Friday, November 23, 2012

Different Methods Of Old Photo Restoration

By Allan Hatchell


Experiences may not last forever but there would always be reminders to remind anyone of them. The best way to capture those moments is through photography. However, those prints, with age, fade away. Fortunately, there are different methods that can be afforded by advanced technology to aid the process of old photo restoration.

The development of image making has its beginnings during the fifth century before Christ after which it has blown to full scale with technological advancements by early eighteenth century. Here, Daguerre formally introduced public use of cameras. These were not colored as what is available now but soon, with time, it became possible and copies of them could even be stored in other media.

The older version has many disadvantages. They tend to get easily damaged within a significant period. These do not have any films that would enable one to make a copy should it get destroyed.

Chemical means can be made to restore them. Here, certain fluids, chemicals and bleach are used. This would need an expert to do as there is direct contact of these substances to the print. Hardware that is capable of adjusting images may also be used. Science has afforded a more advance process of restoration with the use of nuclear and radioactive methods. However, this could not be employed as the costs associated with it is not practical.

Software technology can help anyone do some amateur restorations. Photoshop is the most widely used program. Through one click, adjustments are made. One can experiment using it as there would always be a back up copy available.

There may be instances when prints are very fragile and scanning would destroy them. There is a trick to that. What is needed is to have a copy. One may use their digital camera to make a copy of it. This must be done with the highest definition available and taken in an area with bright lights. A soft copy would then be available for editing purposes.

No matter how alluring Photoshop may be, it has its own limits. There are instances when this would not be able to fully restore an old print with just one click. In this case, a special software with more complicated features can be used. These are the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tool.

Old photo restoration should only be done if success can be ensured. However, for those that needs more than amateur restoration, it should be handled by image specialists. These are too precious to get damaged and once it does, no definite amount of processing can get it back to its former condition.




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