Basic Restoration Tutorial by John Driscoll
  
Photo restoration will be one of the most common applications for your Photoshop skills. In fact, almost every photograph we work with will probably require some sort of adjustments or repair. In this lesson I will describe a very basic restoration process that will apply to most of your photographs. Follow along in Photoshop by downloading the tutorial image here. Download image file.
Step 1: Assess The Image  

After you restore a few photographs you'll begin training your eye to see the important characteristics of photographic images that will make them good candidates for restoration. Here are three things to watch for.
1.) Does the photo have a good tonal range? Tonal range is the spectrum from light bright highlights to dark black shadows. Good candidates for restoration have a good range of tones. As you'll see, we'll be able to correct and improve the tonal range. Photos that have a very limited range are typically very washed-out. If it were a black and white photo it would appear to be primarily in the grey tones. The photographic term for these photos is "flat" or very low contrast.
2.) Is the photograph focused and sharp? It's pretty easy to tell if a photo has sharp detail. Look for telltale clues like clothing details and hair in a portrait. While you can slightly sharpen a photo in Photoshop you can't generate details that aren't there to begin with.
3.) If there is damage is it repairable? Your ability to assess this aspect of a photograph will improve each time you restore an images. A tear that seems impossible today may look like an easy fix after you gain experience. Most old photos have signs of age where spots or other damage has been casued by handling or just the deterioration of time.
Step 2: Digitize the Image  

Generally speaking, this means scanning the photograph in a flatbed scanner. But you could rephotograph the image with a high quality digital camera. Whatever you use, keep in mind that you will never have more information about your photo than you do at this point of the process. The scan will not be as good as the origianl...that's the way it goes. Information or detail is lost in the process. We'll try to minimize this loss by making good desicions about scanning. I've provided inforamtion about resolution in previous lessons. Simply said, we want to scan our image at a resolution that will meet our needs for output. If you plan on restoring grandma's wedding picture and printing it out on a 600-800 dpi (dot per inch) printer then you'll want to scan the image at one third of that ouput resolution. So we're talking about 200-300 ppi (pixels per inch). You also need to take into account any enlargement of the image you intend to make. Don't bother using the scanner's enlargement function. You're a skilled Photoshop user and it (Photoshop) is much better at the enlargement process than your $89 scanner. The rule of thumb for enlargements is simple: Scan at 100% but increase the scanning resolution to accomodate your planned enlargement. So if you have a 4 x 4 photo original that you want to double in size then scan at twice your calculated resolution. So the output resolution I calculated above was about 200ppi for a 4x4.If I enlarge to 8x8 I'll need to have sacn my origianl image at 400ppi (still scan at 100%). Remember you'll do the enlarging in Photoshop. Image>Image Size (it's the most important window/palette in Photoshop). To complete this tutorial you will need to download the restoration file that I have posted in our Blackboard Assignments page. The image should be about 5 x 5 @ 150ppi.

You will need to save the final image (instructions are at the end of the tutorial )and send to me for credit.

Step 3: Open Image in Photoshop  
 
The image size window should be your first stop for every image you open. You must be aware of the size and resolution of your images. From this window you can resize your image or change resolution. Here's where those extra pixels we talked about above come into play. Notice the resample box at the bottom of the Image Size window...if it's checked, Photoshop will create more pixel information to "fill-in" if you enlarge your image. So, if you doubled the size (with resample selected) you would have a 10 x 11 image still at 150 ppi. The file size would about tripple and guess what...Photoshop invented all those new pixels. Here's the point....if you want to maintain file quality and image detail scan in more pixels in the digitization process. So let's say I scanned my photo at 300 ppi..now I open the image size window and click off the resample box. Now when I doulbe the width or height (didn't mention, but the constrain proportions box will make your image size proportionally) the resolution box will decrease to about 150 ppi becasue we are spreading out the scanned pixels over a larger area. The file size will stay exactly the same. Most importantly we've still retained original detail and have the enlargement we wanted.  
Step 4: Make Levels and Contrast Adjustments  
Now we're going to start making some serious improvements to our photo. Make sure you've saved and made a copy to work on. The first step I recommend is Image>Adjustments. There are lots of options here which you'll get into later in the class. For now, I recommend you first adjust the tonal range. This is done with Levels. Image>Adjustments>Levels  

The picture in the levels window is the histogram for your photograph. It's a "plot of all the pixels in the image based on a white to black scale...even colored pixels have a white, grey or black value. The plot for black is on the left and pure white is on the right. You can see in the photo that there are more dark tones that light tones...If you move both end sliders toward the center..the little triangle in toward the first rise in the pattern you'll see a significant change in the image. What levels does is reassign the tonal range. Basically it makes areas of the picture that are close to black really black and areas that are sort of white (teeth for example) really white. Try it and see the magic!
  

The levels adjustment has made a big improvement...there is also a short cut. Auto levels will give you a basic adjustment...better to just take a few seconds to do it yourself. Just look for things that should be white to be white...teeth and eyes are good indictators. Now try the Adjustments>Contrast and Brightness and see if you can improve the overall contrast in the photo. There's also an auto contrast if you're in a hurry.		  
 
Step 5: Adjust Color
  
Color adjustment is serious stuff...at this point I only expect you to remove major color casts that old or sun damaged photos might have. Go to the Adjustments>Color Balance and use the sliders to see if you can improve your picture. Be careful..you can really overdo it here...best to find some part of the image that you can use as a guage for color. Skin tones are usually a good choice..keep in mind that everyone has a different idea as to what's perfect. Again..at this point try to get rid of obvious and strange color casts in your photo. The photo we're working with doesn't really need much adjustment in this area.  
Step 6: Fix the Flaws  
Now we're getting to the fun stuff! Because we're just getting started with the Photoshop tools, I don't expect you to use real exotic techniques. There are hundreds of techniques for repairing spots, cuts and whatever you can imaging has happened to your photo. I want you to try to become familiar with two very important tools. The Clone Tool and the Healing Brush.  

Both these tools are used in conjunction with the brush menu. The size of the tool tip or the area that is "fixed" is based on the diameter and hard or soft character of the brush you choose.
1.)With your working file open scale it up (I use the magnifying glass) so you can see the flaws you want to fix such as the dots to the right of the girl's face.
2.) Select the clone tool and pick a brush diameter of 10-20 pixels and soft. Brush menu is up at the top left of main window. We're going to use the clone tool (sometimes referred to as the stamp tool) to pick-up a good area of the picture and drop a copy of that good area onto a spot or flaw. You can click many times and have more control with a smallish brush size.
3.) Here's the trick...to set the area of pick-up move your brush over a good area with the same color or pattern of the area you want to fix. Hold down the option key (you'll see the brush turn into a target looking icon). While still holding the Option key down move the target icon over the area you want to fix and let go. You've "set" the pick-up and drop-off "target" relationship. If you click the mouse now, you'll see a a copy of the pick-up spot (brush diameter) overlaid on your photo. This is really cool! The relationship of the pick-up and drop off will stay the same if the aligned option in tool options is selected so as you move the mouse so will the pick-up point move. You'll first notice this when you overlay a dress pattern on your subject's face...if you want to keep the pick-up point at a constant locatoion deselect aligned in the tool option bar at the top of the window. I find it best to keep on clicking, don't drag the brush. You'll have to reset the pick-up point (option key) when you need to find a better match for color or texture. As a general rule you'll find better matches close to the area that needs fixing.

  

I've quickly applied the clone tool to the right side of the image and you can see big changes. 		 
Now for some more magic..the healing brush. Select this brush and set the pick-up point like you did with the cloning tool. The difference with the tools is important to understand. The clone makes a copy of the pick-up area and you place that exact "spot" on the target area you want to fix. The healing brush and and patch tool (for larger areas) picks up the texture of the pick-up point and then applies the texture to the target area plus it matches the surrounding color and brightness values. WOW is right! As cool as the healing brush is, you'll discover that is doesn't work well on edges that have high contrast. You'll have to go back to the clone tool for more precise repairs in these areas.  
OK so how did you do? Here's the before an after...Now get to work on your project!  
 
Fianlly: Saving The Final Image  

The final file needs to be saved as a jpeg at 72 ppi and sent to me by the end of the week!

Here's a review on saving files:
If you're going to print your photo from your computer then just save it as a Photoshp .psd file. This retains all layer information and, although the file is large you shouldn't have a problem printing. If you need to send the file as an attachment to me (such as our Project 1..and future projects) I want you to save the file as a jpeg file type. Always check your image size (Image>Image Size) and resolution to make sure you're sending a reasonably sized file. I think 8x10 is as big as I want to receive and the 5x7 range is probably better. These are images that I will have to eventually post on the web. Anyway...resolution should be downsampled to 72 dpi too. When these adjustments have been completed got to File>Save As and select the jpeg file option. Another window will pop-up asking for the quality that you want to save. Select 7. Jpeg files are compressed (made much much smaller) even an 8 x 10 shouldn't be more than 400k..while it's full up photoshop .psd origianl at 200 ppi is up around 6 megapixels. As always...save your original too... just in case there are problems and I have to ask for another copy or you need to fix the original.