repair vintage family photos - how ?

[ETatBKK]

right before the Christmas, father-in-law pulled out a bunch of vintage family albums, I mean those thick black paper albums with wax paper in between. I suggested to scan all these valuable family vintage into computer, then it is easier to share and to pass on this memory to the next digital generation.

I have all the necessary hardware ( photo-scanner ) and software ( Photoshop, Lightroom and DXO Optics Pro ). but, REPAIRING the aged pictures is something very different than straight away from our digital camera.

is there any application, plug-in, add-on or else, that makes this photo repairing more efficient ? it is about 500+ pictures.

thanks and Merry Christmas too

ET@BKK

[thaibry]

Do not scan them. Set up a camera onto a tripod and photograph them. Photoshop is ideal to enhance them and to remove imperfections. Look for tutorials on the web.

Posted from my phone using predictive text, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors.

[rhythmworx]

Could you post an average example of one of them ET?

Just to see what kind of restoration they would need.

[ETatBKK]

Could you post an average example of one of them ET?

Just to see what kind of restoration they would need.

I don't have any sample yet, they all still in the photo albums. this weekend I move my scanner there then and I start the first scanning.

some pictures are almost 60 years old black and white postcard size pictures, the tonal contrast is already gone, with physical scratches.

I would scan into a 1200dpi just for archiving purpose, then may work in a lower resolution.

[ETatBKK]

Do not scan them. Set up a camera onto a tripod and photograph them. Photoshop is ideal to enhance them and to remove imperfections. Look for tutorials on the web.

Posted from my phone using predictive text, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors.

thanks Thaibry

my digital camera only manage 5,000 pixel wide, may not good even for such damaged pictures. also, emotionally I want to keep these pictures as good as possible, scanning capture much more details.

long time ago, there were Photoshop plugins that designed for repairing vintage picture. not sure what is the solution today.

[MJP]

Perhaps find some place that can do high resolution scans and produce DNG RAW or TIFF files for post processing in Photoshop.

[sunshine51]

OP...now that I've returned from Burma send me one scan via PM.

I'll restore it and send you a step by step guide as to how I did it.

The more which needs to be done the longer it takes mind you.

Colour or monochrome makes no difference to me.

Happy Holidays...