How to Restore Old Photos in Photoshop?

Developed by Adobe, Photoshop certainly needs no introduction as the graphic editing tool is already used by millions of people worldwide. Apart from its high-end features for editing and retouching photos, the tool can also help you restore old or faded photos. The best part is that you don't need to be a pro to restore old photos in Photoshop. Here, I'm going to teach you how to restore old photos in Photoshop by covering a stepwise approach.

In this article

1: Part 1. Detailed Steps to Restore Old Photos in Photoshop

2: Part 2. Restore Old Photos Online Free with 3 Clicks!

Part 1. Detailed Steps to Restore Old Photos in Photoshop

Step 1: Digitize your Photos by Scanning them

The first thing that you need to do is digitize your photos so that you can start using Photoshop to restore your old photo's color and other spots.

There are a handful of approaches that you can take here. If you can get a scanner, then you can simply connect it to your computer to scan your images. Apart from that, there are a couple of mobile apps to scan photos as well, like the following:

You can use either of these apps to scan your photos and make their soft copy so that you can edit them on Photoshop.

Step 2: Load the Image on Photoshop and Crop it

Great! Now you are all set to restore old black and white photos in Photoshop. At first, you can launch Photoshop and drag-and-drop your images to its interface to start editing. You can also go to its Menu > File > Open to just browse your old photo and load it on Photoshop.

The first thing that you would like to do is crop any unwanted area from the photo. To do that, you can just click on the crop icon from the sidebar and select the section of the image. You can set up any specific image ratio or use an existing standard ratio to crop your photo.

Step 3: Start Working on a New Layer

One of the best things about Photoshop is that we can create different layers for an image. As of now, your image would be considered as a background layer, and it is not recommended to make edits on it.

Therefore, to learn how to restore old photos in Photoshop, you can right-click the image and create a new layer. Afterward, go to the Layers panel on the sidebar, drag the background layer, and copy it. Now, you can click on the eye icon to hide the background layer and start working on the new layer instead.

Step 4: Fix Tears and Other Heavy Damages

To restore old photos in Photoshop, you should start by fixing all the major issues. For instance, if there are any tears or missing fragments in your photo, then you can use the lasso tool from the side. Using it, you can select any part of the image that you want to duplicate.

Later, you can use the clone stamp tool to copy the area and manually adjust it anywhere else to fix the tear. To get better results, you might have to create another layer here as well.

Step 5: Get rid of Dust and Scratches

With time, there could be a lot of spots or scratches in your photo as well. Though, you can learn how to restore old photos in Photoshop with its inbuilt option. Just go to its Menu > Filter > Noise and select the Dust and Scratches option.

This will open a new pop-up window that you can use to adjust the level of the filter and automatically remove dust spots and scratches from the image.

Step 6: Apply the Noise Reduction Filter

It has been observed that old photos can have a lot of noise even after they are scanned. In this case, you can use the inbuilt noise reduction filter of Adobe to restore old black and white photos in Photoshop.

Just go to its Menu > Filter > Noise and select the 揜educe Noise?option from the list. From the pop-up window, you can manually select any area and set up features to reduce noise from it.

Step 7: Remove Spots or Unwanted Objects

Another common issue that we face in old images is the accumulation of unwanted spots. If you want to learn how to restore old photos in Photoshop, then just take the assistance of its healing brush from the sidebar. You can select the spot healing or healing brush from here and gently rub it on the damaged areas. Photoshop will automatically blend the selected area to the background by getting rid of any unwanted spots.

Besides that, you might want to remove anything from the background in your image. In this case, you can use the Patch tool from the sidebar and select the areas to remove. Later, Photoshop will give you options on how you want to get rid of the selected object.

Step 8: Apply Color Correction on your Photos

By now, you would be able to restore old photos in Photoshop by getting rid of any unwanted spots. Now, to enhance the quality of your image, select its layer, and go to the Photo Filter option.

From here, you can work on adjusting the overall color balance in your photo. For instance, there are options to pick warming or cooling filters that would automatically set a tone for your image, or you can manually pick any color for the image as well.

Step 9: Make the Final Changes

Before you save your photo, you should work on its vibrancy and overall color balance. To do that, you can go to its Menu > Image > Adjustments and browse the available options. You can also alter your photo's hue, exposure, saturation, white balance, color balance, brightness, and tons of other parameters from here.

Step 10: Export the Restored Photo from Photoshop

By following these steps, you would be able to restore old photos in Photoshop quite easily. If you are satisfied with the changes, then you can just go to File > Export and choose to export the entire project or any selective layer. Adobe Photoshop will also let you select a format and aspect ratio to save your image on your system.

Well, now when you know how to restore an old photo in Photoshop CC, you can easily meet your requirements. While you can also learn how to restore old photos without Photoshop, it is the most popular image editor that would let you obtain customized results with old photo restoration. Besides that, if your photos are simply corrupted or damaged, then a tool like Wondershare Repairit can help you fix your images and restore them to their original quality.

Part 2. Restore Old Photos Online Free with 3 Clicks!

Are you looking for a way to restore old photos and bring them back to life in clicks? Repairit Online AI Old Photo Restoration is the perfect solution for you! This powerful AI-based software uses advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically detect damage, tears, scratches, and discoloration in old photographs. With just a few clicks, you can quickly and easily restore any photograph to its original condition.

The steps to restore the old photos can be completed in seconds.

Step 1. Enter into the website, click the "Upload Image" button to access to the online photo restoration workbench, then click "Add Photo" to upload the old photo.

Step 2. Choose "AI Old Photo" model and start the restoration by clicking the "Old Photo Restore" mode.

Note: You can also use the "AI Upscale" function to enlarge the restored photos to make them sharpener.

Step 3. Preview the result and download it.

The steps to restore the old photos with the desktop version of Repairit.

Step 1. Go to "AI Photo Enhancer" and select "Old Photo Restoration" mode.

After downloading and installing Wondershare Repairit on your computer, launch the program and navigate to “More Types Repair” from the sidebar. Then select "AI Photo Enhancer" and click the "+Add" button to upload the old photos.

Step 2. Start the Old Photo Restoration.

After that, you need to choose the AI model "Old Photo Restoration" and click the "Start Enhancing" option to start the old photo restoration.

Step 3. Preview the Result and Download.

Once the process completes, you can click Save to download the file if you're satisfied with it.

Note: You can also choose a resolution "100%" or "200%" from the "AI Upscaler" function to make the old photos clearer.

Wondershare Repairit and Online Old Photo Restoration

Wondershare Repairit

Online Old Photo Restoration

Here is a video tutorial guide to show you how to colorize old photos on a computer.