Ramblings of a Grouch

As I said in the last article, a common problem with old photos is that the subject is too dark. This may have been due to the original photograph being underexposed or to a fault in the printing process. But more likely the photo has darkened with age.

All is not lost, however. DigitalMemoriesonline can restore a darkened image to its former glory. As is always the case, when I needed a suitable image to illustrate this, I couldn't find one, so we will have to make do with a reasonably dull picture of my great grandfather wielding his pickaxe in a quarry.

This was the original image. It is dark, dull and difficult to see properly. As with images that are too light, dark images also suffer from a lack of contrast - the whites are grey (or sepia in this case) and the dark greys have merged to black. Using the auto correcting feature in Photoshop gives this result:

With the application of a few more adjustments, a little more contrast and some localised repair the subject in the photo can actually be seen. It becomes more noticable that he is wearing his collar and tie whilst working, a common sight in those days where a gentleman would ask a lady's permission before removing his jacket!

Here is the final result:

An improvement on the original, considering the subject's head is only a few millimetres across.

Until next time ...

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