Repairing Damaged Images Using Adobe Photoshop
May 21, 2008
With so many people online these days, I just assume everyone is pretty savvy about image editing. I forget that not everyone that uses a computer actually edits their images after uploading/scanning them to their computer. I thought I would show a small bit of image repair I did on a image in yesterday’s blog post. I’m not giving detailed instructions on how to use Adobe® Photoshop®. If you do have the software, you can probably follow along.
Before I start I should explain why I scan images in at 300 dpi. The “dots per inch” for most uploaded images is typically 72. On the computer screen a 300 dpi image would be much larger than a 72 dpi image because the “dots” on your computer screen are always the same size. On your printer a 72 dpi image will be the same dimensions as a 300 dpi image. The printer will print more “dots” per inch for a 300 dpi image than a 72 dpi image, therefore the 300 dpi image will be higher quality.
As with many vintage images, the image above is damaged. In particular, this image has some holes in the hair area that I would like to repair. The image can be repaired using the Rectangular Marquee tool (dashed square), copy and paste, and the move tool (arrow).
To insure that the repair is virtually invisible, I want to select a minimal amount of the image to copy and paste. The first thing I do is magnify the image to 300% by entering 300 in the bottom left hand corner of the editing window. The image will be magnified 3 times it’s normal size. I can then use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select very small areas near the site I want to repair.
Using <ctrl> C and <ctrl> V, I copy and past an area. I use the Move tool (arrow) to move the copied image into place. I repeat the copy, paste, move sequence taking very small bites out of the image to repair the damaged areas.
When I’m all done with my repairs I view my image at normal (100%) magnification to make sure my editing is invisible. If everything looks good, I flatten the image and save a jpeg image.
May 22, 2008 at 9:21 am
Thanks for the info. I will have to try that on an old photo I have.
May 23, 2008 at 12:55 am
You are most welcome. Good luck with your photo.
June 7, 2008 at 4:33 am
Excellent tutorial. I too always forget that others may not have the same knowledge as myself at their disposal.
Thanks for sharing.
June 7, 2008 at 5:32 am
It is only a small piece of what you need to know to use photoshop. I think if you look you’ll find plenty of free information and tutorials on how to use photoshop.
Good luck on your business endeavour.