Restoring Old Photographs

The image below shows a before and after version of an old photograph that contained a significant amount of damage.  The man's hand was completely missing and there was a great deal of chips, scratches and stains.

                             Click to View Large Size                       Click to View Large Size

First Step

I begin by scanning the image into Photoshop, setting the scanner to 360 dpi, to ensures the finished image can be printed at high resolution. Then in the Layers Palette of Photoshop, I duplicate the layer so that all changes are made to the copy and not to the original scanned image. By doing this, the original is kept intact, in case case there are any errors while editing.

How I Replaced the Hand

Next I take my digital camera and snap a brand new photo of a hand, taking care to ensure that it is placed in the same position as it appeared in the original photo where the damage to the image was so drastic that the original hand could not be cloned or rebuilt.   To take the new photo, I ask a friend to sit in a chair, placing his hand in the same position as the original.

After capturing this new photo, I scan it into Photoshop at the same resolution as the original photograph.   I then select the hand using Photoshop's Lasso Tool and copy it onto a separate layer.   After isolating the hand, I resize and reposition it as carefully as possible, using the Transform Feature under the Edit Menu. (Transform allows you to Scale, Rotate, Skew, etc).                                                          

Matching Color in Photoshop

I then use the Match Color feature of Photoshop CS to carefully match the new hand's color to the tint of the original photo. (If you don't own a recent version of Photoshop, you can achieve the same result by using Adjustment: Hue & Saturation under the Image Menu in Photoshop.  Adjust the sliders to obtain the closest color match).   

If after doing this you still see a slight color variation, then you might try using the Burn and Dodge Tool in Photoshop's main toolbox, to tweak the tones of any shadows, midtones or highlights.

How to Remove Dust and Scratches

Now it is time to tackle the dust, scratches and other chipped areas on the original photograph.   I begin by zooming in by about 200% or more to carefully isolate and remove all dust and scratches and other stains, using a combination of the Clone, Healing Brush and Patch Tool.   Don't worry if you are using an older version of Photoshop that doesn't have the Healing Brush or Patch Tool.  Your trusty ol' Clone (Rubber Stamp) tool with do exactly the same thing, but will take a wee bit longer to achieve the same results.  

You must be extremely patient because this phase really can't be rushed.  On the image below, I spent at least 2 hours painstakingly going over every area of the photo, in some instances having to rebuild details using the Clone Tool.   Take care to mimic as closely as possible any regions of shadows or highlights, ie: in folds of clothing.  This requires some artistic effort, but it is well worth the energy because the end result will look amazing!

Slide your Mouse Over the photo below, then Slide It Off of the Image.   You will be able to see 2 different views of the photo:

"Mousing Over" will show you the Restored Image.  "Mouse Off the image" will show you the image before it was restored .