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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: shaunadavid on Tuesday 05 October 10 05:08 BST (UK)

Title: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: shaunadavid on Tuesday 05 October 10 05:08 BST (UK)
My Grama will be celebrating her 100th birthday later this month. I was hoping that one of the many talented people here could fix this family photo up. Unfortunately it is not of very high quality and I only have an emailed copy of the picture. I could get it printed then rescan it with higher rez if it would be better to work with. Please let me know. I'd like it to be a moment for everyone at her birthday to see this. Just a restore as I already know the date.  ;D.

thanks shauna
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: jc26red on Tuesday 05 October 10 07:31 BST (UK)
hi shauna,


Sorry Shauna, the photo is so tiny that a restore is impossible especially with the amount of detail in this particular shot, it would also be impossible to print off successfully being this small!

I hope you can get hold of the original photo, if so, please could you rescan it at 300dpi and save it with NO compression (good quality). We are allowed up to 500kb in size on this board, the bigger the better please.  The one you posted is only 7kb so you can see the problem

There are some good scanning  tutorials at the top of the board if you need some help, or pm any of the restorers that are online when you come back. Anyone will be willing to help

Jenny

ps just realised you said it was an emailed copy, no printing and scanning at a higher res doesn't help as it will only contain the same detail of the copy. The detail was lost in the original scan and can't be put back unless the original is rescanned again at a higher res.
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: shaunadavid on Tuesday 05 October 10 16:52 BST (UK)
Hi jenny, Thanks, but that sucks! I don't have a clue where the original is. so if I understand what you're saying even if I go and print the picture at Walmart or wherever and then scan and increase the dpi, it still won't work? Dang. Maybe I'll try going to a printer and getting him to enlarge it instead. Sometimes that works a bit better. Well thanks for your suggestions. If you think of anything else that I can do with what I have, let me know and I will try it. But I can't get my hands on the original. Believe if I could have, I definitely would have made it better before I posted.

Thanks AGAIN. Amazing work done by the group here!!
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: jc26red on Tuesday 05 October 10 17:06 BST (UK)
hate to say it, but even if you go to a printers, he will only do the same thing as you would at home and still not get anymore detail, as mentioned before, the detail was lost with the original scan.

Personally,  I think its going to be a waste of money going to the printers..
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: jc26red on Tuesday 05 October 10 17:15 BST (UK)
shauna Just to give you an idea what the restorers see when they download a small picture

The first one is as you posted, but blown up to just over 500%  Think you will agree there is nothing we can do and printing will be a waste of time.

The second one, I have increased the physical size of the picture but still no good...

Jenny
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: Jax23 on Tuesday 05 October 10 19:58 BST (UK)
Hi Shauna,

If you have a digital camera, take a picture of the picture, make sure it is in focus, it is so much easier than scanning it if you have a small image....

regards

Jacky
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: shaunadavid on Tuesday 05 October 10 22:43 BST (UK)
I only have the email version. If I print it out would that work the same way Jacky? Thanks for the hint.
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: shaunadavid on Tuesday 05 October 10 22:46 BST (UK)
And jenny thank again too. I know when we were doing a picture montage for a funeral, I had a very poor quality small picture that I took to a "ups store" and they just put it on their "photocopy machine" (well that's what I call it) and blew it up to a bigger size. The difference maybe was because I had the picture. hmmm. oh well, Thanks again Jenny for your help.

Shauna
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: Jax23 on Tuesday 05 October 10 23:14 BST (UK)
Yea print it out in the size it was given to you, or you could email me the pic and I will resize it for you if I can....Jacky xx
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: Jax23 on Tuesday 05 October 10 23:16 BST (UK)
In Fact email it to me Shauna, I will enlarge it if possible, send me a PM and I will send you my e-mail address. Jacky
Title: Re: restore picture that is 100 years old.
Post by: Jax23 on Tuesday 05 October 10 23:57 BST (UK)
Hi Shauna, I have taken a picture of your picture on my camera, put it on photoshop, unfortunately Jenny is quite right, the scan is not good enough, Sorry I wish I could have helped more.

Jacky