Can This Picture Be Saved?

[Shmu]

I haven't browsed through all the threads so if there is one out there I should have posted this on please forgive me. Not much time. Below is a picture of me and my dad in 1971 opening year at Disney World. I was 4. I would love to fix this up and make it newer looking. Wanting to enlarge it and put it on a t-shirt too. Is this picture ruined forever with age or is there a way to save it? I love to take pictures but do not have any expertise in photography. I also don't have a lot of money to go out and buy an expensive program. Is there a place I can take the picture too so they can fix it for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[safetymom]

If you send me the file I can try to fix it on my Epson scanner. I have restored many badly faded photos this way.

 

[Shmu]

If you send me the file I can try to fix it on my Epson scanner. I have restored many badly faded photos this way.

That would be awesome. You are so kind to even offer. Forgive my ignorance though. What do you mean by sending you the file? How do I do that?

 

[safetymom]

Where is the image posted? I can go there and download it or send me a PM and I will give you my email address. Then you could send me the file of the picture.

 

[AndrewWG]

Well, I did my best to save it as good as I could. I had to take the liberty of cropping it a bit and taking out some of the trees that had no original color left to them. I think it came out ok. Not sure how it would look on a t-shirt as it is a small file to begin with. Enlarging it may make it look bad. I just don't know. Here it is anyways:

 

[Shmu]

Where is the image posted? I can go there and download it or send me a PM and I will give you my email address. Then you could send me the file of the picture.

I sent you a PM.

Well, I did my best to save it as good as I could. I had to take the liberty of cropping it a bit and taking out some of the trees that had no original color left to them. I think it came out ok. Not sure how it would look on a t-shirt as it is a small file to begin with. Enlarging it may make it look bad. I just don't know. Here it is anyways:

WOW, WOW, and WOW

SafetyMom and Andrew, I am crying. I can't believe you would take the time to do this for a stranger. You have no idea how much this means to me. I am so very, very, humbled.
God Bless both of you

 

[Groucho]

One thing that you should do is scan it at a pretty high resolution - for prints, I'd scan at at least 300dpi, if not more. If you have the original negative available, that's even better, though you'd want to take it to a professional place to have them scan it.

A larger scan will reveal more detail and make it easier to clean up any repairs... and if you're not confident in the quality of your scanner, you might even want to have the print scanned at a pro shop, or at least ask around your friends/family and see who has a nice quality scanner. The better it can start out at, the better the final result will be. You'll want the touchups to be done on a file that is much larger than what you would see posted in the boards here.

Good luck! Now if you still have those mouse ears, that'd be really cool too.

 

[NostalgicDad]

Shmu, it looks as though you are getting the help you need. I just wanted to chime in and mention how much I like that photo. I hope my kiddos will cherish the photos I take while they are young later in life like you have.

That reminds me. With the plethora of pictures I take, I need to get in more of them instead of just being the one behind the lens all the time. Thank you for the post.

 

[safetymom]

Is it a black and white image? I did correct the bench and some of the smaller problems. I agree that it needs to be a high quality scan. What did you scan it at? I have restored quite a few pictures that turned out great but then I scanned them at a high res.

Would it be possible for you to rescan the image or is this all you have?

 

[AndrewWG]

SafetyMom and Andrew, I am crying. I can't believe you would take the time to do this for a stranger. You have no idea how much this means to me. I am so very, very, humbled.
God Bless both of you

Shmu,

I like the challenge of restoring these older photos as old photos mean alot to me. I have been on the eternal search for anyone who has old photos of my grandparents, great grandparents, etc. It is very important to me as this photo is to you. It is my pleasure to help.

Again though, if you can get a larger scan, it would be much better for your intended use (shirts).

 

[Shmu]

One thing that you should do is scan it at a pretty high resolution - for prints, I'd scan at at least 300dpi, if not more. If you have the original negative available, that's even better, though you'd want to take it to a professional place to have them scan it.

A larger scan will reveal more detail and make it easier to clean up any repairs... and if you're not confident in the quality of your scanner, you might even want to have the print scanned at a pro shop, or at least ask around your friends/family and see who has a nice quality scanner. The better it can start out at, the better the final result will be. You'll want the touchups to be done on a file that is much larger than what you would see posted in the boards here.

Good luck! Now if you still have those mouse ears, that'd be really cool too.

Don't have the mouse ears. That would be cool if I had them. I do have a picture of the plastic orange I am drinking out of. I'll post it later. I need to find it. I took it last year. They have one in the museum part at MGM. Wish I still had that too. I remember drinking out of those. I also remember having this picture taken.

Shmu, it looks as though you are getting the help you need. I just wanted to chime in and mention how much I like that photo. I hope my kiddos will cherish the photos I take while they are young later in life like you have.

That reminds me. With the plethora of pictures I take, I need to get in more of them instead of just being the one behind the lens all the time. Thank you for the post.

YES. Everybody learn this lesson. Make sure you are on the OTHER end of the lens also. Your family will appreciate it in the future.



Thank you everybody for the info. I didn't know you could scan at different resolutions. I taught myself how to do that today. Here is a link to a higer resolution scan. My scanner went up to 1200 so that is what I did. Did I do too much?

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/PoohBear17/disney1971.jpg

 

[AndrewWG]

I downloaded the photo rom your photobucket account. However, what I think you need to do is to have photobucket not resize the photo. You need to turn off that option in photobucket. The photo is 800x600 now. It is also resized to 0.6x.05 inches. How big is the original? I imagine it is about 4x6 inches or something like that. Can you upload it without having photobucket change the dimensions?

 

[Shmu]

I downloaded the photo rom your photobucket account. However, what I think you need to do is to have photobucket not resize the photo. You need to turn off that option in photobucket. The photo is 800x600 now. It is also resized to 0.6x.05 inches. How big is the original? I imagine it is about 4x6 inches or something like that. Can you upload it without having photobucket change the dimensions?

I tried again. The biggest I could figure out how to do was 1024 x 768. The original picture is 3.5 x 4.25 inches. It is also black and white.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/PoohBear17/disney1971b.jpg

I don't know if that will help or not. Again, thanks for trying. The other pic you did is already a better quality.

I have only been a member of DISboards for a few weeks. I already feel like I am part of the cyberspace family.

 

[Shmu]

OK. One more. Here is one that is 1 megabyte.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/PoohBear17/disney1971c.jpg