Old family photos are precious memories that we want to safeguard forever.
But old print photos are prone to physical damage and natural deterioration over time.
How do we prevent this?
We’ll cover some common problems with old family photos and how to fix them.
There are options for extensions as well.
you might pick up Luminar Neo from itsofficial website.
There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the software.
If you’ve never tried it before, see ourLuminar Neo beginner’s guide.
Scan and Digitize Your Old Family Photos
First, digitize your old family photos.
Here’show to scan and digitize old photosso you could start restoring your old family photos right away.
We’ll show you a basic approach to help you edit these photos no matter your situation.
The major issues with this photo are a lack of contrast and some minor distortions throughout the image.
Zoom in to 100 percent and examine the photo for trouble spots.
For this photo, using HDR Merge will definitely help with the contrast and overall dynamic range.
Simply drag the photo over toHDR Mergeand clickMerge.
See what a difference HDR Merge makes?
Original:
With HDR Merge:
This is a tremendous improvement already.
To Crop or Not to Crop
Cropping should be your first consideration in the Edit tab.
This feature is only available when using Luminar Neo as a standalone editor.
For our photo, no cropping is needed.
Enhance AI
Enhance AIis so vital that we’ve added it to our Favorites.
Extensions
If you have purchased extensions, you’ll see them listed after Favorites.
If your old family photo needs sharpening or noise removal, these tasks could be performed here.
For this particular photo, there’s no need for either.
Erase
It’s a good practice to go toEraseand click onRemove Dust Spots.
Old photos are notorious for having all kinds of dust spots and distortions.
Remove Dust Spots and the Erase tools can easily take care of these issues.
For many old family photos, consider adjusting theLight,Curves,Sharpness,Noise Reduction, andTransformsliders.
Details
The Details sliders are important for enhancing both small and large pixel details and for sharpening.
Almost every old family photo could benefit from a Details edit.
you could also use the Masking feature to selectively apply the edits to avoid introducing noise.
These configs aren’t only useful for fixing old portraits.
you’re free to alsouse Luminar Neo to enhance your AI portraits.
This image is now pretty much fixed.
Below are the results.
First, we’llDarkenthe faded area at the bottom of the photo.
Then we’ll focus on areas that should have similar exposure values.
Once done, select theDodge and Burntab to close it and open up a fresh session.
So you might have to stop here.
If you have any old family photos in storage, get them out and preserve them today.
