Photo Restoration

One aspect of working up a family tree I didn’t consider before hand were family photos. My family never was one that had pictures of grandparents and great-grandparents scattered about the house. One of the first things you get excited about when using Ancestry.com is the little leaf. This signifies a hint, which means a record of some sort, that may pertain to your ancestor, has been found and needs conformation. Sometimes this hint means a family photo has been attached to the person in someone else’s tree. I was astonished while going through my leaves, here were pictures I had never seen of my ancestors.

Because of the age, many of these pictures had some wear and tear. This included; bend marks, scuffs, dirt, cracking and even foxing. While overjoyed at seeing these people for the first time I also felt this damage distracting and made it hard for me to connect with the person I was seeing. Using skills I acquired in college, I started taking the photos into photoshop and began playing.

Editing these photos has to be a balance on what stays and what goes. Should the restored picture look maybe like what it look the day it was taken. I mean its not as though I’m destroying the original. I’m just making a supplementary picture that I can view without having to look past the age on the photo. I definitly have gone to far on some but it is a learning process. My favorite tools are the clone stamp and the band-aid tool. With these I am able to sample clearer parts of the photo and blend them into the damaged sections creating a photo that looks more like what it would have when it was brand new.