Restore faded photo

[mlyles]

I would like to have this photo restored. The borders are the original color of the photo. Can it be blended back to the original without the edges being a different color?

 

[Jerry D]

How's this?

 

[Eggy]

I'm sure the photo would look yellowish now but this is time related.
In my opinion this is how it should look more or less restored to its original colors.
(There's no crop on the fields, its bare ground)

 

[Jerry D]

Or maybe this...

 

[Tom Mann]

We don't know the actual color of the soil and other things in the image, so, that being said, here's my guess at how it might have looked. Also, I started to remove the hundreds of small white spots on the image and gave up part way through. They are easy to remove, just tedious. Unfortunately, because of all the JPG compression artifacts on the image the usual quick and dirty technique for removing lots of small bright pixels (a "Dust & Scratches" pass on a layer set to darken), doesn't work very well and you have to go back to more of a manual technique.

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[mlyles]

Eggy, thank you. That looks really good. I bit dark as I think the original color is probably the color on the edges of the original photo.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hum... I'm still bothered that we don't really know the color of the soil and crops, but now that I see Jerry's, my vote would be for colors somewhere in-between his 2nd version and mine, LOL.

Nice job, Jerry.

Tom M

 

[mlyles]

Jerry, that looks really good. It might be a bit red. I think the original colors of the soil surrounding the farm are like the unfaded edges of the original photo.

 

[mlyles]

I agree Tom. I hope I'm doing this right as this is the first time I've been on this forum (about any forum as a matter of fact!). I think the picture is somewhere between Tom and Jerry's, with a little less red in Jerry's and a little more color in Tom's. The soil color is close to the unfaded part of the original photo.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi mlyles & welcome to PSG!

Unfortunately, I have to disagree pretty strongly with your statement that "the borders are the original colors of the photo". I've seen a lot of different soils in my life, and I've seen a lot of faded prints, but I've never seen any soils that are the type of yellow on the edges of the image you posted (when viewed on a color calibrated monitor), even if the scene had been photographed at sunrise or sunset. Yellow crops, sure, but yellow soil ... humm ... quite rare, at least in the USA, LOL.

One of the things that happens to old prints is that if one part of the print has been exposed to sunlight or other bright, blue/UV rich light, the colors in that area shift one way, whereas the colors in the areas that haven't exposed to light shift in a different direction. The first is due to photochemical reactions, the second is due to ordinary, non-photochemical reactions like oxidation, reactions with pollutants like nitric oxides in the air, etc. The two types of reactions act differently on the various dyes in the print.

Anyway, it is obviously your call, but for general appeal / acceptance, I would go for an image whose colors look like most other aerial views of farms. For example, here is a stock photo of a similar farm taken near sunset or sunrise: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/EEPF6C/aer...uildings-purdy-field-fly-in-august-EEPF6C.jpg

Anyway, let us know your final decision about color, and I'm sure we can tint it to whatever color you like.

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[Jerry D]

One more shot...less red...




And, here we go ...again

gets me every time :biglaff:

 

[mlyles]

Jerry, I played with it a little based on your finished product and I think this is pretty close. I'm very inexperienced with Photoshop. We believe the photo was taken in July in the Oklahoma Panhandle so the only green would be where the yard was being watered or a little rain had caused some weeds to sprout.

 

[mlyles]

I really should have given you more information. The soil directly around the farm was summer fallow so pretty much just dirt. The areas behind the farm that is a little more golden is grass that is dead due to the time of the year. The areas kind of golden in the distance would be wheat stalks, which are pretty gold colored. A lot of different colors in this picture!

 

[Tom Mann]

That's great info to have, Mlyles! Thank you!

FWIW, while you were typing, I did a quick in-between version of Jerry's and mine, just to see what it would look like, but now, with the info you gave us, we can surely get even closer.

Cheers,

Tom M

PS - I've got to head out in a few minutes, so I won't be able to continue having fun, :-(, but I'm sure we'll hone in on exactly what you want.

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - mlyles, I like your most recent version!

Tom M

 

[mlyles]

Tom, that looks great! Brings out the golden wheat in the far background, the color of the pasture behind the farm and mutes the green just a bit where mine just looked too bright. I like this one!

 

[chrisdesign]

I just had to have a go at this one.

 

[mlyles]

Chris, this looks good too. Maybe just a bit muted as the wheat and pasture aren't the golden color.

 

[mlyles]

I really like this version. I would like the make the sky just a bit bluer...can you help me with that?

 

[chrisdesign]

This is as far I would go.