Any recommendations for photograph restoration software and process

[Gattopardo]

Have some old black and white polaroids that have faded and was wondering if the image could be improved.

Would photoshop be able to do something?

Would it be better photographed or scanned?

[hubner]

Photoshop is commercial software which is fine if you've already got it.

I use the open source GIMP.

Scanning givse much better quality but it's slower.

[Gattopardo]

Photoshop is commercial software which is fine if you've already got it.

I use the open source GIMP.

Scanning givse much better quality but it's slower.

How much is a modern spec scanner?  I just have a 3in1 brother laser printer.

Have a genuine older version of photoshop on a vista window7 machine so was thinking that.  Even tho I'm not sure how to use photoshop.

[Salvatore]

Another GIMP user here.

There is also (free or paid for) software which will make a stab at colorizing (sic) black and white photos once they've been scanned.

ETA: https://colourise.sg/#colorize is a free web-based version.

I think that it works something like:
- anything textured in the foreground is green (grass)
- anything smooth at the top of the photo is blue (sky)
- anything recognised as a face is pink
- hair colour is hit and miss (blond is OK, but ginger isn't)
- clothes are guessed at - sometimes blue, sometimes a muted red whatever the original
but you can always retouch as desired.

Anyway, it means you can turn this

into

(click to show/hide)

The grass is correct, as is the building in the background (both b/w stuff and brickwork). The woollen hoody thing was beigish, but the trike was blue.

or this

into

(click to show/hide)

A furure PBP & LEL in those legs

[ian]

Any graphics application will let you change the tonal range, contrast, brightness etc. Most will offer a stab at automating it. They work with what you provide them, though there are tools to extrapolate from what you have.

Homes scanners are pretty decent these days and the better option than taking a photograph as they're measuring directly, there's all kinds of fancy-smance with digital photo processing.

[fuaran]

You could get pretty good results from photographing it, if you have a decent camera. Would want quite a long lens, not too close/wide angle, which could cause distortion. And make sure you have even lighting. Shoot in Raw if you want most options for processing it, tweaking white balance etc.

Yes, a scanner could give you higher resolution etc. But your Polaroids are probably not really high resolution anyway.

[tonycollinet]

If you want to send me a photo of one of the photos, I could have a go at improving it as a demo.