What the Heck?
OK...I'm old. I grew up with black and white movies and black and white pictures. It was the best that you could get for the most affordable price. Color slides and pictures were phasing in and were more expensive and harder for the home developer to do because you had to be more cognizant of temperature many other factors.
However, you need to think of black and white as "colors" in themselves. Not all black and white pictures are the same tone of black and white. Sepia is what happens to really old prints...we know that...but there are so many tones to black and white and you can end up with "green" prints right off your printer if you are not careful.
I haven't said it so far, but the more you know about your particular printer and the paper that you are using the better your photo restoration results will be. Because, the setting on your printer and the type of paper you are using have everything to do with how you will pull off an excellent photo restoration.
OK...you have worked hours and you have it just right...you put back the hand on the baby by reversing the hand from the other side or you have borrowed a hand from a relative using a layer (more about layers coming). You have done a great job. You have flattened that layers so that it is merged into one picture. Now...let's have some fun.
First of all there is an adjustment for black and white right in PhotoShop. Use that by using the top row of tools: image/adjustment/black and white. Look at the toggle switches here and do some adjusting. Look at all the differences you can make. I use these adjustments when I have a REALLY damaged black and white picture with lots of dirt. You will be surprised at how many things disappear with the right combination of settings in your using just yellow and blue. Also, there is a very, very handy automatic setting along with additional settings that I advise you "play with". It won't take long to find out how you can tint a picture or even add color back and change tint and hue.
Oh...don't get too stuck here. You will miss the point.
My recent Epson printers (that's all I recommend folks...sorry...I have owned lots of printers and Epsons are the best for me) have an actual black and white setting in the printing set up screen. That gives great results too. Black and white is not black and white. You want to use the best settings on your screen and you want to experiment with different papers with different textures. You want to practice with your printer and paper selections until you are comfortable with what the results will be. It is also really great to use real canvas or a canvas or linen textures on paper media. Red River has some excellent papers along with Epson...we will cover more about paper as we go...Oh, I must add here that textures can be a wrinkled gal's best friend. Remember, you don't need high resolution on everyone... The older I get the more I appreciate textured paper and all of the softening tools on PhotoShop. We will get into "make up" as we go further. Remember, you want to make the customer happy. This is not an HD movie where we need to see all the zits, pits and wrinkles. :-)
In the meantime, take a closer look at black and white. Study old pictures and really look at them side by side. Start looking at the x-rite color checker passport and learn how to calibrate your monitor to your printer...more later...and get an idea of the wide range of color in a black and white picture. Those of you that cannot see this difference, please use the settings provided above. You will always be ok. Those of you who are blessed with the ability to see what I am talking about, cool. Those of you who think I am nuts...well, that's ok too.
You can't get excited about something you don't "see". So start really looking at the pictures that people give you or your old pictures or old post cards or old sepia prints...I could go on but I won't torture you any further today. Thanks for following my blog. Please subscribe if you want to find me easier. Thanks. Renee
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