I’ve been asked if I would explain how I restore old photographs - something I love doing - so here you go, I hope my step by step instructions are helpful to you! Your old photo’s deserve lots of TLC and to have them restored back to their former glory, preserved for our future generations is so important.

The Strangers In The Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer
In this box I’ve often seen
At the pictures, black and white
Faces proud, still and serene.I wish I knew the people
These strangers in the box
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among the socks.I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I’ll never know their ways.If only someone would have taken time,
To tell who, what, and when,
Those faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away.Make time to save your pictures
Seize the opportunity when it knocks
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

Author: Pam Harazim

The program I am using is Paint Shop Pro, but I’m pretty sure the most basic of photo editing programs have these 5 tools.

1. Scratch Removal
2. Clone
3. Soften and Sharpen
4. Noise Removal
5. Fade Correction

It is so simple when you know how! It can be quite time consuming, but so much fun!

Here is an original photo (of my beautiful Nanna, taken in 1914) that has been badly eaten by silverfish.

Zoom in so you can see nice and clearly. Use the Scratch Removal Tool to take out all the marks from the background.

Continue this step on her face.

Progress Photo

Now carefully Clone over the marks in her dress. Taking care to match up the lace patterns.

Her dress in now fixed.

Next, Clone out the marks in her hair.

Just to show you why I’m not using the Scratch Remover tool on her hair!

You have to use the Clone tool to very carefully match up the hair. When I finished Cloning, I used the Scratch Remover to take out any very small spots. Make sure you resize your tool to best fit the size of the spot. I also blended using the Soften Tool.

Progress Photo.

Clone the nose, fiddling around with the shadows until you have it looking correct.

Now use Noise Removal, and you will see the that almost all spots are gone. Zoom in and carefully go over the entire photo, using the Scratch Remover to take out any remaining spots that got left behind.

Use the Soften Tool on very low hardness where needed. Retouch with the Sharpen Tool if necessary.

These photo’s were all resized, which has unfortunately distorted the lovely clean result. Before resizing, the end result is perfect ready to print.

And finally, if desired, remove old age fade. This is up to your personal preference if you like sepia tones or black and white tones. Some very old photo’s can benefit with some of the dark sepia tones removed with Fade Correction. Play around with different tones to see what you like best.

Feel free to download my original photo to have a practice on if you wish!