Reviving the Past

Eréndira, original

This project’s goal is to restore a photo to its original quality. The photo I chose, Eréndira, as shown above, had lint marks, discoloration, and a red overcast. This project helped to develop my Photoshop skills and helped to sharpen my designer’s eye.

The first problem I chose to fix was any spots with lint marks. These marks left what looked like white holes scattered on the original photo. I carefully analyzed the photo for any of these marks and used the appropriate tool to repair them. Next, I fixed any places that appeared to have scratches, again using the appropriate tools in Photoshop.

After restoring the scratches and lint marks, I worked on any spots that had discoloration and fixed the overall photo’s red tint. Fixing the red tint was somewhat difficult and took a couple of rounds to get to the end result as shown in the photo in the bottom right. This involved altering the color balance, hue, tone, saturation, and contrast. Through trial and error, I adjusted each of the elements until I felt the lighting did not appear to alter the intended colors of the objects in the photo. From there, I fixed any individual spots that still had some discoloration to match its corresponding surrounding elements, using the appropriate Photoshop tools.

As my final step, I increased some of the object’s sharpness to increase the

amount of detail in the photo. This improved the quality of the photo and brought it more to life. The final product is below.

Eréndira, restoration