How to Edit Old Photos

How do you organize your old photos? If you have old photos laying around, this tutorial will show you how to scan and edit old photos on your computer or phone to make them look new. Let’s get started editing!

Supplies:

• Old Photos: Start with one photo to test it out. I am using an example of a photo from my childhood.

• Scanner: A scanner is the best way to upload film photos on to a computer. I have also used a camera and phone camera to take photos of old pictures and they turned out fine. The quality might not be as good though

• Compressed Air: This is used to remove dirt and dust from photos without touching them.

• Photo Editing Program: You will need scanning software that comes with your scanner to scan your photo. You will also need a photo editing program. My favorite photo editor is l Adobe Photoshop on the computer.I also used A Color Story and A Beautiful was for this tutorial since I did the editing on my phone. You can really use any photo editing program once you have scanned your photo and converted it to a JPG.

Instructions:

1. First, clean your photo before scanning it. Get rid of any dust or dirt using compressed air. Also clean your scanner by wiping the scanner bed with a dry or slightly damp cloth.

2. Use your scanner or camera to scan photos. Scan in color when you can. According to PC Mag, you should save at 600dpi in TIFF format and then save a copy in lower resolution or JPG format later or if you want to post it on the web.

3. Save your photo in a folder on your computer. Keep your photos organized by date or topic. I like Adobe Bridge to keep photos organized. Open up a copy of your photo in a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop. Resize your photo. I like to resize mine to about 1000 pixels on the largest side, but you can do what works for you. Rotate the photo so it is upright and crop it so you get rid of unnecessary white space from scanning it. You can always crop it more later to make the photo look better. You can save this copy as a JPG.

4. Now comes the fun editing. I switched over to the A Color Story on my phone to do most of my editing. The first thing I like to do is crop the photo more and adjust brightness and contrast. You can also play with curves and levels to get the look you want. You need see I am adjusting the curves here. Also, sharpen the photo if it is too blurry.

5. At this point, I like to add fun stuff like filters and color. I love the bright filters in A Color Story, but since this photo was already bright, I used a darker color filter called Magic Hour.

Here is how it came out. The color isnt’t perfect, but I like how I edited the photo make it clearer and ready for future projects.

6. As a finishing touch, you can add fun details like text and embellishments. I did this in the A Beautiful Mess app. These are good for scrapbooking.

Just for fun, I also edited another copy of the photo in black and white. Let me know which one you like better.

How do you edit old photographs?