Saturday Special
If you’re like me, then you have a lot of old photos that are discolored from age. I see advertisements all the time for photo restoration services. While these experts are awesome for photos that are difficult to recover ( torn, burnt, cracked, etc) they can be a bit pricey for simple color corrections on vintage shots.
This method has worked well for me. It’s not the absolute best method out there and you may not get your photos to the exact color, but you can definitely get rid of the maroon family photo look!
This tutorial works for both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I have tested in in PSCS5 and PSE9.
Start with your vintage photo. As you can see mine also has a bit of tearing and some writing transferred to the front of this photo from another photo. I’m going to go ahead and fix those problems. Before you correct the color you might want to fix any issues like mine.
Ahh, this is much better
Now to correct that awesome 1978 magenta!
The first thing I do is use the auto-tone and auto color options. They don’t work miracles on every photo but they do improve your chances a lot.
Next we’re going to adjust the color balance. The menu option is called Color Balance. You are going to adjust the sliders for Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. You will also have to adjust the highlights, shadows, and midtones separately. I usually start with the midtones and then adjust the highlights and shadows. Your photo may still look washed out, but your color should improve. This is going to vary depending on the color issues you have with your photo.
Finally I’m going to adjust the levels to make the overall tones of the light correct to my eye. I could continue making adjustments to the photo until I feel it’s accurate enough, or I could leave it at a level I’m satisfied with even without perfection. As long as the color tones are pleasing I’m ok with them not being completely accurate.
I’d love to see your before photos with your layouts as well. I’m excited to see what you create!
Here are some examples from the awesome creative team!
Here is one from Chel!
Here is Karen’s example
Trista kept some of the vintage feel.
And is is Ophelia’s beautiful work
Challenge reminders:
-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!
-You have until the end of July to complete this challenge to earn MOS points. OR -You have until the end of July to complete this challenge for July MOS points or wait to post in August for August MOS points!
-Remember no double dipping…your photo and/or layout must be unique to this challenge.
-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.
July 3rd, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Loved this tutorial. I have a collection of maroon family photos to try these on! I’d love to see someone do a tutorial on excellent, over the top clustering techniques. There are LOTS of people here who do it well. I just got done surfing through tanya666′s gallery, and she does some great work. I’d love to improve my clustering skills.