How To Restore Old Photos With Photoshop

Some very useful information in today's featured article:


by: Michael Wysmierski

There are times that people may have old photographs
they would like to restore to save the memories. Photos
usually get damaged through the times. The pictures may
get blurred, the color fades and the picture might acquire
marks and scratches. Thank the technology of today. People
can now save and restore their old photos with the help of
Photoshop.

Here are some steps to follow in restoring old pictures
using the Photoshop.

1. The person may use the Elements in Photoshop, which are
Dust and Scratch Filter to remove the marks, scratches an
blots in the photo. The Dust and Scratches Filter is
located on the Menu Bar and click on the Filter Tab. A drop
down will list elements and then he can choose the Noise tab
and select on the Dust and Scratches.

2. After clicking on the Dust and Scratches menu, a window
will pop up with two control sliders. The first slider is for
the Radius and the other one is for the Threshold. There
will also be another window if the preview box will be
checked. These are the main options that will be used in
treating the picture.

3. Adjusting the Radius slider may remove the scratches.
However, there is a tendency that overdoing it may make
the edges blurred too. If that happens, the option is to
adjust the Threshold slider and this will allow the details
to go back and make the picture clearer with the scratches
disappearing. The person should be careful not to set them
too far or it will only create blotches on the picture.

4. In removing the marks, selecting the whole photo will
not diffuse these marks. The option is to select only the
part where the scratches are located. He may use the Lasso
to do this.

5. He can then feather the edges of the selected area so
that the selected area will not be obvious on the picture.
He can do this by clicking the Feather option and click
the Scratch and Dust Filter again. He can do the process
again of adjusting the Radius and Threshold sliders to get
the texture needed and remove the scratches.

6. It there are still visible marks on the other parts of
the picture, he can do the technique again by selecting the
areas he would like to adjust. To finish the process and
make the picture presentable, he can crop the image enough
to remove the cracks and torn edges of the picture. The
canvas may be use to equally crop the image.

7. A person may add drama on the picture by adding a drop
shadow on it. This will make the picture appear as if it
has been lifted off the page. The color may also be removed
using the controls Shift+Ctrl+U. He can then add color by
putting a little amount of Sepia. He can do this with the
Hue or Saturation tab. The contrast may be adjusted using
the Levels option.

This is one easy way on how to remove the blotches and
marks on an old picture. This is also a good way to make
the picture look new but still appear classical. It will
be a pleasant and easy way to display pictures kept on old
albums and cabinets for a long time.

About The Author

Michael Wysmierski is the founder of Professional Header
Templates. He can be reached for more information at his
website here:
http://www.ProfessionalHeaderTemplates.com
mw@professionalheadertemplates.com



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Flash USB Drives: Backup Easily, Conveniently And Securely

Welcome back - here's today's featured article:

by: Yuri Filimonov

Tired of switching CD/DVD discs while backing up? Flash USB drives to the rescue!
If you already backup often, you are doing the most you can to secure your files against accidental file deletion and recovery, file damage and what not. Also, you may be considering making your backups as easy and painless as possible. So what may be a remedy to this issue?
Naturally, you need to consider several backup media and select the one suitting your needs and requirements. Among all, CD, DVD and flash USB drives are considered.

You may as well use CD to backup, but you will either need to dump CD-R discs often, or insert a CD-/+RW discs often to make another backup. Someone else can also misplace your backup CD disc or overwrite your backup data with other information. Moreover, a CD only admits about 700Mb of data, which may not be convenient. Nor is storing multiple CDs of your backup copy.

The same can be said about backing up to DVD. Of course, a DVD admits from 4.7Gb to about 18.6Gb of data, but is it really convenient backing up to DVD? An external hard disk drive or a flash USB drive will be speedier, more reliable and easier overall.

Here is when a flash USB drive comes handy. It not only allows faster data copying than CD or DVD, but can also admit from 256Mb to 4Gb of data (or maybe more). Moreover, you can take the USB drive with you anywhere you go and transfer the data between distant computers without resolving to FTP backup. Of course, one of the drawbacks of a flash USB backup is that the drive is only limited to about 100 000 writings, while another slight disadvantage (or an advantage, if you put it nicely) is that the device is so small you can easily misplace it.

About The Author

Yuri Filimonov has been an insider of the backup industry for a few years, allowing him to share insight on various backup issues, both in his articles and his website at http://www.fairbackup.com.


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