I have been restoring old photographs for quite a few years. Here are some examples and an idea of the methods used.

The first example is a photograph (c. 1920) of my Grandfather, Richard Jones. This photograph was cut to fit into a locket. The locket was lost in a snowstorm in the 1920's, but fortunately was recovered later.

The photograph was damaged by water and the original looked in a state fit for the bin.

However, a high-resolution scan (1200 dpi) revealed enough detail to attempt a recovery. Fortunately, old photographs were taken with long exposure times and relatively large plates. This means that quite often the quality of the original is exceptionally good.

Having scanned the picture in a "bmp" format so as not to lose any detail because of computer file compression, I use PaintShop Pro to restore and enhance the pictures. This is not a simple operation and can take hours of work. I start by removing major damage so that subsequent contrast enhancement with not actually make the work more difficult.

A mixture of techniques using the "Clone Brush", copy-paste and image smoothing allows tears to be removed and any major blemishes to disappear.

In some cases, complex parts of the photo need to be reconstructed. For instance, an eye may be "missing" entirely. In this case I would select the other eye, copy it and then perform a horizontal "mirror". The light reflection in the eye may also need to be moved to avoid a subsequent cross-eyed look! The reconstructed eye can then be carefully placed on the original photograph. The placement is critical to avoid something that looks un-natural. If the face is not straight-on, then it may also be necessary to adjust the size of the reconstructed eye so that it looks in proportion in the perspective.

The oldest photograph in the collection is of my great-great-grandmother Mrs. Nicholas. This must have been taken in the 1860's.

There was not too much work needed with this photograph, but at least it is now preserved "digitally".

Mrs. Nicholas was a herbalist and a healer and quite renowned in the area for her abilities. She held the respect of the local doctors at the time.




Another glimpse of life in South Wales (Abercarn) if offered by the restored photograph of the family visit to the mine to see where the men worked. Again, this would have been c. 1920.




















The images shown here have been reduced in size so as to fit onto the website and reduce the viewing time over an internet connection. The restored images are of course much higher quality and could be printed out at a reasonable size.