Tutorial: AKVIS Retoucher

Family archives restoration

We are going to restore an old photo sent to us by Chuck Croom. He is now engaged in the restoration of his family archives and we believe AKVIS Retoucher will be of help to him.

We will retouch the photo using Adobe Photoshop and the plugins AKVIS Retoucher and AKVIS Stamp.

• Step 1. Open the family photo in Adobe Photoshop.
• Step 2. Call the command Image - Adjustments - Desaturate to get rid of the bluish hue and the stains.
  
• Step 3. Open the Levels dialogue box calling the command Image - Adjustments - Levels and set the following input values 17, 1.00 and 211 as it is shown on the picture below.
  
• Step 4. In the Brightness/Contrast dialogue box move the slider Contrast to the right to +11 to increase the contrast of the image.
  
• Step 5. Increase the sharpness of the image using the filter Unsharp Mask. For this purpose select the command Sharpen - Unsharp Mask from the menu Filter and set the following values for the parameters: Amount 150%, Radius 3.5 pixels, Threshold 4 pixels.
  

  After these manipulations we get the following image:

  

  Now we can proceed to the defects removal: we will remove scratches using AKVIS Retoucher, and retouch the stains using AKVIS Stamp.

• Step 6. To remove the scratches with AKVIS Retoucher you should first select them. Switch to the Quick Mask mode and use a pencil to paint over the scratches as it is shown on the picture below.
  
• Step 7. Call the plugin AKVIS Retoucher selecting the command AKVIS - Retoucher from the menu Filter and start the restoration process pressing the button .
  
  

  When the restoration process is over, press the button to apply the result. You will see the following picture:

  
• Step 8. Now we proceed to retouching of small defects with AKVIS Stamp plugin.

  Call AKVIS Stamp plugin selecting the command AKVIS - Stamp from the menu Filter. Use the Zoom tool to change the image scale so that you could see even the smallest stains.

  To remove the defects repeat the steps below for every image fragment:

  • Adjust the size of the stamp.
  • Set the source point. For this purpose, you should left-click on the source point for cloning keeping the ALT key pressed.
  
  • Switch to the Edit mode pressing the button .
  • Paint over the defects with short brush strokes.
  
  • Press the button again to quit the Edit mode. As soon as you deactivate the button, the program changes the color range, the texture and the lightness of the selected fragments so that they blend with the nearby pixels.
  

  When all the defects are retouched, press the button to apply the results of the restoration.

  You will see the following image:

  
• Step 9. We can improve the photo by applying the filter Gaussian Blur (Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur) with the value of the Radius parameter equal to 1.
  

We have retouched the family photo. Compare the three photos below: the original photo covered with stains and scratches, the retouched photo and the retouched photo converted in sepia tones.

Note: To convert the photo into sepia tones you should activate the Actions palette, select the command Sepia Toning (layer) from the list and press the button "Play selection" in the lower part of the palette.