I LOVE this darling little photo of my Grandpa from 1931. I love his happy smile, that jaunty tie, and the cute little tip of his ankle. I’ve seen this photo in several places – my dad’s Book of Remembrance created by his mother, my Grandma’s Book of Remembrance, and in bundles of favorite photos that my Grandma made copies of for loved ones. This is a well known photo for me.
I was sooooo delighted to find the original of this precious photo. The color difference was a bit hard for me to adjust to. So I played with a few filters in Photoshop. Which do you like best?
The original – there is some discoloration seen throughout the photo.
This filter is called “Black and White Beauty”.
This filter is called “Pioneer Woman Black & White”.
This filter is called “Lovely and Ethereal”.
I don’t normally use photo filters on old family photos. But something about the state of this photo seemed to call for a little editing. Which do you like best? How do you feel about filters and old family photos? Are you a photo purist? I like to edit out scratches, tears, dust, and other damage, but I usually leave the color alone, unless it is orange from an old magnetic album. The orange is too much for me to leave alone.
Happy Thursday, I hope you make a delightful photo discovery today!
All filters are courtesy of the Pioneer Woman and can be found here.
ps – You may have noticed my absence in reading, commenting, and responding these last few weeks. I have been on a WILD and rewarding DNA ride that I hope to be able to tell you all about one day. Let’s just say, when they warn you that when you DNA test you might find a family secret – well, I can now attest to that being completely true.
I actually like the last one the best—that vintage feel!
Thank you Amy. <3
My vote is for Black and White Beauty.
Thank you Dave!
Pioneer Woman Black & White has my vote. However I do like them all and would be happy having any of them. As to your other question I will edit if the results make a better looking photograph.
Thank you Charles, I do like the pop of Pioneer Woman, black and white. I agree, if a photo has distracting damage it really is a shame and a pretty easy fix. I can’t help clean photos up.
I like the Lovely and Ethereal one because the others are a bit washed out. I am not sure what I think about filters on vintage and antique photos. I guess I like them as long as the original versions are saved in .tif.
I’m with you Luanne, I always have a .tif of the original scan that I leave alone. Any editing is saved as it’s own file. I wish everyone scanned at high resolution so that reprints would look nice.
Black and white beauty!
Thank you Ellen!
I like Pioneer Woman Black & White, but wouldn’t want to lose the details of the edges of my photos to that shading.
I’ll edit photos if it makes the people easier to recognize. Sometimes increasing the contrast seems to help me.
Can’t wait to hear about your big DNA secret!
Thank you! It’s pretty exciting, I hope to write about it soon. 🙂
I’m with Luanne on using filters. I do it sometimes for “dramatic effect” in a post, but I always keep untouched originals and the “cleaned-up” copies. Actually, I’m a bit disorganised with all my photos. It’s a job that needs doing but always seems dauntingly huge.
I completely understand the disorganization with photos thing. That is me too! I have a new plan that I use and it’s working well, but there are so many photos that haven’t made their way into the system yet. Sigh, so much to do, so little time. 😉 Oh, I also keep a .tif file of the original scan that is untouched.
That’s it totally … never enough time. 🙂
PW B&W makes it pop! I am not a fan of using programs to make the photos look like new. For my Old Photographs series, I used digitized images which were shared with me. Some I had to enhance using the PicMonkey tool because the digital copy was low resolution. I now have the originals but have not had the time to re-scan.
The more I look at the DNA and learn about it, the more time I spend each day getting lost in the analysis work. Welcome to our world of genealogy & DNA, Amberly. 🙂
I got the go ahead over the weekend to share the DNA discovery of a known family secret. I’ve kept this to myself for a year. I’m not ready to share it publicly even though the outcome was a happy dance for all concerned as all are still living.
Thank you Cathy. The DNA adventures are so exciting! I’m really loving it. I look forward to hearing about your family secret if you decide to share. Mine was a huge surprise and mostly it’s going well. Everyone is still alive in mine also.
I’ve kept it to myself for a year – we’ll see. 🙂
🙂