How to restore damaged old photographs

Before I describe how I restore old photographs, I’d like to make two important points:

  1. Cherished photos are best printed out. Your hard drive or phone is a graveyard for memories, but a shoe-box of prints in the closet is like treasure.

  2. Take good pictures of the people around you. Take bad pictures. But take pictures. A bad photo of your friends and relatives is much better than no photo of them.

The scan

Scans are great for repairing and sharing, prints are great for archiving.

Scan on the best scanner you can access, but remember that the original photos can be re-scanned in the future on better hardware. Negatives, small or very large prints can be scanned using a digital camera on a copy stand rig. The camera method is much faster than a flatbed scanner and also has the advantage of using the maximum resolution regardless of the original print/negative size. Read more on this method in my blog post on reproductions.

Remove and dust from the negatives/prints with a blower. Its easier to remove duct now than to spend time cloning it out digitally later.

Give the files suitable names, but even better is to create metadata tags with the approximate image date, location and the names of the people in it. This will make searching for the image a breeze in the future - well worth the time investment.

The software

If you do not deal with digital photographs on a regular basis (end even for those who do) I cannot recommend any subscription software. The core tools you will need are a way to invert negative images to positive using curves or an “invert image” function if you have negatives (but if you only have prints this isn’t a must), clone or stamp tool, and a way to selectively change colours in the image, as opposed to altering colour globally on the entire image. Photoshop Elements, Affinity Photo (which is excellent), or even GIMP are perfectly fine. If you have access to Lightroom, this will also work and make batch editing of large numbers of photos easier.

The crop

Always place the prints in exactly the same position for every scan, that way you can crop them all in one batch action at the end, if desired. You can crop the image to its exact frame, crop into the image for a better composition, or just outside of the image to ensure all data is preserved. Remember that a lot of software will permanently crop a JPEG or a TIFF (destructive editing) so be careful with your decisions. Better still, make a copy of images you will creatively crop into for composition purposes. Using layers in PhotoShop or Affinity is non-destructive so you can worry less.

The crop can also include rotating the image to remove unintentional tilts of horizontal and vertical lines (e.g. leveling horizons). An advanced method is to use a transform or perspective correction tool to straighten a photo. As much as I love doing this with my new images, I’m careful to kill the character of an old image with excessive adjustments.

Basic edits

Brightness and contrast should be your first port of call to get the image ready for restoration. You want to see as much detail in the shadows and highlights as possible without clipping the blacks and whites. A lot of these decisions are to taste, but excessive or clipped dark or bright areas need to be avoided.

Pixilation can be an issue with old scans. The example picture of my parents above was scanned more than 15 years ago on a low-end scanner. Its hard to mitigate, but you can use a small amount of blur or denoise to soften the pixel edges. I often make a mask so that eyes and mouths remain sharp, whereas large flat blocks of color get more treatment. You want to avoid a plasticky over-smoothed look.

Colours

A colour calibrated monitor is a nice-to-have for colour work, but you can get pretty far without one. Remember that most monitors are designed to have a blue-tint to fools us in to thinking it is brighter than it its. If you correct colours by eye on a blue monitor, your images will print in a more orange tone than you expected.

A first step is to find a part of the image that is supposed to be neutral (a white table cloth, grey suit, black shoes) and click it with a “White Balance” color picker. This will remove the colour cast from the entire image. Try picking multiple places to see which give the most pleasing result.

Global colour adjustments are tricky because old images fade in different ways. In color negatives, even new film has a purple tint in the shadows. If you corrected for this globally then the highlights will go green, so it needs to be handled delicately. Either split toning can be used (add green to purple shadows and purple to green highlights) or detailed work using a Hue-Saturation-Lightness (HSL) adjustment on an adjustment layer.

Faded parts of the image can be selectively saturated. Red skin can be selectively unsaturated.

Dust/scratches

Restoration work has the same goal as image retouching - to remove distractions. With restorations, the aim is not necessarily to improve the image, rather to get it back to its original level of quality.

Most dust spots can be removed with a healing tool. Use a new layer, call it “healing” and make sure it is set to sample the layers below it. Larger patches of scratches or other damage may require use of the stamp cloning tool to copy pixels from a similar, but intact, part of the image to the damaged part.

Final touches

The image already looks closer to life than the original did, no longer having color casts or distracting damage. You can add some sharpening, but careful not to re-ignite any pixilation.

Export the file as common JPEG or TIFFs, at a reasonable quality. When you’ve spent a lot of time restoring an image, you might want to save a native file for the software you are using so the layers are preserved and can be re-adjusted in the future.

And print your photos.

Contact me if you’d like help restoring or printing your old photos in the Houston area.

Paterson vs Jobo for developing film

You are looking to develop your own negatives, and you know there’s a bunch of equipment you need to get started (here’s my quick overview of the process). Some measuring jugs, a thermometer, a dark-bag, chemicals and, of course, some developing tanks.

The two main brands are Paterson from England, and Jobo from Germany. Both are great. Here’s a guide for picking your first tank.

Paterson Tanks

Paterson Film Developing Tank

Paterson tanks are inversion only. This means you use enough chemicals to completely submerge the film and you rotate the tank in your hands once a minute (or as directed). This “agitation” keeps fresh chemical in contact with the film.

The entry cost of the tanks and reels is lower than Jobo, and the reels are simple enough to load with practice. Many tank sizes are available and all use interchangeable components like the reels, funnels and caps. There is also the mod-54 which can be used in the Multi-reel-3 tank to process six sheets of 4x5 film.

I have a method where I develop two Multi-reel-3 tanks at a time, offsetting the second tank by thirty seconds which gives time to pour in developer and agitate the first tank before immediately starting on the second. This develops four medium format or six 35mm rolls in about thirty minutes.

Jobo Tanks

Jobo primarily uses continuous rotation for the agitation of the chemicals. The tanks spin about their long axis, dipping the film through chemicals that cover the bottom half of the reels. Many people avoid Jobo tanks for two reasons, both of which I’ll myth-bust here.

  1. Jobo tanks are often seen attached to large and expensive rotation machines. These are useful for the temperature control of c-41 and e-6 color developing, but for occasional development of black and white film it can be over-kill. You can manually rotate the tanks on a Jobo roller-base, or make your own base by screwing some caster wheels onto a piece of plywood. Bonus: a home-made base means you can use Jobo tank extension combinations that some of Jobo’s motor-bases can’t cope with. You can also use the regular inversion method like with Paterson tanks, but this uses significantly more chemicals. Just make or buy a roller base.

    Jobo doesn’t make a compact motor-base without the water bath. Jobo, please make a compact motor-base without the water bath! I made a gizmo that fits Jobo tanks on a vintage Uniroller motor-base, but I can’t image many people having the motivation to make this themselves.

  2. Jobo tanks and reels are more expensive than Paterson. But Jobo tanks use a fraction of the chemicals so the costs even out quickly and there is much less chemical waste.

Jobo has some interesting positive aspects that I didn’t know about until I bought one.

  • The reels have a red tab that allow two rolls of 120 medium format film to be loaded on one reel (so twice the film, with half the chemicals!). Still only one 35mm roll per reel.

  • There are different base-tank sizes, but the real benefit comes from extension modules that you fit between your base and the lid. This means you can easily create the best-sized tank for the number of rolls you are developing in a batch.

  • Most people getting into developing will be well served by the 1500 system. Jobo also make a larger diameter 2500 system which uses the same inner-cores, but wider reels and the ability to use 4x5 reels.

  • The 2500 system can be used for developing darkroom prints. They have a 2800 system specifically for prints which is almost identical to the 2500 except it uses a light-trap cup rather than the inner-core used for film reels. All 2500 and 2800 parts are interchangeable.

  • The system gets more convenient when you have the money and the space for a motor processor machine.

There is one major negative though. Continuous agitation on a manual roller base requires your attention on one tank for the entire time. If you are doing multiple film stocks with different developing times, they need to be done one after the other, rather than at the same time like I described above with two Paterson tanks. For three or four rolls, Paterson developing is quicker in this regard.

Tank stats: Haw many rolls and how much chemical?

With Paterson or Jobo, avoid the smallest tanks that only do one roll of 35mm film. The next size up will do two 35mm rolls or at least one 120 medium format roll. This is significantly more useful because you can still do a single 35mm roll in them if you have to.

  • Paterson universal tank with two reels, $34. Can do two 35mm or one 120 roll. 580ml or 500ml respectively of chemicals using inversion.

  • Jobo 1520 with one reel, $68 (extra reel, $27). Can do two 35mm or two 120 rolls. 240ml of chemicals using rotation (or 485ml for inversion).

Assuming you have this kit and you want to do more film in a single batch, you’ll need a separate Paterson tank or an Jobo extension module.

Lets go crazy and develop more rolls.

  • Paterson Multi-reel 5, $45 (two more reels, $24). Can do five 35mm or three 120 rolls. 1500ml of chemical using inversion.

  • Another Jobo module 1530, $45 (another two reels, $54). Can do eight 35mm or ten 120 rolls. 900 ml chemical using rotation.

This Jobo 1520+1530+1530 is a monster that could burn out the smaller Jobo machines. On a manual base its fine. But think about it: ten medium format rolls in the same time, and using less developer volume than two rolls in a Paterson tank! Make sure 900ml of your developer can cope with ten rolls without exhausting itself. Ilfosol-3 and HC-110 dilution B seem to be fine with it.

Example Costs

It is clear that Paterson is cheaper to get you up and running, and that Jobo can save a massive amount of time and chemicals. A rough cost estimate for black and white chemicals are $3.50 for 1000ml of developer (one-shot), stop (reused for 20 rolls) and fixer (reused for 10 rolls).

Two rolls of 35 film:

  • Paterson Universal = $34, chemicals = $1.85

  • Jobo 1520 + reel = $95, chemicals = $0.90

Two rolls of 120 film:

  • Paterson Multitank-3 + reels = $62, chemicals = $1.75

  • Jobo 1520 = $68, chemicals = $0.90

Four rolls of 120 film:

  • Paterson Multitank-3 x2 + reels = $124, chemicals = $7

  • Jobo 1520+1530 + reels (four rolls in a six-roll tank) = $140, chemicals = $2

In only a few batches, the cost Jobo saves from chemicals covers the difference in equipment cost.

Bottom line

I used Paterson tanks for years developing hundreds of rolls and would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone getting started, knowing they will only occasionally develop one or two rolls. Also, the mod-54 is a great and cost effective way to develop large format 4x5 sheets.

If you see yourself developing more rolls, or more often, then the Jobo tanks are a better long-term investment.