Assessing Damaged Photos - And How to Fix Them
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Nothing ruins my day like finding some old damaged photos, and unfortunately for me, I’m always finding damaged photos in my father’s house.
What may be worse than finding damaged photos, though, is trying to figure out how to fix damaged photos. Since every type of problem requires a unique solution, it is absolutely necessary that you understand how to explain your damaged photos to the reps at your chosen photo restoration service. It will make or break your experience with them and it may prevent you from fixing your damaged photos altogether.
So, while this list isn’t complete, here are the most typical problems I see with damaged photos and how to identify/assess them.
How to Identify Color Shifting
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While “color shifting” is the technical term, it is far easier to identify in damaged photos than the term makes it sound.
Color shifting is basically when the color of your photos is altered in any way. Color shifting is probably the most common problem I see in damaged photos and it usually occurs because the photos were left in direct sunlight for years. Damaged photos that are suffering from color shifting will usually look bleached.
When you are assessing damaged photos that are suffering from color shifting, you need to figure out whether the color shifting has happened across the entire photo (which is far easier to fix) or whether it has happened across portions of the photo (which may be impossible to fix).
You’ll also want to figure out if the image contains information that your restoration professional can use, and whether the damaged parts of the photo are an essential part of the photo.
Also make note of whether the information that was lost could be easily replaced from other parts of the image. If it is obvious that a blank piece of ocean is the only thing that has faded out of existence, then a good Photoshop job could easily fix this.
How to Identify Cracks
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Another problem you’ll need to look out for when assessing damaged photos is cracks.
Whenever a crack happens in your photo, there is no way to salvage the information that used to be there. Instead, all of that information has to be replaced by other parts of the image.
So, you need to figure out whether the places where your image cracked is specific or detailed.
For instance, if the crack happened in a non-specific and non-detailed part of the image, like the sky, then that information can easily be replaced by information in areas of the photo near it.
But, if the crack happened in a detailed area, then the image needs to be pulled from a similar part of the image. For instance, if the crack occurs on one side of a person’s body then the only way to fix it is to pull information from the other side of that person’s body. This type of crack is far harder to fix.
The most difficult crack to fix is one that happens in a detailed area that is totally unique. For example, if a person only has one ear showing in an image and that part of the image gets cracked, then the only way to fix the photo is to do so using databases of other similar images.
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Assessing Torn Photos
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If your damaged photos are torn, then you need to figure out whether the tears could be easily stitched back together or whether the tears have caused information to be lost.
If you have torn photos, then the only other question you need to ask yourself is whether the tear has happened in a detailed part of the image. If it has, then you absolutely need the help of a photo restoration service, like PhotoRepairPro.
PhotoRepairPro can restore almost any photo to its original condition and they do so for one flat rate of $35.
You not only get a proof to make sure it looks accurate, but you also get a digital download and two 5x7 prints that get sent to your home for free.
Assessing Missing Pieces
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Missing pieces are, likewise, difficult to repair and will definitely require a professional.
Usually, if you do have missing pieces of a photo, then the missing pieces are probably in the corner of the image. This means that the most important part of the image, the part with all of the details, is usually okay. Your photo repair professional will only need to pull information from photography databases to fill in the edges.
