Large Aerial Photographs of a Family Farm

Courtesy of Cynthia, Before picture

After picture

I had the honor of restoring Cynthia's family farm. Actually aerial photos of her farm. They are large 16 x 20 very faded and dark photos. The same farm in both photos only about 20 or 30 years difference. Both photos were probably black & white originally and I could tell they were hand colorized. I drive by the farm quite often on my way to Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall.

My scanner is not big enough to scan these photos in one scan. I called around looking for a professional camera store who might have a very large scanner. Nope.... they just scan in pieces and then used Photoshop's automate > photo-merge tool to piece them together.....Well I can do that and so I did. Easy peasy it was and I had her two very large photos digitized in my computer.

Now for the hard work. There was a lot to do getting rid of the scratches, and dark dirty patches, and bringing back color to the faded out areas, getting the whole photo as even as possible in light and shadows.

The tools I used the most were the patch tool, healing tool and clone tool. Many masking layers to help lighten the dark areas and bring color back in the faded areas. I love the masking tool. Then it took trial and error with the adjustment tools to get the right brightness and colors.

Courtesy of Cynthia, Before picture

After picture

I always love the original photos, but sometime if left exposed to light too long they fade. So digital restoration creates a copy to display is the best solution. Store the original in a safe place out of sunlight pulling them out from time to time to show the family. Leave the new restored photos displaying in your rooms.

Thank you Cynthia for choosing me to restore your treasured photos. It's an amazing farm.

I can so the same for your photos. Contact me though this blog....or use my email restoredmemories2009@yahoo.com....or my Facebook page
Restored Memories / Misplaced Ancestors