Restoring Old Photos

Last week was an emotional week, as I received the news that my Nana passed away. She was such a great example to me of living with meekness, kindness and love. Her life was very simple and humble; they lived on a small ranch in the Arizona mountains, a place that became so dear to me over the years. I will miss hearing her sweet voice and seeing her lovely smile.

As I sorted through photos of the many trips we took, literally over the river and through the woods to get to their home, I found this image I've always loved of her. This was a 4x6 photo that lived in a small frame upstairs in a guest room that had only one small window for natural light.

I took a picture of it with my old DSLR, wanting to keep it for myself. This got me thinking about how easy it is to save old photos, not only by scanning them, but by taking a picture of them. I have done this a few times at my grandparent's homes. It's not easy to find access to a scanner and who wants to take the time to sit and scan photo after photo? All you need is a camera!

With a little editing, these old photos can be brought to life. This my before and after: 

I used photoshop to do this, since I had some areas that had finger smudges on the frame and writing on the bottom of the photograph. We will cover A LOT of editing tips in posts to come. I will show you step-by-step instructions of editing photos. For starters, you could import this into any editing program you use, and by adding some brightness and contrast, make it look much better. 

For now, when you are somewhere that has special photographs that you want to keep, take pictures of them and save them for your own family history. A picture of a picture totally works; you can get them printed out to look just as good. This one is priceless to me and now I can show my children what their Nana looked like; someone who was so wonderful, sweet, caring and kind, and who I will always look up to as I raise my own kids. 

We love you Nana!

---