Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Restoring and Repairing Photographs Using Photoshop Elements

By David Peters

You may be considering whether or not you should restore your old photographs; if you are the first thing you must figure out is which problem you want to fix first. At times it is obvious to see which problem should be fixed first; some of your photos might have tears or a bad case of red eye. However, some of your photos will undoubtedly have a variety of problems which must be corrected in the proper sequence so when you solve one problem you may be correcting an entirely different problem at the same time. Here are a few problems you might attack.

* The first thing to do is handle any structural problems you may have. Torn, or ripped sections of your photos should be scanned and repaired with your photo editor so that you will have a whole picture to work on to correct other problems.

* Your next step is to correct the contrast of your photos. Are they too light or dark? This can be easily overcome using your photo editing software.

* Correct simple problems such as "red eye" and dust spots.

* Once you have finished adjusting the contrast you can tackle any other color adjustments you wish to make using modification tools such as the color picker. You can lighten or darken any existing color, or change the color completely to suit your taste.

* Using the cropping tool you can remove or replace any content you do not want in the photo. Simply replace those undesirable objects with a more pleasing background.

All of these repairs can be easily accomplished using an inexpensive program such as Photoshop Elements. Be brave and experiment with your photo editing program. You can always go back and undo anything that does not return the results that you desire. - 16747

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