whichever image editor you will use to save you scanned file will also give you the choice of saving you scan files in a variety of file formats. Photoshop editing and file saving offers a choice of about 20 formats and GIMP a few less but both will offer the most versatile and important ones such as .tiff, .jpeg, .gif, .png and .psd. When you scan your original, save the file in an least three formats: .tiff, .psd and .jpg. The .tiff file you can save as a master or archive file, it has the most information and you can keep it should you spoil your working file and need to go back to the original.

That said, you're halfway there to restore that damaged old photograph. You can then begin working with either the .psd file or the .jpg file. Whether you will use Photoshop, GIMP or another photo editing software your first task should be to address any fading present in the photograph. This is usually one of the first restoration steps and is easily recognizable, the blacks become less dense, less black and the whites less white therefore decreasing the contrast between the two. Using the Photoshop menu and controls as our guide, open you file, then go to Image > Adjustment > Levels.

Once there adjust the 3 black, gray and white sliding pointers right and left until you achieve the desired result. Don't forget to save file with a different filename, maybe something like restore-step-1.psd. There are more sophisticated and complex tools in Photoshop. For instance you could use the image histogram and experiment with Duplicate Layers & Opacity, Adjustment Layers , Automation and perhaps even the Curves Tool.

However these are perhaps for more skilled or advanced usage than dealt with in here. An important second task to address the colour casts. This is when photos acquire that "yellowed" look across all colours and even whites and pinks, have yellowed. A really easy and quick way to do this is via Image > Adjustments > Auto Color and right away you should see a marked colour balance improvement.

Yet another method is to Image > Adjustments > Match Color and either and or adjust the Luminance, Color Intensity slide controls combines with or without the Neutralize checkbox. Experiment with these controls until you get the desired effect. Once again, save your file with yet another unique filename, perhaps something like restore-step-2.psd. A third task is to fix up those annoying white cracks and tears one invariably sees on the edges and body of many, old photographs.

This particular restoration step is best done with the Clone and Healing Brush tools. Again using Photoshop as an example, go to Window > Tool and make sure that it is selected so that you may see Photoshop's toolbar in Photoshop's work area. The Clone Stamp Tool is usually on the left row of icons, about 5th from the top. It's the only icon that looks like an old-fashioned rubber stamp so it's hard to miss it. Click on it to activate it, then place the mouse anywhere on the "good" part of the photo and then press Alt + mouse click to select or define a copy or source point.

Experiment with it if you're unfamiliar with this powerful tool. If you "wreck" the file you can always go back to the beginning using the Window > History actions record, or even your original file. Don't be afraid to use the brush options usually found at the top of the menu bar. A brush size and shape, opacity, flow and blending modes are easily selectable. Explore and experiment, it's fun. To copy a specific area or portion, leave opacity, flow and blending mode at their default settings and so that you'll only need to select a brush size and shape.

You can magnify the file so as to clone just 1 pixel or large areas. The Healing Brush Tool is normally found directly about the clone stamp tool icon discussed earlier. With this tool you replace undesired image content in a targeted area with that from a selected source region. Be aware that it only replaces the texture and that it retains original colors and luminosities. Many users find this tool finer that cloning because while less pixels are being replaced, the colours, luminosity and "feel" of the source area are retained.

Of course, at each improvement, you might like to save your file, always with an unique name. The three tasks, associated tools and methods discussed here in are but fleeting glimpses of what can be done with powerful image-editing software such as Photoshop and GIMP. If you experiment long enough you will reach the stage when you'll pretty much know how to restore a damaged old photograph without paying anyone to do so.  The restoration ( or digital editing, really) is now ready for you to print. You might want to take your file to a photo lab for optimal printing results or print it yourself with a good quality inkjet and photo paper. After you've printed your restored photo you can put it in a picture frame, with or without a mat.

Conservation picture framing won't be required for the freshly printed copy. Remember, you haven't framed the original photograph and you've saved the finished image file so that you can print multiple copies, should you need to or wish to, right?  And after you've completed your project and printed your restored copy, perhaps you can frame it inside a nice, matted photo frame like the ones we have available in our  Matted Photo Frames  Store category. Thank you for reading this post "How can I restore a damaged, old photograph before re-framing it?.