I've been selected by my family to try and recover old photos. These particular photos are taken from 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 postcards made from photos a long, long time ago. Most are so dark that no shape whatsoever is discernable on the postcard. I was able to scan and use contrast and level adjustments to get this far but am wondering if this is really as far as I can go. Is there a magic method to this or is this a painstaking and timeconsuming task? Does this require RE-constructing the photo to be as I think it should look? Thanks for looking!

Gee, the originals must have been in quite a state.... sorry, I don't know where to start, but you seem to be heading the right way. It may just be me, but for the era they depict these people seem very relaxed & at ease with the camera compared to usual pictures of this time where they would be 'hold still...I said STILL, BOY!!!' Hope someone else can be more constructive technically :-) Mike.

Yes, Mike the pictures are in pretty bad shape... still I thought they were pretty cool. There is one picture of a little boy that I noticed is very stiff. (bottom left of top image) Like he is forcing himself to "hold still, boy" LOL I'm willing to spend a good bit of time on a select few images, yes. :) I scanned at 600 DPI. My scanner doesn't have descreen. I can choose from Line Art, Halftone, Grayscale and RGB, adjust brightness/contrast, resolution up to 4800, a "No ADF" button, a "Gamma" button, and reflective or transparent source image. I've attached one of the original scans. I couldn't see anything at all TO scan until I played with the brightness and contrast. :) I'd be interested to know where to begin if you would be so kind as to point me in the right direction. :) Thank you!

I completely agree with Alpha. I have done my share of free retouching for friends, but this is an utter nightmare. These images are probably recoverable, at least to some extent, but keep in mind that it will be many of hours of tedious work before you can make them look presentable. And if you were to take these to a professional retouch service, you'd be out of a few hundred quid for sure. But hey, if you live for a challenge, go for it, very often these kind of projects are fun, and give you a great feeling of accomplishment once you're done. Start with levels, curves and spotting, but be prepared for some painting as well, digital or otherwise.

I also have done quite a bit of photo re-touching and it seems that you are on the right track by using Levels etc. I have to say that quite a few of these are, IMHO, way beyond repair and I am sure that the professional re-touching houses would stay clear of many of them. I always found that the hardest part was where the damage was on the face particularly through the eye. No matter how careful I was, when I had finished it never looked like the same person. First of all change them into Greyscale and go for it. Good luck

Attached Link: http://www.quiknet.com/~frcn/Old2New.html

try this tut...

Attached Link: http://the-internet-eye.com/HOWTO/1999/PhotoRest/default.htm

hope these help... JM

Well, I think you can recover more than this, but as you say, it will be a painstaking and timeconsuming task. Arturo

Thank you so much for all the good tips and links. I'm sorry it took so long to reply. I'm waering too many hats these days and find time to linger anywhere very short. I'm going to try to recover the wagon full of baskets and the woman with the washed out shoulder who looks like she may be wearing a hat. The rest will have to just stay as they are, I guess. :) Thank you again! :) Lisa

I would say that images 2, and 8 through to 11 stand a pretty good chance of recovery. Scan them as big as you can. Don't forget that you can get rid of a lot of the work by cropping and vignetting. The clone tool is your best friend in this kind of work.