Restoring old photographs uncovered during genealogy research

While carrying out genealogy research you will obviously encounter a number of old photographs, some of which will have been preserved and looked after extremely well, others may not have let the years treat them so well.

So how do you go about restoring these images? Well, there are a number of software packages out there to have a go yourself, the best in my opinion being Adobe Photoshop however there are a number of other titles, some of which are freeware and require no payment nor subscription to use.

Once you have the software what else will you need? Firstly you will need a fair bit of artistic talent, all of our photographic artists come from an art background which gives us the professional edge to create and restore photos to an extremely high end result - however if you have patience and a good eye for detail you can produce some good results yourself.

You will also need a good scanner capable of high resolution scans, or use a professional scanning service which can be found at most printing firms

Now you have the photo digitised and stored on your computer it is time to get to work - beginners will probably only need a couple of tools, the 'Clone Stamp' and the paint brush - the clone stamp is great to remove creases, tears and blemishes by copying another part of the photo onto the destination, make sure when you use this tool you reduce the flow to around 40% (you will know what I mean when you get practising!)

With patience you should be able to get a result something like this basic example using mainly the clone stamp tool:

Of course, if you want a truly perfect result it is always best to call in the professionals, and we are more than happy to assist with any project no matter how big or small. We assist genealogy enthusiasts around the world on a daily basis to restore the photos to new, if you have a moment please visit our site at www.myphotorepair.co.uk - we look forward to helping you!