Family Photo Restoration

Hey guys. I have been doing digital photo restoration lately as a hobby. I really enjoy this. However, I would like to do photos that have meaning to them. So I have this idea of asking you guys if you have any photos you would like me to try and restore. Some things to keep in mind:

• If I get to many requests I might not be able to do them all, or, it will take a long time to get to. In this case I will likely pick the ones posted that I like.
• Please only ask for WWII family member photos ie self, father, grandfather, uncles, etc. Also would love to do some of the ladies ie factory workers during the time, nurses, etc. (family members as well)
• I do not consider myself a professional (yet) I am trying and learning. Your photo might yet still be to difficult for me to do. In this case I will let you know. However, I do enjoy a challenge. So I will try.

Now, Some guidelines for posting the picture.

1. Clean your scanner glass!! Even if you think it is already clean. Clean it again.
2. Scan your photo on the highest possible DPI/Resolution your scanner will possibly do and save it is a .tif file. The higher the better. You will need to find the settings for you scanner and set this. I do not know all the scanners and their software so I can not help you here. Please do not ask.
3. Scan your photo in Color mode. Even if your picture is black and white.
4. Do not use Photobucket, ever. I hate Photobucket and everything it stands for. Use imgur if your photo is small enough. I think 15mb max for imgur. Or most likely, if you scanned your picture high enough you will need to use a file hosting like Dropbox or Google Drive and send me the download link. Google drive will be how I send you the large completed restored picture for download.

All I can think of for now. I may edit this guide if situations arise. I look forward to seeing some of your family pictures. Here is an album where I have a couple examples of my work. These are low resolution .jpg examples.

http://imgur.com/a/6qDBq#0

 

Thanks for this useful posting , those are the kind of initiatives that fits the spirit of sharing of our community.

I'm sure some members will post pics for your challenge.

Btw what's wrong with Photobucket?

 

Ads, ads, and more ads. Let me pop up a window on you. You looking at this picture? Let me slide this ad in over it real quick. New window for every picture which is only a ploy to get higher click count, which means more revenue from ads. The way you have to download. No full-screen view for slideshows. Bulk upload tool downsizes pictures. Slow. I could go on.

I feel that Imgur for sharing the average photos on a message board the best site to use.

For the best photo storage of your personnel pictures I think that Flickr is the way to go.

Quick example. I will post the same picture to Photobuck, Flickr, and Imgur. Take your pick as to which one displayed the picture best. Click around to get full size.

Photobucket: Soon as I uploaded picture to photobucket a video automatically started playing with sound.


Imgur:


Flickr: With Flickr it was super easy to choose which size to display here. Click on photo to get full size.


This is one of my Great Grandfather Scott Watts pictures from WWI. My middle name comes from him. I also have his pocket watch

 

Ok, thanks for the information. I have no adds with photobucket at all because I activated "addblock" in my settings. If you use Chrome it's on the top right of the tool bar. Great pictures by the way, the cap and sleeve insignia makes it even better. This is a typical studio picture with handpainted background.

 

Raymond Jr has asked me to do some restoration for him. I am happy to do it. Ray took his photo and had it scanned at 600dpi to a .tiff file. The photo was too big for the scanner so he had to have them scan it in three sections. Unfortunately one section has been corrupted on the upload so I am waiting for him to re-upload the photo. However, I was able to pull these three smaller pictures from the sections I did get. Here they are restored. I removed the colorcast, scratches, and such. Also duplicated some missing elements and restored to black and white. I hope they came out well. I can't wait till he gets the third file re-uploaded for me to finish. It is a beautiful unit photograph.

Emplacement Before


Emplacement After


Barracks Before


Barracks After


Artillery Before


Artillery After

 

Nice start , they all look sharp now .

 

I hadn't seen this thread until now. Excellent work! I uploaded the replacement file this morning and just set it for sharing so you should have access now.

Thanks.

 

Ray sent me three pictures to merge and restore. Here is the album showing the completed work. These are .jpeg files for posting online. I have sent him the large uncompressed .tiff files. First I merged the three individual scans back together. I then cut out each picture from the photograph. I cleared the color cast and set to black and white. I cleaned up dust, scratches, and the like on each one. On the unit picture there was a large crease tear running horizontally on the left side. I removed the crease tear and on one guy the crease tear was bad enough I had to borrow a chin from another soldier to replace his and blend it together. The whole process was about 4-5 hours.

Full Album showing before and after.

Merged picture before: (thumbnail)


Unit after: (thumbnail)

 

Andrwoo you are doing a great job with restoring these photos!

 

Drew,

That is some truly outstanding work. The crease may have even been a tear. Someone had the print dry mounted, probably because of the tear. This really looks good, though.

Thank you.

Ray

(BTW, that's my dad on the left end of the top row.)

 

I'm curious: were these pictures originally b&w or were they taken as sepia tone? It either faded pretty uniformly or they were originally brown. Anyone know?

 

From my amateur knowledge of photography they were all taken in black and white. Many of the prints were then, by the photographer, treated with with sepia pigment. Sepia pigment is made from the Sepia Cuttlefish. This pigment made the photographs more durable.

In short. Shot in black & white, developed, treated with sepia pigment for durability.

I can add the sepia tone to the picture if you like.

 

Sepia lies in the print itself, the film emulsion always targeted a true black and white/greyscale after tinotypes etc. gave way to good old silver halide.
A matter of taste now, but by WW2 most prints would likely have come out of the bath sharply monochrome, and the Yellow tint often seen will usually be down to ageing or dodgy storage.
WW1 stuff slightly more likely to have had the tone from day one, as archival papers appeared to only just be kicking in then.
However... 'Sepia', is not always Sepia... but let's not go there .

Sorry, camera collector & former photography history nerd.
Great stuff andrwoo. Nice crisp results without going too far - I always found the hardest thing in restoration was knowing when to stop. Really kind of you to help people out like this (nice Seabees album too - I like the signpost.)

I'm also chuffed to see someone focussing on clean restoration without colourising, but then I'm becoming a bit of an anti colourising fascist. Nothing wrong with original Monochrome.

 

Actually, I prefer the black and white. The original has the sepia-toned tinting which is what I had scanned. I'll be having that original framed as is. But I think the enhanced contrast of the b&w version makes it more useful for seeing details.

 

Sepia can also result in exposure to UV and moonlight. Old pictures that were initially black and white can fade and turn sepia. Sometimes it's hard to tell the diffrence.

 

Raymond Jr -- I'm interested in connecting with you. I've been trying to research Battery D, 549th AAA (AW). My grandfather was in the same battery as your father. His name is Michael Mignogna. Only man in the Battery group photo without his jacket! If you get this message, please reach out.