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In photography, and in Photoshop, the manual way is often best. But in a world where program mode and the auto fix are often scoffed at as tools for dummies, we’re in danger of ignoring the easy fixes that really do work. All this technology wasn’t developed just so we could turn it off and be pleased with ourselves for not using it. Instead, it was developed to make our lives simpler, and our pictures better.
Most scanners come with an automatic tool for fixing old photos. I tried out three of the big ones: machines from Canon, Epson, and Microtek. I’ll tell you how to revive your dying images using those, and give you some hints on how to tweak their particular results in Photoshop. If you don’t have a program with your scanner, or if your uncle sent you a bunch of ready-made scans to restore, don’t despair. You can download Kodak’s easy-to-use Digital ROC plug-in to get the same effect (www.asf.com, $50).
All three scanners have simple controls, but beware: when you draw a box around the pic you want to scan, don’t select the scanner bed or any other photos. Doing so throws off the automatic calculation.
Making such dramatic fixes to a picture often requires boosting the color and shadows. This can add (or reveal) a lot of noise. But rather than reduce it in the scanner where you can’t control it, better to do it after the fact. (See, manual is better sometimes.) It’s especially helpful to fix the noise before you do further color correction because all that fuzz can (pardon the pun) color your view of the image’s tone. To get rid of it in CS2, go to Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise, or try nik’s Dfine plug-in (www.nikmultimedia.com, $100) or Visual Infinity’s Grain Surgery 2 (www.visinf.com, $180).
I set out to write this column to show you how to scan your old, faded photos and restore them by making corrections to color and saturation in Photoshop. Much to my surprise, the scanners’ auto settings did a great job, faster than I could, to boot. I could fix the photos myself, but why should I?
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