Negative and positive of the same photo.
Never has there been a better way to fix photographs than in Adobe's Photoshop. It uses all of the old darkroom techniques like dodging, burning and airbrushing while providing a wide range of new, but previously nearly impossible, tools such as cloning and healing. It's time to fix all those old negatives.
Instructions
1. Scan the negatives at the highest resolution possible. The higher the resolution, the longer the scan takes to complete. Higher resolutions---from 600 dots per inch to 2,400 dpi or more---provides a lot more detail to work with in electronic format. That means it will be easier to fix even the tiniest flaws.
2. Convert the image to positive. Go to "Image," "Adjustments" and "Invert." It is often easier to see the flaws, such as scratches, blotches and lint, in a positive image. If it is easier for you, keep it in the negative until you're done. Save the inverted image as a new file because you don't want to have to go through the scanning process a second time. Keeping a raw version of the scan intact will make things easier if you don't end up with the result you want on the copy.
3. Start with the simple stuff. A negative with a few dots or very small blotches may be fixable using presets in Photoshop. Go to "Filter," "Noise" and "Dust and Scratches" first. As the name implies, this preset can eliminate small imperfections. You can make adjustments in the pop-up window. Be careful not to overuse it because it can turn an image into a blur.
4. Try other presets, most of them under the "Filter" and "Noise" submenu, if "Dust and Scratches" doesn't fix the problem. "Median," "Despeckle" and "Reduce Noise" all remove or cover blotches in different ways.
5. Use the "Clone" or "Healing" tool, if the presets don't work. Cloning is a method of taking a tiny snapshot of the area near a blotch or scratch and placing that snapshot over the damaged area. For example, if you have a photo of a 19th century home but it has power or telephone lines in it, you can remove these bit by bit using the "Clone" tool. The "Healing" tool works nearly the same way but is subtler and takes a bit more finesse. For scratches, the Cloning tool usually works best.
6. Use other tools such as "Shadow/Highlights" ("Image" and "Adjustments") to lighten very dark negatives or Equalize ("Image" and "Adjustments") to balance the negative. The tools under the "Image" and "Adjustments" submenu are designed to fix and tone photos. Experiment to find the tools that give the best results for you.
Tags: Image Adjustments, Adobe Photoshop, Dust Scratches, Filter Noise, Healing tool