How to Restore Tin Type Photos
- 1). Scan the photo on a color scanner at least 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution or more. Photo printing websites require at least 300 dpi, but the image quality of tin type photos is good, so you may be able to scan them at a higher resolution, which would enable you to enlarge them if necessary. Save the file to your computer as a JPEG or PNG file.
- 2). Open the file in Photoshop or a similar image-editing program.
- 3). Make a mirror image of the photo by choosing "Flip Horizontal" from the "Image" menu. You want to do this because tin type photos were mirror images of the actual object photographed, due to the way the process worked.
- 4). Lighten the image. Select "Adjust" and then "Levels" from the "Image" menu. A dialog box will pop up that has a kind of graph in it. There are three black triangles (acting as arrows or pointers) at the bottom. You can lighten the photo by moving the middle one to one side. You can also experiment with moving the end pointers. If there is a flat area at either end of the graph, moving the end pointers to the spot where the graph starts to go up may help a lot. Watch the image as you slide the pointers, and click "OK" when you find settings that look right. Tin type photos generally darken with age, so you are attempting to lighten the photo without making it look washed out.
- 5). Fix the contrast. Select "Adjustments" and then "Auto Contrast" from the "Image" menu. if you don't like the results, you can hit "Undo" and play with the manual contrast option instead. As with the levels above, just play with it until you are satisfied with the results. This step is optional; the contrast may be fine, and editing it may just give the photo either a dark or washed-out appearance.
- 6). Fix dust and scratches in the background. Select "Noise" and then "Dust & Scratches" from the "Filter" menu. Make sure you activate the preview option. Choose "6" for the Threshold to start, though you can change this if you need to. Slide the Radius setting and then go back and forth between the Threshold and Radius, watching the image until you are happy with it. This setting is good to eliminate marks in background areas that are of uniform color, but it may not do much for scratches that go across faces or other detailed objects.
- 7). Get rid of other marks using the Clone tool. If you have marks that the Dust and Scratches filter didn't take care of, you may be able to erase them with the clone tool. Select the Clone tool from the toolbar and select a brush size that will work, generally one about the size of the mark you want to erase or smaller. The Clone tool copies a bit of the photo and pastes it on top of the area where the mark is. Pick an area of the photo that looks like it's the same color as what would be under the mark. Click on that area while holding down the Alt key. Then, paint over the mark with the tool. This tool is hard to use, so you may want to hit "Undo" several times while practicing to get the hang of it. Adjust the brush size if necessary.
- 8). Crop the photo. This is a good way to get rid of edges that are torn or otherwise imperfect. Select the Crop tool from the toolbar, and drag a box around the part of the photo you want to keep. You can adjust the sides of the box if needed. Try to center the portrait horizontally and allow some space above the top of the head. Click on "Commit" in the "Crop Options" box to confirm the crop when you are satisfied.
- 9). Save the file in the native format of the image-editing application. Then save it again as a JPEG or PNG file.
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