How to restore faded photos?

[Stephen Liu]

Hi all,

What will be the simple way to restore faded photos?

Please advise.  Thanks

Faded photos attached

Regards

[Krikor]

I would have Colors - Levels - Auto input levels as an initial option.
It would still need some sort of restoration, but the faded part would have been greatly reduced.

Not a good edit, just to exemplify the auto input level action.

[PixLab]

I would remove that color cast first with the least possible affecting the light/shadow of the picture.

• - Color Picker Toolpick a color that you think could be white (in the example below I took 1 from under her sock, and one from her belt)
  
• - New layer, fill with that color you just picked up or drag n drop from the FG/BG color icon under the tools
  
• - Menu ➤ Colors ➤ Invert if the inverted color is too dark compared to the positive one, just do a Ctrl+Z and instead do Colors ➤ Linear Invert
  
• - Then put that colored layer in Grain Merge mode, or if you want to miss some fine tune test, put it in Vivid Light mode, vivid light will affect more the contrast, thus affecting the whole picture, but that can be Okayish.
  
• - Play with opacity of the colored layer if needed.
  

Now you can get some contrast...

• - You can do on the bottom layer Colors ➤ Brightness-Contrast on it or even better ➤ right click on the top layer in the layer stack and select ➤ New from visiblethen Colors ➤ Brightness-Contrast on it.
  

the xcf to play with it

  Untitled.xcf.7z (Size: 665.81 KB / Downloads: 125)

Quick screenshot example
   

Tips:
- A mix of the 2 picked colors is possible and even better as for the light part and the shadow part.
- A mix of 2 layer mode is possible like in my example.
- You can do a Colors ➤ Hue-Saturation directly on a colored layer to fine tune your "white", lightness, and saturation (I did not show it in this example to make it as straight forward as possible, but it's a good step to do)
- You can put that colored layer in a group (or the 2 layers if you go with 2 colored layers) and put the group itself in a different mode like LCh Color or HSL color or whatever, you might like it.
- As for the contrast, I would prefer curves or levels, but Brightness-Contrast can be a very quick, not that dirty, way to go.

It might seems long to read but it takes less than a minute to do it, and with practice and knowledge it will become a matter of seconds

[Stephen Liu]

(06-20-2022, 03:10 AM)PixLab Wrote: I would remove that color cast first with the least possible affecting the light/shadow of the picture.

• - Color Picker Toolpick a color that you think could be white (in the example below I took 1 from under her sock, and one from her belt)
  

Thanks for your detail advice.

pick color twice

Do I need holding a key on keyboard to pick the second color on her belt? Or just pick the colors twice?

Quote:- New layer, fill with that color you just picked up or drag n drop from the FG/BG color icon under the tools

On New Layer I can't find FG/BG color icon ?  Please refers to attached photo.

Thanks

Regards

[PixLab]

This is the FG/BG (Foreground/Background) icon just below the color picker and just above the Tool Options tab/dialog on my screenshot, the 2 colored squares.
The one on top/above is the FG, the one below/partly underneath is the BG.
click on that tiny angled double arrow to invert FG/BG before to pick the second color, the FG will become BG and vice-versa, like that you will have the 2 colors on the FG/BG icon. The tiny black and white squares just below is to reset to default B&W when clicking on it. Tip: You can click, stay clicked and drag n drop a color from the FG or BG directly on a layer to fill a layer or selection on the canvas.

   

Or use the Color picker tool to set FG or BG color in its Tool Options ➤ https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/en/gimp-tool-...7473653600 (the link is direct to the paragraph you need for fast reading )

[sallyanne]

Think I would end up cropping them

[attachment=8142]

[rich2005]

(06-20-2022, 09:59 AM)sallyanne Wrote: Think I would end up cropping them

yeah...and that is the best one of the two. Very small images, I hope Stephen has larger versions.

A one minute fix https://i.imgur.com/cTpcqjF.mp4

Auto white balance / duplicate layer / add layer mask / linear burn mode / paint in layer mask / just managed a bit of cloning.

[Stephen Liu]

It is very strange I can't reply PixLab post #5 above?  I have tried it yesterday with the same result.

Hi PixLab

Why the screen of my GIMP looks different to yours?  Pls refers to attached photo;
screen.png

Pls advise how to reset my GIMP?  Thanks

Just tried online service to restore faded photos.  Pls refers to attached photo;
wm_repair_p01_30.jpg

Their photo looks similar to my work here;
Colors -> Auto -> White Balance

Pls refers to attached photo;
p01_30_white_balance.jpg

Regards

---

(06-20-2022, 10:32 AM)rich2005 Wrote:

(06-20-2022, 09:59 AM)sallyanne Wrote: Think I would end up cropping them

yeah...and that is the best one of the two. Very small images, I hope Stephen has larger versions.

A one minute fix https://i.imgur.com/cTpcqjF.mp4

Auto white balance / duplicate layer / add layer mask / linear burn mode / paint in layer mask / just managed a bit of cloning.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

Yes, I have large photo but I'm not allowed to upload it here.

What is the max file size allowed?

Regards

[rich2005]

Quote:...Yes, I have large photo but I'm not allowed to upload it here.

What is the max file size allowed?

The details are in the forum help section https://www.gimp-forum.net/misc.php?action=help&hid=11  but I will post for your information

• No more than 5 attachments per post
  
• Most image file types are allowed, including of course XCF and its derivatives (XCFGZ, etc...)
  
• There is a 500KB limit on the size of "flat" formats: PNG/JPG/GIF
  
• There is a 2MB limit on the size of XCF and derivatives. Compressed XCF (XCFGZ, etc...) are usually about a third of the size of the equivalent XCF, so you can in effect post the equivalent of a 6MB XCF.
  
• Zip and 7z files are allowed, up to 1MB.
  
• The forum displays directly images that fit in a 600W by 800H rectangle. Those that are bigger are resized to these dimensions, and users have to click on them to see them at the original size.
  

[sallyanne]

Looks like the AI didn't do a very good job on your photo. (So what's new) Where the white is on the right side your photo is almost destroyed. Crop your large photo to where you would like it and upload it.